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Oklahoma! Review

10 Oct 1955

145 minutes

When Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein’s first musical opened in 1943, rival producer Mike Todd cast the verdict, “No girls, no gags, no chance.” It went on to become the most influential show in Broadway history before touring for a decade. Unfortunately, Hollywood had copied most of its innovations by 1955, when Fox was allowed to produce this adaptation.

So while the score remains outstanding, with Hammerstein’s cosily direct lyrics complemented by Rodgers’ daring blend of operetta and folk, the film has a reverence that curtails its exuberance. Moreover, the performances are similarly underwhelming, with the exception of Gloria Grahame’s Ado Annie. But despite its flaws, the combination of musical magic and nostalgia make this a classic.

• Cast & crew
• User reviews

Cowboy Curly McClain tries to win the heart of a girl in a singing and dancing extravaganza. Cowboy Curly McClain tries to win the heart of a girl in a singing and dancing extravaganza. Cowboy Curly McClain tries to win the heart of a girl in a singing and dancing extravaganza.

• Trevor Nunn
• Oscar Hammerstein II
• Maureen Lipman
• Hugh Jackman
• Josefina Gabrielle
• 41 User reviews
• 6 Critic reviews

• Laurey Williams
• Ike Skidmore

• Will Parker

• Ado Annie Carnes

• Gertie Cummings
• Andrew Carnes

• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

Did you know

• Trivia The original Broadway production of "Oklahoma!" opened at the St. James Theater in New York City on May 31, 1943 and ran for 2,212 performances, setting a record for a musical.

Curly : And uh... hey, while I think about it, how bout, uh, marryin' me?

Laurey : Gracious! What'd I want to marry you for?

Curly : Uh, well, I dunno, couldn't you maybe think up some reason why you might?

• Connections Featured in The 100 Greatest Musicals (2003)
• Soundtracks Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin' Music by Richard Rodgers Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II Performed by Hugh Jackman

User reviews 41

• Jan 14, 2005
• November 22, 2003 (United States)
• United Kingdom
• See more company credits at IMDbPro

Technical specs

• Runtime 3 hours

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Loud boos. Audible vomiting. How Broadway’s edgy ‘Oklahoma!’ fared across America

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The following contains spoilers from the Broadway musical revival “Oklahoma!,” currently on a national tour.

The latest Broadway revival of “Oklahoma!,” now wrapping its yearlong national tour, generally leaves theatergoers in adoration, awe, anger or confusion. Some performances of the Tony-winning production have continued amid clamorous walkouts or loud booing; one ended with a patron running from their seat and vomiting at a volume clearly audible to the actors.

“I distinctly remember bowing while an older white man was frowning and waving with both his thumbs down from directly in front of me in the front row,” lead actress Sasha Hutchings, who stars as Laurey, tells The Times. “I know this show can be jarring and disorienting, especially for those who are very tied to what this piece stands for in their minds. But I trust this piece and I trust this version, and even when there’s a negative reaction, it’s hopefully productive. That guy, something happened with him; he’s not gonna forget this, this is not gonna leave him quickly.”

It’s rare that any roadshow, even anecdotally, incites such notable responses ( one Times reader called it “shocking, destructive and an affront to the intention of the creators of the musical in 1943”). But then again, this is “Oklahoma!,” the widely beloved Richard Rodgers-Oscar Hammerstein II collaboration that became Broadway’s first blockbuster and launched a golden age of musical theater. “[It’s] an ingenious potpourri of entertainment,” wrote The Times’ Edwin Schallert of a 1946 performance. “It is so exceptional and in a sense unanalyzable.”

With its seemingly lighthearted plot, crowd-pleasing comedy and lively musical numbers, “Oklahoma!” itself has become synonymous with the romanticized, ahistorical, idealistic American identity it wrestles with in the text. That’s largely due to the 1955 film adaptation, notes Times critic Charles McNulty : “The vision of America emanating from the big screen, with its glistening cornfields and folksy goodness and simplicity, was immediately incorporated into a nation’s self-esteem. ‘Oklahoma!’ is not just a musical but a cornerstone of the American myth.”

It’s understandably surprising that a new version of a work so regularly performed in schools and community playhouses is being described as “edgy,” “dark” and “terrifying,” and slanged as “Woke-lahoma,” “Sexy Oklahoma” and “the Oklahoma! that f— .” Director Daniel Fish didn’t aim for such adjectives and nicknames when he initially staged a stripped-down rendition with Bard College students in 2007. The experiment — which then developed into a fully-staged production at Bard in 2015, an off-Broadway run in 2018 and a Broadway transfer in 2019 — laid bare the text’s sexual tension, toxic masculinity and America’s genocidal means-to-an-end methodology.

“The truth is, it was an instinct or a whim — something in me said, ‘I want to do this,’” he recalls of first selecting the piece. “I think I went into it thinking, ‘I kind of know the show,’ and then I got into it and realized, ‘No, I don’t know the show at all.’ It’s a brilliant piece of writing — there’s a layered and complicated story that I didn’t know was there about the nature of community, the role of the outsider and a miscarriage of justice. When I looked at that [trial in the] last scene, I definitely said, ‘Wait a minute. What the f— is this?’”

Fish worked closely on the iconoclastic revival with the Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization, which “had some questions and concerns, but they were never prescriptive, it was always a conversation.” Without changing any of the lyrics and adjusting only a few lines, Fish’s bold reimagining — set in a gun-covered community hall and featuring a bluegrass band — reframes many of the show’s oft-sentimentalized linchpins.

