OGIC: All in the dances

I’m the furthest thing from a music critic, but I saw something I loved, so here you go. Last weekend Chicago’s Lyric Opera premiered a new production of Oklahoma! directed by Gary Griffin. It’s a special show. The music and singing are as full-blooded and full-throated as you would expect of the Lyric. As Chris Jones wrote in his Chicago Tribune review, “listening to a full-sized orchestra playing the original orchestrations” is an “increasingly rare treat.” Saturday night it did feel rare and rich.
The production had visual magic too. The first thing you get to look at, during the overture, is an achingly lovely painted backdrop–a criss-cross of crops in pinks and purples against a butter-yellow sky. It’s a recognizably American, fruited-plain landscape rendered in a wistful palette that reminded me of Pierre Bonnard. The sets themselves–house, barn, shed–are classic, solid Americana against the impressionism of the backdrops, echoing the show’s two registers.
The heart of Oklahoma! is its songs, of course, and they were well served here. I got a series of shivers during the iconic title song, hard and bright, with its beeline for the nerve endings. I wished it would go on and on. But the show’s soul, for me, lies in the darker dream interlude at the end of Act I, which works more mysteriously on those nerves as the show shifts from one dramatic language to another.
This sequence, in the Lyric’s production, is unforgettable. A gorgeous piece of dancing, it’s also authentic–the 91-year-old Gemze de Lappe, who danced in Oklahoma! in 1943, recreated Agnes de Mille’s original choreography for the Lyric, to wondrous effect. I was entranced–almost literally. (Incidentally, it also put me in mind of Chicago Shakespeare’s 2011 production of Follies, also directed by Griffin–a connection I didn’t make when I was watching.) The whole show is strong, the musicians wonderful. But if you need an extra reason to get there, look no further than the jewel-like choreography and dancing, reaching heights in Laurey’s dream (the corps de ballet’s brightly colored dresses invoke jewels, but so does the crystallized, luminous quality of the whole).
Oklahoma! is the first of five Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals the Lyric will stage the next five springs. It runs through May 19. Go go go.
UPDATE: I’ve fixed a deplorable–yet unsurprising if you know me–error above, replacing Tribune hockey writer Chris Kuc’s name with that of the paper’s wonderful theater critic and true author of the review quoted, Chris Jones. I’m embarrassed to have made this mistake, the more so since I’ve met Jones and greatly admire his work. Lessons learned: (1) Mix writing with sudden-death overtime playoff hockey with caution. (2) Proofread.
If you need me, I’ll be in the penalty box.