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Enjoy Drinks & Light Bites
Hold a table at Genevieve's Theater Lounge at the Peace Center.
Know Before You Go
Welcome to a shared experience
At its core, Oklahoma! has always been a story about a community coming together, and this production uses scenic and lighting design to evoke a sense of togetherness. Auditorium lights are left on for certain parts of the show, creating a shared experience among audiences and actors. There are also moments of total darkness, where all lights in the theatre are turned off, allowing audiences to focus intensely on dialogue on stage.
Upon entering the theatre, you’re welcomed into a communal space that evokes life in a rural community. A sparse, plywood set is lit brightly, scattered with wooden tables and chairs and a faded wall mural of a farmscape projected onto the back wall. Colorful mylar fringe hangs at the top of the set. A band is visible center stage. Perhaps most surprising to audiences will be gun racks on each of the sidewalls of the set, holding 114 guns.
The production that feels like America today
“At its birth, the show was to its America what Hamilton has been to ours: both an unexpected record-smashing box-office phenomenon and a reassuring portrait of our past that lifted up theatergoers at a time of great anxiety about the country’s future. Its Broadway opening took place less than 16 months after the attack on Pearl Harbor, when America was shipping its sons off to war and still digging out of the Great Depression. Like Hamilton, too, Oklahoma! was deemed artistically revolutionary for its time.” -New York Magazine
The cast is made up of actors of different races, backgrounds, sexualities, gender identities and religions in a company of storytellers reflecting the rich diversity of America. They are costumed in modern clothing—t-shirts, blue jeans, trucker hats—and accompanied by a seven-piece Bluegrass band, complete with banjo and steel drum.
The Grammy-nominated score re-orchestrates some of the most classic songs in American theatre history. The resulting sound is a refreshing, modern take on a score that remains full of earworms you’ll be humming in the days to come.
Preview the Grammy-nominated cast recording and fresh new sound of Oklahoma!
A statement on gun violence
Director Daniel Fish was deliberate and specific about the number of guns presented on stage, and the look and sound of each. Guns are fired four times during the show, and the startling sound of the gunshot is amplified each time.
The guns used on stage are prop guns and no live ammunition is ever kept on-site or on stage. The touring company has been trained in gun safety with experts.
Oklahoma! is proud to be the first gun-neutral show on Broadway and National Tour. For every visible gun in Oklahoma!, both on stage and around the theatre, Oklahoma! will make a minimum donation of $100 per gun on behalf of the show to Gun Neutral’s 501c3 non-profit, a non-partisan initiative open to all storytellers, producers, and financiers, calling for greater social responsibility to offset and account for gun violence in entertainment.
Dream baby dream
Famed modern dance choreographer Agnes de Mille’s “Dream Ballet” concluded Act One in previous productions of Oklahoma! The dance is an important piece advancing the conflict in Laurey’s story: a Freudian fever dream interpreting her inner struggle between two suitors vying for her attention and the chance to escort her to the town box social.
A signature moment of any production Oklahoma!, choreographer John Higgenbotham set his version of the Dream Ballet on one barefoot modern dancer wearing a sequined DREAM BABY DREAM t-shirt, an homage to de Mille’s original piece. The result is a striking, reimagined piece with a distinctly rocking modern take. In this production, it is a stark beginning to Act Two.
Compare the two dances here:
In Oklahoma! an Extravagantly Minimalist Dream Ballet (featuring Gabrielle Hamilton, who dances the role on national tour)
Complete Agnes de Mille “Dream Ballet”
Additional resources before you visit:
A smashing Oklahoma! is reborn
Oklahoma! was never really OK!
Two shows dismantle the American myth
Disclaimer: This production of Oklahoma! is recommended for children ages 12 and up and contains fog, loud gunshot effects, moments of total darkness, and violence.