Is the central conflict really a “love triangle” if the coveted farm girl Laurey — a woman with no options in the Claremore Indian Territory of Oklahoma in 1906 — must choose between the handsy cowboy Curly or the stalkerous farmhand Jud? Is it that funny when Curly tries to convince Jud to kill himself so he can date Laurey by default, and is it that romantic when they both bid everything they have to “win” her in an auction? And in the end, who is really responsible for Jud’s death?

Numerous subreddit threads have debated that last question, as previous stagings have presented the scene as a clear victory over a villain. Its stage directions originally describe Jud as falling on his own knife, “which is exactly what is happening” in the revival, says Fish of Jud, who now puts a gun into Curly’s hand, takes a slight step toward him and slowly lays down upon getting shot by him. “I love that I’ve heard so many different interpretations, but to me, it’s a suicide in which he forces everyone else to be involved.”

Fish’s decision to slow the subsequent “trial” makes the community’s spontaneous and swift exoneration of the blood-covered Curly all the more sinister — a baffling choice for fans of earlier versions. “All those lines are normally played for laughs,” explains Barbara Walsh, who began her career with an “Oklahoma!” tour and now plays Aunt Eller. “But everyone saw this crime happen and no one is saying anything, we’re keeping down what we know to be true. So what Daniel has done is expose the flaws and the humanity, or lack thereof, of these people.”

All of the characters, each in varying states of disbelief and distress about what they’ve collectively done, then launch into the famed “Oklahoma!” song, during which many audience members usually smile, clap and sing along. “When I first saw that happening, I was really disturbed,” Fish says. “And then it became so interesting that people would do that after the scene that just transpired. That’s the world that we live in.”

This was particularly true when the tour stopped in Oklahoma City, where its titular tune is the state song. “We could see some people stop clapping, like ‘maybe I shouldn’t,’ but towards the end of the song, they were like, ‘We see what crazy thing has happened, we don’t care, we’re gonna keep going anyway,’ and then they’d start again,” says Ugo Chukwu, who plays Cord. “I was like, ‘Oh, wow, that’s how it is.’”

Touring “Oklahoma!” — which closes at the Ahmanson Theatre this weekend and will open on the West End next year — meant making compromises, like retooling the in-the-round blocking for proscenium stages and realizing the seven-piece band’s amplified sound in much larger venues. Regional presenters strongly called for a shortened dream ballet, which illustrates Laurey’s pull between Curly and Jud. “There was a fear that audiences in smaller cities might not be able to take it, that it would be too weird for them,” Fish says. “That irks me, because audiences are often smarter and more game than we give them credit for.”

Entertainment & Arts

Review: Daniel Fish’s brooding, deconstructed ‘Oklahoma!’ electrifies the Ahmanson

Daniel Fish’s Tony-winning revival of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s ‘Oklahoma!’ reveals the underside of the American story.

Sept. 16, 2022

Well, most audiences, that is. Sprinkled among the production’s glowing reviews and standing ovations are critics who say it “wreaks havoc on a musical theater classic” and ticket holders who leave at intermission. Fish doesn’t care if theatergoers don’t “get” it (what frustrates him more is when the piece is distorted with erroneous marketing descriptions or that “Late Late Show With James Corden” bit, which “doesn’t represent the show at all.”). But some of that negativity — in print, on message boards, on social media, in person — has taken its toll on the cast.

“I didn’t do this show so that people would stand up and clap and love it every single time,” Hutchings says. “But at the end of the day, I’m still a human, and I’m onstage mining myself to give you the most honest performance I can. It’s very painful when it feels like someone is meeting me with that kind of rejection or disdain.”

Such discomforts might be growing pains. “The theater has always been accessible and available to the same group of people, and has been, for the most part, a safe space for these viewers,” says Sis, who plays Ado Annie. “I think these older white folks are getting the notion that theater is changing, and there are lots of different ways that a work can live.

“It’s been interesting to watch Daniel, this older white man, take this piece that has served his community well and turn it against them like a gun,” she adds. “All we can do is perform what we’ve created together and say, ‘This is what ‘Oklahoma!’ has really been about versus what y’all have created in your heads. You can take it or leave it, we get paid regardless.’”

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Ashley Lee is a staff reporter at the Los Angeles Times, where she writes about theater, movies, television and the bustling intersection of the stage and the screen. An alum of the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center’s National Critics Institute and Poynter’s Power of Diverse Voices, she leads workshops on arts journalism at the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival. She was previously a New York-based editor at the Hollywood Reporter and has written for the Washington Post, Backstage and American Theatre, among others. She is currently working remotely alongside her dog, Oliver.

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Big changes come sweeping down the plain in radically reimagined ‘Oklahoma!’

It’s sultry and saucy and silly and serious and sometimes, especially at the end, so standoffish that it feels like it’s slapping you.

Sasha Hutchings stars as Laurey and Sean Grandillo portrays Curly in the national tour of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s “Oklahoma!”

Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman for MurphyMade

The new touring production of “Oklahoma!” is not your grandparents’ version of the lush, ultra-classic 1943 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical about the great future of America. Or your parents’ version. Or perhaps, your version. But it’s extraordinary in every sense of the word.

It’s wonderfully weird and weirdly wonderful. It’s radical while remaining true to the text of the original and forcing us to see — or hear — it anew. It’s dark — sometimes literally as blackouts and floods of dark colors are not uncommon. It’s also very funny, injecting the romantic comedy components with unending sexual tension expressing itself in insults.

It’s… everything, except ordinary.

