ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, New York — The original Oklahoma! musical from 1943 is set in the 1900s, during a much “simpler” time. Happiness was a field of wheat, 50 dollars was a significant sum of money, and a seven-story building was a skyscraper. Based on the 1931 play by Lynn Riggs, the musical now playing at Bard College’s Fisher Center for the Performing Arts is a modern creation myth about a lawless, backwards territory full of simple folk with simple minds and the gory bloodshed necessary to transform the area into an upstanding member of the union with full-fledged statehood and the rule of law. Through the dual lenses of Broadway and Hollywood we get a quaint, idealized vision of the inhabitants’ penchant for sex and violence.
A Restaging of ‘Oklahoma!’ Thrusts the Audience into the Action
thoughts for a radical staged table reading of Hamlet in the Hypercube.