Oklahoma! at the Young Vic
(Picture: Marc Brenner)This thrilling, Tony-award winning New York production strips Rodgers and Hammerstein’s first musical collaboration, a frontier romance set in 1906, back to its essence. Gone is the thumbs-in belt-loops, hoedown hokiness of previous, prettified versions, in favour of a pared-down aesthetic.
A mixed-heritage cast in modern-ish costumes share a starkly-lit plywood set - suggesting a dancehall but ringed with rifles - with both the band and the audience. Some idiot culture-warrior will doubtless call it WOKE-lahoma which is a) stupid, given that native Americans are still airbrushed out of the story and b) spoiled as a joke now, because I made it first.