The musical, which takes place in 1906 Oklahoma, as the territory is on the verge of statehood and its (supposedly) glorious American future of limitless possibility, is set by director Daniel Fish and scenic designer Laura Jellinek in a purely theatrical, timeless but contemporary-ish space, something like a bright beer hall or public picnic. The cast members hang around the picnic tables even when they’re not in the scenes, drinking Bud Light, occasionally shucking corn, often stomping to the beat of the songs to energize the festivities. It’s a party. But there are gun racks on the wall. With a lot of guns. A lot.

Many of the scenes are played with an emotional distance, with the actors — all superb — seeming to just say the lines without much inflection, and yet still capturing their characters. Interestingly, it’s both more artificial and more authentic simultaneously.

Jud Fry (Christopher Bannow, center), Laurey (Sasha Hutchings) and Curley (Sean Grandillo) cross paths in “Oklahoma!”

The full personalities of the characters and performers emerge more forcefully when they sing. The songs — and oh! does this show have the songs! — sound completely different than prior takes but come across brilliantly. A traditional-radical production would turn the tunes into contemporary country, but here the pedal string guitar and the rest of the seven-member onstage band invest “Oh What a Beautiful Mornin’ ” and “The Surrey with the Fringe on Top” and the rest of one of best scores in history with a compellingly wobbly, eerie twang.

On Broadway, where this production won the Tony Award for best revival, the show was performed in-the-round. Re-staged for proscenium houses, the backdrop depicts a barn and a farmhouse amidst a sprawl of empty land awaiting planting — in a traditional version, that would surely be painted with corn stalks as high as an elephant’s eye. The proportions of the buildings are purposely flattened in a way that evokes American Gothic.

The lighting and staging of the tour place the focus even more on Laurey as the pure center of this tale. Played and sung skillfully by Sasha Hutchings, who understudied the role on Broadway, Laurey seems to be pondering often, seeming to wonder if something might be very, very wrong. She’s drawn to her rightful love interest Curly (Sean Grandillo), here a classic singing cowboy in the Roy Rogers tradition but with cute hair out of “High School Musical.” But she’s also both drawn to and repulsed by hired hand Jud Fry, who in this version is both the villain and the bullied, deeply damaged victim. As Jud, Christopher Bannow brings even more of a school shooter vibe than the character had on Broadway, urgently emphasizing Jud’s seething resentment at others’ sense of superiority.

Sis stars as Ado Annie in “Oklahoma!” now playing at the CIBC Theatre.

I wondered how they’d recast the actress Ali Stroker, who won the Tony for playing the naïve-but-naughty farmgirl Ado Annie in her wheelchair. Here, Ado Annie is played by Sis, a Black transgender woman wearing a curly blonde wig, who has the audience fully on her side from the minute she physically tosses around her much smaller love interest Will Parker (an endearing Hennessy Winkler).

If you’re not sure about all this — and it has, fairly, been satirized as “Woke-lahoma” — you should at least go for the first act. You’d still feel like you had a full evening and can leave, which people do, mostly feeling optimistic about the future.

The second act explodes all the Americana myths underneath the story even further, while clearly revealing that this undercurrent was there all along. That’s what’s shocking.

It starts by substituting the “Dream Ballet” with a solo modern dance, performed by Gabrielle Hamilton, from the original Broadway cast. It’s beautiful and expressive, alternating between flowing movement and gyrating pain that instantly brings to mind someone being shot.

The ending of this “Oklahoma!” manages to be both shattering and enlightening, turning what used to be a happy ending into a view of how our criminal justice system favors the powerful.

The last number, a reprise of the title song, feels as if everyone is singing the song of optimism so hard because they’re trying to purge their underlying trauma.

In this version, it’s clear that despite the lyric saying so, Oklahoma is not OK.

Broadway Review: ‘Oklahoma!’

A dark and dangerous directorial vision presents this classic treasure by Rodgers & Hammerstein in a fresh but far from sunny new light.

By Marilyn Stasio

Marilyn Stasio

Theater Critic

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In Broadway ‘s new “ Oklahoma! ,” the audience is just a pounding heartbeat away from Daniel Fish’s revisionist treatment of this iconic American musical. There’s still “a bright golden haze on the meadow” in the 1943 classic by Rodgers and Hammerstein — but here there are also fully stocked gun racks up on the walls, just to remind us how the West was really won.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that director Fish has deconstructed this beloved warhorse (which was a groundbreaker in its own day, it should be remembered): Nowadays, I think they drum you out of the Directors Guild if you direct a classic the way it was written. The wonder of this production is that so much of the joy and optimism of the original work still shines bright through the darkness.

The most dramatic deviation from tradition is the sound. Stripped of all the brass, Richard Rodgers’ music no longer has that distinctive Broadway sound. Rather, as played by a modest seven-piece string orchestra (suited and booted as if for a hoedown), the familiar melodies now sound more like country-western songs. Music director Nathan Koci did the vocal arrangements, and the singers provide the twang.

The sun still shines bright (the lighting is the work of Scott Zielinski) on the sweeping prairies of the Oklahoma Territory, poised on the verge of statehood in 1907, and there’s no cow dung on anybody’s boots. (Terese Wadden designed the purty costumes). But the production style is decidedly naturalistic, with a strong undercurrent of violence. In this context, the killing that ends the show is no facile deus ex machina, but a real statement about the making of America and the settling of the Wild West.

Just as blood keeps flooding these fields of golden corn, the sunny characters also have their dark side — or at least a bit of shade to their natural goodness. Curly, the all-American good-guy hero played by the personable Damon Daunno, is a lot more seductive than the usual well-scrubbed depiction of that lovesick cowpoke. He makes his “Surrey with the Fringe on Top” sound like a tune out of a French boudoir.

