Oh, what a beautiful mornin’, Oh, what a beautiful day. I’ve got a beautiful feelin’. Everything’s goin’ my way.” Opening song from Oklahoma
Today was a beautiful NY sunny day. It was David’s shopping day for his art supplies and other sundry items. I tagged along, but after hanging around waiting for him, it was time to act like a big city boy and so got myself home on the big scary and dark subways. Usually, David’s always following me when traveling, but in NY it’s reversed. I follow him since 99.9% of the time he knows where he’s going – as to me, I don’t know uptown from downtown, East Side from West Side. I’m an old mariner and travel by the position of the sun….in NYC it’s difficult with these things called skyscrapers.
So when David came home with tales of walking into the biggest Trader Joe’s ever and waiting in a line for over 15 minutes, I was a bit jealous I missed out on the experience.
Tonight, birthday boy, Michael, David’s BFF going back to high school days, met us for dinner at Estiatorio Milos, another one of our must-eat places. It’s Greek seafood with a fantastic selection – a bit on the high end, but with a great pre-fixe theatre menu (starter, main, dessert) We chatted away through all our courses catching up. This place has the most delicious appetizer, the MILOS SPECIAL, a tower of Lightly fried zucchini and eggplant tower, Kefalograviera cheese, and Tzatziki. The tower was quickly devoured.
Tonight’s theatre – a revival of an American Classic, Oklahoma! This new production doesn’t divert from the structure of the original, but strips down its original, buoyant orchestrations and singing to almost slow motion. This exposes raw sexuality and dark tone that was masked in the original production, the film, and previous presentations that I’ve seen before.
The staging again was bared; this must be a theatrical trend. It was performed at the small, intimate Circle in the Square Theater. A seven-piece folk band played within the set that consisted of picnic tables, chairs, and red crockpots. The walls were lined up with displays of rifles. The ceiling had metallic Mylar streamers suspended from the ceiling … all to suggest a hoedown. Red chili and cornbread were served at intermission. I failed to see the connection.
The duet between Curly and Jud, “Poor Jud is Dead“ was performed in total darkness; their bodies facing each other and faces almost touching, came across as very homo-erotic.
The role of Ado Annie is performed by Ali Stroker, the first actress who uses a wheelchair for mobility known to have appeared on a Broadway stage. She’s also the first to be nominated for a Tony Award for her role. Her versions of “I Cain’t Say No” and her fuer of “All Er Nuthin” comes across as empowering and not as helpless, as prior versions portray her more like a dainty flower.
The actor playing Curly earned himself a Tony nomination. Laurey was miscast as the actress who portrayed her had singing problems – her voice quivered and was pitchy.
Agnes De Mille’s classical ballet choreography “Dream Ballet” was replaced by a barefoot modern dance routine by a single dancer; accompanied by a techno-pop version of the show overture, smoke, and flashing lights. It was raw and almost violent in parts.
If you came into the theatre expecting to see a happy, colorful bouncy performance I’m afraid you would have walked out at intermission. What we got was stripped down, bare, raw. It’s nominated for eight Tony Awards. The hot ticket in town.
