| The theme of the production | |
| Posted by: aleck 04:31 pm EDT 08/27/19 | |
| In reply to: re: Is there any vegetarian chili served at Oklahoma? - Thom915 03:56 pm EDT 08/27/19 | |
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| I'm going to see this again on Thursday -- for the third time. I think it's (mostly) a well considered interpretation of this classic. Before seeing this production, I had NEVER seen a production of Oklahoma that I thought was any good, including the most recent Trevor Nunn bore. It just never made sense to me why this was greeted with such enthusiasm. The current production is, I think, very exciting. It's particularly wonderful to hear all the lyrics sung in a clear voice. I am going with someone who is 70 and has never seen Oklahoma and knows nothing about it. He has absolutely no preconceptions about this work. It will be very interesting to see what he thinks. (I hope all of the original cast members will be performing.) The one thing that I think is missing in this rather raw look at the emerging state of Oklahoma is the absence of any type of inclusion of Native Americans. After all Oklahoma was originally intended to be a dedicated "Indian Territory" where all the Native Americans would be sent to, well, rot in the most worthless stretch of dust within what was becoming the United States. This is the area where the Cherokees were made to walk to after being thrown out of Georgia when gold was discovered on their lands. Then, when oil was discovered in Oklahoma a new set of justifications were cooked up to let the white people come in to "settle" and then become a state. I think the production would have been made even more raw and dark and the ending more viciously realistic if they had cast a Native American as Jud. Then, we could have fully understood how self-serving and evil Aunt Eller is. By the time of the setting of the musical, Native Americans were being pressed into roles of "assimilation" and would have been hired in a job that Jud fills. |
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