Curly’s dearly beloved, the virginal Laurey, also seems more overtly sexual in Rebecca Naomi Jones’s luscious performance. The way she sings “Out of My Dreams” could drive the poor guy crazy with lust, and when these two team up on “People Will Say We’re in Love,” there’s nothing innocent about it.

As for Jud Fry, he’s always been a predatory stalker and something of a menace.  But here, Patrick Vaill plays him with such authentic sexual longing, he doesn’t seem half creepy, and we honestly feel for him in both “Pore Jud” and “Lonely Room.”

This isn’t a case of redefining a character but of acknowledging a character’s secret self. It’s no gimmick, then, but a stroke of directorial invention to play some scenes in complete darkness — the better to allow that private self to step out from the shadows and declare itself. In that spirit, Fish exposes those sexual passions that are kept firmly repressed in traditional productions. (In this version, Curly and Laurey are free to enjoy some candid make-out sessions.) The only failure with this let-it-all-hang-out directorial style is the Dream Ballet, which is supposed to hint delicately of the lovers’ yearnings but is here allowed to go on ad nauseam.

None of this is to say that every element in this show needs a fresh airing. Ado Annie is man-crazy, and no act of literary deconstruction is about to change that. Happily, Ali Stroker’s performance is full of fun.  Whirling and twirling in her wheelchair, she’s a darling dervish, and her singing (“I Cain’t Say No”) is an invitation to smile. As Will Parker, James Davis makes a good romantic match for Stroker’s bubbly Annie (“All er Nuthin’”), and Will Brill is hilarious as Ali Hakim, the quick-witted peddler who fixes the picnic-basket auction.

Mary Testa’s earth-motherly Aunt Eller keeps the more rambunctious characters grounded even as she oversees the cooking of the chili and cornbread served to the audience at intermission. It’s a corny touch, but a nice balance of lightness for the darkness that makes this ambitious revival a winner.

More Broadway: 

Circle in the Square; 651 seats; $169.50 top. Opened April 7, 2019. Reviewed April 4. Running time: TWO HOURS, 40 MIN.

• Production: A presentation by Eva Price, Level Forward, Abigail Disney, Barbara Manocherian & Carl Moellenberg, James L. Nederlander, David Mirvish, Mickey Liddell & Robert Ahrens, BSL Enterprises & Magicspace Entertainment, Berlind Productions, John Gore Organization, Cornice Productions, Bard Fisher / R. Gold, LAMF / J. Geller, T. Narang / ZKM Media, R/F/B/V Group, Araca / IPN, St. Ann’s Warehouse and Tamar Climan of the Bard Summerscape production originally developed, produced, and premiered at the Richard B. Fisher Center of the Performing Art at Bard College, of a musical in two acts with music by Richard Rodgers and book & lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, based on the play “Green Grow the Lilacs” by Lynn Riggs and original choreography by Agnes De Mille.
• Crew: Directed by Daniel Fish. Sets, Laura Jellinek; costumes, Terese Wadden; lighting, Scott Zielinski; sound, Drew Levy; projections, Joshua Thorson; special effects, Jeremy Chernick; production stage manager, James D. Latus.
• Cast: Will Brill, Anthony Cason, Damon Daunno, James Davis, Gabrielle Hamilton, Rebecca Naomi Jones, Will Mann, Mallory Portnoy, Ali Stroker, Mitch Tebo, Mary Testa, Patrick Vaill.

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We couldn't finish it. Too much sexual harassment, innuendo, and does the story have a point?

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Family fun with a dark ending, not as good as i remembered. great music and songs. story not so much, wonderful singing, but long and with sexual innuendo, great movie, but full of sexual innuendos, actually, this movie is about sexual consent, great movie - some concerning innuendos, love the music.

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Oklahoma! review – an invigorating take on Rodgers and Hammerstein’s classic

Young Vic, London This modern, sexy and unsettling show injects thrills into a familiar musical, making it feel newly minted

H ow to rewrite Rodgers and Hammerstein’s classic musical without changing a word? It turns out all you need do is make us really watch, and really listen. In immersing the audience in the action (with some spectators sat at stage-side tables) and highlighting tricky scenes and characters that are often hastily brushed over, directors Daniel Fish and Jordan Fein have created a modern, sexy and unsettling show . And as for the music? The score sounds so revitalised it might’ve been written yesterday.

With the lights on full glare and the modern-dressed ensemble cast sat on stage throughout, there’s the livewire feeling of a read-through, as if the actors are approaching the book and music for the very first time. Nothing is sacred. Everything is up for grabs.

The physicality and proximity of this production make us think about the show differently. During the big ensemble numbers, it’s possible to turn your head and tune into a different song line. It’s our choice, it seems, whom we listen to. At the end of the showpiece numbers, you can hear the actors panting. Everything that is beautiful comes at a cost.

Arthur Darvill and Anoushka Lucas are both talented musicians and it’s when they sing that their characters – young Laurey Williams and cowboy Curly McLain – come alive. But it’s the supporting roles that make the strongest impression. Marisha Wallace electrifies as the frisky Ado Annie, who she transforms with her huge voice and commanding presence from a comedy sidekick into something much more savvy and meaningful.

Patrick Vaill compels as outsider Jud Fry – more melancholy than menacing. Pore Jud is Daid is performed in pitch black with Vaill’s face filmed, projected and magnified across the back wall. It’s a haunting sight, and as his huge eyes flicker and wince there’s something in his filmed despair that very subtly brings to mind cyberbullying.

