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Lilian Martinez

Stuart Carroll

DRA 42A

May 30, 2020

Theatrical Critique of Oklahoma!

Oklahoma, a musical that broke the traditional formats of Broadway shows. I really

enjoyed watching this musical as it was one of the first to value storytelling instead of flashy

singing and dancing. Oklahoma uses song and dance to enhance the narrative but through the

movement of their body and their voices to speak well-written dialogue about this dramatic

story. Even though this was a dramatic story the musical contained very comedic elements and

had a storyline that led me to assume this was a comedic musical; however, I was greatly

surprised as I kept watching. Other aspects of the play that enhances the storytelling that caught

my attention were the use of orchestra, sound, and lighting. I noticed that throughout the musical

the actors and story lead the orchestra which was a distinct feature of this musical in comparison

to others where the orchestra leads the actors. The sound was an essential part of this musical

that helped bring it to life. Every sound effect had significance to enhance the vision of the

scenery it allowed the audience to really be absorbed in the world of the show.

One of my favorite dance scenes was Laurey’s Ballet at the end of act one. This scene

showed a great example of how the choreographers used dance as a form of storytelling. In the

ballet scene, it demonstrated to the audience what Laurey’s fears and desires were. All with the

use of movement as the characters danced away in different forms based on the mood of the

dream. The use of dark blue misty lights reflecting on the moon and star background informed

the audience that this was now a dream and not an actual plot of the musical. The way dancers
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had used their bodies to dance in different tempos to display their emotions. Light, soft, bouncing

plie’s and across the floors to demonstrate love and harsh staccato movements to show anger or

fear. The use of the orchestra was a major part of creating the scenario that we were entering

into a dreamland. What I found interesting was that the actors were the ones controlling the

scene. The actors took emotional pauses and changed the pace and the orchestra followed their

lead. Another example of this is the opening scene of the musical, you did not really hear the

introductions of score being played by the orchestra. Curly would take the lead when he wanted

to sing his songs and there was not a time where you saw an actor waiting for their singing cue,

they would just unexpectedly burst into a song which is something I admire and appreciate when

viewing a musical. In this same opening number, the use of sound was very important to pull the

audience into the world of the show. They incorporated the sound of turning butter, crickets,

barking dogs and countryside music that fit very well with the time period and scenery of the

show. I thought the actors in the show were fantastic with choosing actions and reacting in such

ways that fit the character. When Curly sings his opening number “What a Beautiful Morning”

he runs around the farm climbs on different metal pipes and really takes up the whole stage using

different elements of the set pieces which fit his strong, handsome, countryman character. What I

did notice is that many characters used a southern accent which made what they were saying

very hard to understand at times. It was clear to me that a lot of the actors dropped their southern

accent while singing which was understandable but still disappointing. The only one who I really

new that held on to her character and accent while singing was Ado Annie, in her song “I Can’t

Say No”. She beautifully projected and stayed in character choosing very humorous actions that

were fit for the song and her character.

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Overall, the musical Oklahoma used all of the elements of theatre to truly breathe life into

the story and characters lives. It was well choreographed and written as this musical brought a

whole new idea of using dance to tell a story in a musical. This musical didn’t rely on the flashy

signing and dancing to bring in customers it was the content of this dramatic story as well as the

use of lights, sound, orchestra, set and devoted actors that sold it to the people.