It doesn’t all work and there are moments, particularly during the second half and its rejigged and highly stylised ending, when the innovations risk causing distraction. But this is still a brave and invigorating show that effortlessly unearths the ugliness that has always glimmered beneath Oklahoma!’s beautiful morning.

At the Young Vic, London , until 25 June

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The Screen: 'Oklahoma!' Is Okay; Musical Shown in New Process at Rivoli

By Bosley Crowther

• Oct. 11, 1955

AT long last, "Oklahoma!," the great Richard Rodgers-Oscar Hammerstein 2d musical show, which ran for more than five years on Broadway, has been brought to the motion picture screen in a production that magnifies and strengthens all the charm that it had upon the stage.Photographed and projected in the new process known as Todd-AO, which reflects the images in color from a wide and deep Cinerama-like screen, the ever-popular operetta was presented before an invited audience at the Rivoli last night. It will be shown at two more invitation "premières" tonight and tomorrow night. Then it begins its two-a-day public showings on Thursday at the Rivoli.Inevitably, the question which leaps to every mind is whether the essential magnificence and gusto of the original has been retained in the sometimes fatal operation of transfer to the screen. And then the question follows whether the mechanics of Todd-AO, which is being inaugurated with this picture, are appropriate to articulate this show.To the first question, there is only one answer: under the direction of Fred Zinnemann—and, we might add, under the hawk-eyed observation of Messrs. Rodgers and Hammerstein—a full-bodied "Oklahoma!" has been brought forth in this film to match in vitality, eloquence and melody any musical this reviewer has ever seen.With his wide-angle cameras catching backgrounds of genu-wine cornfields and open plains, red barns, yellow farmhouses and the blue sky full of fleecy clouds, Mr. Zinnemann has brought into the foreground all the warm, lively characters that swarm through this tale of the Oklahoma Territory and sing and dance its songs. By virtue of the sweeping motion picture, he has obtained a fresh, open-air atmosphere to embrace the same rollicking romance that tumbled upon the stage. And because he had the fine assistance of choreographer Agnes De Mille, he has made the dances and ballet of the original into eloquent movements that flow beneath the sky.In Gordon MacRae he has a Curly, the cowboy hero of the tale, who is wonderfully relaxed and unaffected (to this reviewer's delighted surprise). And in Shirley Jones, a strawberry-blonde newcomer, he has a Laurey, the girl Curly courts, so full of beauty, sweetness and spirit that a better Laurey cannot be dreamed. Both have excellent voices for the grand and familiar Rodgers' tunes. They are best, as one might hope and reckon, in the lyrical "People Will Say We're in Love."Charlotte Greenwood's rangy Aunt Eller is an unmitigated joy. She has added a rare quality of real compassion to the robust rusticity of the role. And Gene Nelson's lanky Will Parker is a deliciously light-footed, dim-witted beau to the squeaky and occasionally pretentious Ado Annie of Gloria Grahame.Rod Steiger's Jud Fry is less degenerate and little more human and pitiful than he is usually made, while Eddie Albert's Ali Hakim is the least impressive figure in the film. Both characters have been abbreviated, and a song of each has been dropped.As for the "Out of My Dreams" ballet, with James Mitchell and Bambi Linn dancing the roles of Curly and Laurey, it is an exquisitely fluid and colorful thing, expansive and imagistic. The dancing boys and girls are as lithe as reeds. In colorful costumes and hairdos, they are pumpkin-seed-country come to town!To the question of whether the dimensions and the mechanism of Todd-AO are appropriate to the material, one can only say that the generous expanse of screen is fetching, but the system has disconcerting flaws. The distortions of the images are striking when the picture is viewed from the seats on the sides of the Rivoli's orchestra or the sides and rear of its balcony. Even from central locations, the concave shape of the screen causes it to appear to be arched upwards or downwards, according to whether one views it from the orchestra or the balcony.While a fine sense of depth is imparted with some of the outdoor scenes—notably one looking down the rows of a cornfield and in a thrilling sequence of a horse-and-wagon runaway—the third-dimensional effect is not insistent. The color in the present film is variable. Some highly annoying scratches are conspicuous in many otherwise absorbing scenes.However, the flaws in mechanism do not begin to outweigh a superlative screen entertainment, which is endowed with excellent sound and runs for two hours and twenty-five minutes, with a ten-minute pause for air."Oklahoma!" will have a special, invitational "première" showing tonight at the Rivoli for Gov. Raymond Gary of Oklahoma and other state officials, as well as guests from the civic, stage, screen, television and radio fields.Governor Gary is scheduled to ride a white horse in the van of a cavalcade of surreys from the St. James Theatre on Forty-fourth Street, west of Broadway, to the Rivoli, at Broadway near Forty-ninth Street, where he will be welcomed by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein 2d.Governor Gary is slated to "annex" the Rivoli Theatre into "Oklahoma Territory" by stepping into transplanted Oklahoma soil in front of the theatre. He will also raise the Oklahoma flag atop the theatre building."Oklahoma!" which was screened for the press yesterday, will be shown again Wednesday night before an invited audience under the sponsorship of the Vocational Advisory Service.

OKLAHOMA!, screen play by Sonya Levien and William Ludwig, from the musical comedy with music by Richard Rodgers and book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein 2d, based on a play by Lynn Riggs; directed by Fred Zinnemann; produced by Arthur Hornblow Jr., in the Todd-AO process; distributed by Magna Theatre Corporation. At the Rivoli.Curly . . . . . Gordon MacRaeLaurey . . . . . Shirley JonesAunt Eller . . . . . Charlotte GreenwoodWill Parker . . . . . Gene NelsonAdo Annie . . . . . Gloria GrahameAli Hakim . . . . . Eddie AlbertJud Fry . . . . . Rod SteigerCarnes . . . . . James WhitmoreCertie . . . . . Barbara LawrenceSkidmore . . . . . J. C. FlippenMarshal . . . . . Roy BarcroftDream Curly . . . . . James MitchellDream Laurey . . . . . Bambi LinnThe Dancers—Bambi Linn, Marc Platt, James Mitchell, Jennie Workman, Kelly Brown Lizanne Truex, Virginia Bosler, Evelyn Taylor, Jane Fischer.

Movie Reviews

Tv/streaming, collections, great movies, chaz's journal, contributors, oklahoma crude.

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Stanley Kramer 's "Oklahoma Crude" is a tough, straightforward, well-acted movie about a male-female confrontation, and if it had been made 20 years ago that would have been enough of a description. In these enlightened days of women's liberation, however, all sorts of additional messages have been read into the movie, and a lot of people seem to be reviewing notions that Kramer and his writer doubtless never had.

The movie's female lead, played with a great deal of style by Faye Dunaway , is an independent soul who has staked her life and energies on an oil well. She wants nothing to do with men - not her father, and certainly not her father's hired man ( George C. Scott ). But she does accept some help, reluctantly, and after a time a relationship of sorts develops between Scott and her.

We have seen this relationship many times in the movies, most memorably in "The African Queen." The buried plot is always the same: Beautiful woman and uncultured man find themselves thrown together in a colorful enterprise. They have nothing in common except the enterprise, they think, but gradually their co-operation breeds respect, affection and finally love. Class barriers fall as the sun sets and romantic music swells.

This seems like a perfectly satisfactory scenario to me and has inspired some of the most interesting male-female relationships in movies. The shared task at least gets the couple out of the drawing room and into some adventure, and the woman is allowed to be competent and not some sort of fragile prize. Clark Gable had a relationship like that with Claudette Colbert in "Boom Town," and of course most of the Spencer Tracy-Katharine Hepburn movies depended on it. But now at least some theorists of women's lib believe Stanley Kramer, that most assiduous respecter of causes, has got it wrong. They don't like the fact that Dunaway needs Scott, and especially they don't like the fact that eventually she falls in love with him and gets all mushy (well, a little mushy) just like in all the stereotypes on the trash heap of sexism.

That's missing the point, I think, and it's also a little ironic. Kramer has built a career by developing movies around social themes. Here, for once, he wants only to entertain us-and his critics read a theme into the movie and attack him for it.

"Oklahoma Crude" deserves better. It's set in 1913, in a new oil field, and it pits Faye Dunaway and her single lonely oil well against big tycoons and their hired goon ( Jack Palance ). That's the story. We're on her side, and we also hope she'll finally see what a basically good person the Scott character is.

When she wins (and then loses, and then wins in a different way), we're happy because we care for her. It spoils the frankly romantic ending if we get into the frenzy of feminism and start lashing out at love as a cop-out. And Kramer, to give him his due, has handled the ending on a restrained note that seems just right; we don't get slow-motion shots of lovers running across a meadow (or an oil field) into each other's arms.

George C. Scott just continues to grow as an actor; he's been so good recently in so many different kinds of roles that I suspect we still don't have his measure. This time he's got to be strong but a little shy; a gentleman too proud to reveal his feelings - and sometimes scared to even feel them. His role is the pivotal one, in the way Bogart's was in "The African Queen," because in both cases the woman's character has already been fully defined and it's up to the man to demonstrate his worthiness.

Faye Dunaway, whose career has been rather absentminded since " Bonnie and Clyde ," hasn't been better since. Perhaps she has decided to get back to acting and leave Marcello Mastroianni to Catherine Deneuve . I hope so.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

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Oklahoma Crude (1973)

108 minutes

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Produced and directed by

• Stanley Kramer

Screenplay by

• Marc Norman

Photographed by

• Robert Surtees

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7 movies that you may not know were filmed in Oklahoma

Posted: May 9, 2024 | Last updated: May 9, 2024

Which movies were filmed in Oklahoma?

The magic of Hollywood is that oftentimes movies aren't filmed anywhere near where they purport to be taking place. California may be home to Hollywood, but so many of your favorite films were set against backdrops far removed from the glitterati of the West Coast.

With huge studios like Warner Bros., MGM, and RKO Pictures churning out film after film during the heyday of the silver screen, California made a name for itself as the cornerstone for all things movies. As the industry has continued to shift, however, that has begun to change.

From the need for more rural settings to a director's desire to get everything as historically accurate as possible, not to mention the attractive tax incentives offered by states outside of California, crews are increasingly enticed to look elsewhere when filming. More and more, shoots take place in the most unexpected places in a quest to entertain, and sometimes, to make film history. Have you ever wondered where the Cullen house in the "Twilight" movies actually is? (The answer is Oregon.) How about the location of where the wasteland astronauts trekked in "Planet of the Apes" from 1968? (Answer: Arizona.)

With that in mind, Stacker compiled a list of movies filmed in Oklahoma using data from Movie Locations . Additional information about each film was collected from IMDb . Some films may have been omitted due to data dissimilarities and lack of corresponding information found on IMDb.

Around the World in 80 Days (1956)

- Director: Michael Anderson - IMDb user rating: 6.7 (29K reviews) - Runtime: 175 minutes - Genres: Adventure, Comedy, and Family - Cast: David Niven, Cantinflas, and Finlay Currie

The Grapes of Wrath (1940)

- Director: John Ford - IMDb user rating: 8.1 (98K reviews) - Runtime: 129 minutes - Genres: Drama - Cast: Henry Fonda, Jane Darwell, and John Carradine

The Outsiders (1983)

- Director: Francis Ford Coppola - IMDb user rating: 7.0 (94K reviews) - Runtime: 91 minutes - Genres: Crime and Drama - Cast: C. Thomas Howell, Matt Dillon, and Ralph Macchio

Rain Man (1988)

- Director: Barry Levinson - IMDb user rating: 8.0 (534K reviews) - Runtime: 133 minutes - Genres: Drama - Cast: Dustin Hoffman, Tom Cruise, and Valeria Golino

Rumble Fish (1983)

- Director: Francis Ford Coppola - IMDb user rating: 7.1 (37K reviews) - Runtime: 94 minutes - Genres: Crime, Drama, and Romance - Cast: Matt Dillon, Mickey Rourke, and Diane Lane

Twister (1996)

- Director: Jan de Bont - IMDb user rating: 6.5 (207K reviews) - Runtime: 113 minutes - Genres: Action, Adventure, and Thriller - Cast: Helen Hunt, Bill Paxton, and Cary Elwes

Two-Lane Blacktop (1971)

- Director: Monte Hellman - IMDb user rating: 7.2 (13K reviews) - Runtime: 102 minutes - Genres: Drama - Cast: James Taylor, Warren Oates, and Laurie Bird

This story features data reporting by Karim Noorani, writing by Olivia Monahan, and is part of a series utilizing data automation across 48 states.

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10 Fun Things To Know About “Inside Out 2”

If you’re wondering what will happen in Inside Out 2 you are in for some excitement! I recently attended a trip to Pixar and got a first hand experience with all the scoop the highly anticipated movie.

Riley is going through some of the choppy waters of adolescence, and the film introduces new emotions – Envy, Anxiety, Ennui and Embarrassment – and adds a new cast to the mix.

The film is being directed by Kelsey Mann who promises the same emotional buckets, but all with a little more comedy.

How does Riley’s passion for hockey change and evolve? What about her relationships? ‘There is a lot more to it, and a lot of things that you’ll never have guessed.

Release Date and Latest News

Inside Out 2 hits theaters on June 14, 2024 and I couldn’t be more excited. I got a sneak peek while visiting Pixar and let tell you, it is going to be so good!

This sequel dives into Riley’s life as a teenager, tackling puberty, growth spurts, and self-discovery.

Expect new emotions like Envy to join the talented voice cast, as Riley navigates her hockey career and more.

At a recent press conference, the film’s director, Kelsey Mann, and producer, Mark Nielsen, revealed how they brought new emotions into the cast of Riley’s mind.

New Emotions and Cast Members

Inside Out 2 introduces a fresh set of emotions , with Maya Hawke, Ayo Edebiri, Adèle Exarchopoulos, and Paul Walter Hauser joining the cast to voice Anxiety, Envy, Ennui, and Embarrassment, respectively.

These new emotions reflect the challenges of Riley’s teenage years , adding layers of complexity and humor.

You’ll love how these characters shake up Riley’s world, making it more relatable and engaging.

The Teenage Years of Riley

When Riley hit the teen years, her emotional life would be transformed; that landscape would become far more complex, dramatic, and active.

Coping with high school and adolescence, Riley encounters Anxiety alongside other new emotions.

Mann shared, “First and foremost, I knew Riley was gonna be dealing with becoming a teenager. So, I’m like it’s gotta be the emotions that show up and drive at the console when we’re teenagers.”

Her relationships and mental health become focal points as she grows up.

Thanks to his heightened emotional intelligence, Riley’s age-related transformation becomes a complex and fascinating drama of the teenage years.

Who’s Directing the Sequel?

Inside Out 2 is directed by Kelsey Mann, known for his distinctive filmmaking style.

He’s directing a sequel in which we will see Riley navigating her teenage years and new emotions such as Anxiety, Envy, Embarrassment and Ennui.

• Fresh perspectives
• Creative storytelling
• Deep emotional exploration
• Engaging visuals
• Delightful humor

Familiar and new voices emerge from the cast of Inside Out 2 to animate Riley’s multifaceted emotions.

Anxiety, Envy, Embarrassment and Ennui are the new emotions she hears as Riley navigates her life changes.

Get ready for an emotional rollercoaster!

Plot and Storyline Revealed

Get ready to join Riley on a thrilling journey through her teenage years as Inside Out 2 explores how her emotions tackle the ups and downs of adolescence.

Mann explains, “My first pass, my first screening, nine emotions. Nine new emotions showed up.”

This abundance backfired. As Mann admits, “There were so many emotions and they all canceled each other out because you couldn’t keep track of everybody.”

Producer Mark Nielsen summed it up perfectly: “Too many ingredients.”

A Tease of Inside Out 2

While visiting Pixar animation I got to watch a little of the start of the movie and I have been counting down the days to see the full movie.

I was there along with other journalist and bloggers and let me tell you everyone enjoyed it. There were so many laughs and everyone was ready for more!

Growing up With Riley’s Journey

As Riley sets out on her teenage journey, you’ll witness how new emotions like Anxiety and Envy shape her path to self-discovery .

At the press conference, Mann shared, “First and foremost, I knew Riley was gonna be dealing with becoming a teenager. So, I’m like it’s gotta be the emotions that show up and drive at the console when we’re teenagers.”

What’s New in Inside Out 2

Riley’s journey through adolescence introduces fresh dynamics in Inside Out 2 , with new emotions like Anxiety, Envy, Ennui, and Embarrassment joining the original lineup.

You’ll see her teenage mind wrestle with growing up, facing challenges and struggles.

The film dives deeper into emotional intelligence and mental health , showcasing how the emotions adapt to Riley’s new stage of life, making for an engaging watch.

Inside Out 2 Comes To Theaters June 14

Inside Out 2 is shaping up to be an emotional rollercoaster you won’t want to miss!

With Riley’s teenage years bringing in a whirlwind of new emotions and challenges, plus a stellar cast and fresh direction, there’s plenty to be excited about.

From relatable puberty struggles to hilarious and heartwarming moments, this sequel promises to deliver.

Mark your calendars, grab your popcorn, and get ready to dive back into Riley’s head for another unforgettable adventure !

Sarah Scoop.com is an online destination to give everyone the scoop on their favorite things. To contact Sarah email [email protected].

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Oklahoma-made movie 'Cricket' to have world premiere at OKC's deadCenter Film Festival

For two decades, Amy Janes has been trying to usher the emotional musical drama "Cricket" from a story concept to a feature film.

After making the movie in Oklahoma — something she couldn't have imagined 20 years ago — the producer and editor said she is thrilled that it also will have its world premiere at the state's largest film festival, Oklahoma City's deadCenter Film Festival .

"It took us 20 years to get here, and we weren't just going to settle for any festival. So, we're ecstatic. I know how tough the competition is this year — specifically at deadCenter and at all the festivals around the world— but to be selected here is just monumental. We're forever grateful," Janes told The Oklahoman.

Directed by her husband, filmmaker Richard Janes, the world-premiere screening of "Cricket" (formerly titled "Cricket's Requiem") will be the Oklahoma Narrative Feature Centerpiece at this year's deadCenter Film Festival .

The 24th Annual deadCenter Film Festival is set for June 6-9 in downtown OKC, with screenings at Harkins Bricktown 16, Oklahoma City Museum of Art, Rodeo Cinema Film Row , Scissortail Park and the new dC Hub at the Fordson Hotel (formerly 21c Museum Hotel).

Need a break? Play the USA TODAY Daily Crossword Puzzle.

“Founded by Oklahoma filmmakers, deadCenter has always valued Oklahoma productions, and we are thrilled that the festival will host the world premiere of Cricket,” said deadCenter Film Executive Director Cacky Poarch in an email.

What other opening-night films are on the OKC film festival's 2024 lineup?

"Cricket" is the fourth and final feature film by an Oklahoma filmmaker to be announced as part of the 2024 deadCenter Film Festival lineup .

The musical drama will screen on deadCenter's opening night at 8:30 p.m. June 6, at Harkins Bricktown 16 in downtown OKC.

Other opening-night selections for this year's deadCenter include the world premiere of "Saucedo," a documentary exploring the emotional journey of Oklahoma boxing champion Alex Saucedo , who suffered a career-ending brain injury in 2020; the world premiere of " Hailey’s Game ," a supernatural LGBTQIA romance filmed entirely with OKC locations, cast and crew; and the Sooner State premiere of the documentary "La Singla, " a portrait of Antonia Singla , a flamenco dancer who was born deaf and revolutionized the art at the age of 17.

More than 1,800 films were submitted for this year's deadCenter Film Fest. Passes for the Oscar-qualifying festival are on sale for $200 at deadcenterfilm.org .

What is the Oklahoma-made musical drama 'Cricket' about?

Written by Tameson Duffy ("Grey's Anatomy"), "Cricket" stars Skye Dakota Turner, who played the young Aretha Franklin in the 2021 biopic "Respect," as Cricket Sullivan, an introverted teenager drawn to churches, where she steals candles for her sick mother.

Caught in the act by a grieving choir director and assigned to polish one church's pews as penance, she finds an unlikely friendship that helps her unlock her true gift to the world.  

"The finding of the choir has been produced into an hourlong documentary, as well, with the idea that we can not only use that documentary to excite the choir community ... but also to really showcase the local talent," Janes said, noting that the American Choral Directors Association is based in OKC.

"So, we are poised to be able to launch this documentary alongside the feature ... in helping people understand how immensely talented local Oklahomans are."

Where in Oklahoma was the musical drama 'Cricket' filmed?

The Janes, who moved to Oklahoma City from Los Angeles in 2018 , filmed their lyrical movie about love, loss and the resilience of the human spirit in OKC and Guthrie. Filmed over 25 days in early 2022 with strict COVID-19 precautions, "Cricket" was mostly made at Filmmakers Ranch (formerly Green Pastures Studio) , in far eastern Oklahoma City.

In 2020, Richard and Amy Janes teamed with Melodie Garneau to convert the shuttered Green Pastures Elementary School — a 35,435-square-foot building situated on 12 acres adjacent to the city of Spencer — into Green Pastures Studio . Rebranded last year as Filmmakers Ranch , it's now billed as Oklahoma’s first film and television studio campus.

Amy Janes said they set out to use as much local talent as possible in front of and behind the camera on "Cricket."

"I found this film in 2004, when Tameson Duffy was in my graduate program at UCLA, and I just fell in love with it. We used to sit in the car and cry and listen to the (story's) requiem," she said.

"It took years to get it to get it going ... and I don't think there was a better place in the world we could have made it (than Oklahoma). And I'm very grateful for that."