Dallas Theater

Review: The Revival or Death of Roger and Hammerstein’s “Oklahoma”

Daniel Fish’s revival of Oklahoma! is a bold and audacious reimagining of the classic Rodgers and Hammerstein musical that has ignited both admiration and controversy. This production strips away the traditional gloss of the original, exposing the raw and unsettling core of the story. The result is a version of Oklahoma! that is as divisive as it is compelling, challenging audiences to reconsider what they thought they knew about this piece of Americana.

One of the most striking aspects of this revival is its ability to bring the darker elements of the story to the forefront. Fish’s interpretation of Curly and Jud transforms the familiar love triangle into something far more sinister. Curly, traditionally the charming cowboy, is re-envisioned as a man whose sense of entitlement and privilege make him just as dangerous as the brooding Jud. This shift in characterization not only heightens the tension between the characters but also forces the audience to grapple with the unsettling realities of frontier justice and the rejection of the “other.”

The production’s minimalist set and modern costumes serve to further distance it from the nostalgic image of Oklahoma! that many audience members might expect. Instead of lush pastures and choreographed hoedowns, we are presented with stark, wood-paneled spaces and characters in contemporary attire. This aesthetic choice underscores the timelessness of the themes at play—violence, desire, and the complex dynamics of community and exclusion.

However, not all audiences have embraced this reinterpretation. The production’s departure from the traditional staging has led to mixed reactions, with some viewers finding the dark, abstract approach disorienting or even off-putting. The decision to modernize certain aspects of the story while keeping the original text intact has been a particular point of contention, with critics arguing that the juxtaposition can feel jarring or incoherent. The starkness of the set and the absence of the familiar musical spectacle leave some longing for the comfort of the original.

Moreover, the change in the portrayal of Curly from a lovable rogue to a more morally ambiguous figure has not resonated with everyone. The romantic elements of the story, which once provided a counterbalance to the darker undertones, are now overshadowed by the unsettling nature of the characters’ relationships. This shift has led some to question the emotional impact of the story’s conclusion, which leaves the audience with a sense of unease rather than resolution.

Despite these criticisms, it is undeniable that Fish’s Oklahoma! is a production that demands attention. It is a powerful exploration of the darker aspects of American identity, unafraid to confront uncomfortable truths about the nation’s past and present. For those willing to engage with its challenging themes and unconventional presentation, this revival offers a provocative and thought-provoking experience that lingers long after the final curtain.

In summary, Daniel Fish’s Oklahoma! is a daring reinvention that strips the musical down to its bare essentials, revealing the raw emotion and violence at its heart. While this approach may alienate some traditionalists, it also breathes new life into a well-worn classic, making it a vital and relevant piece of theater for contemporary audiences.

Can High Tech Business in Dallas Boost the Theater and Arts?

The computer technology industry has always been a tumultuous one. Changes are often sudden and drastic. The roots of the industry lead back as far as the fifties, some would say earlier. In Texas, leading companies established their foothold early on and built an empire based on the growing demand for more advanced computer technology. Around nineteen fifty-six, Texas Instruments made its mark by purchasing three-hundred acres of land and creating what is now their headquarters. They have remained industry leader by going well beyond basic computing and component production. TI now competes for defense contracts for the US government. Although industry leaders such as TI are still around and doing very well, there are many changes in the local industry that have created quite a bit of excitement.

Dallas-Fort Worth has always been a business hub, especially when it comes to the technology industry. The are is considered the second biggest technology industry center in the country, some may disagree, while others compare it to California’s Silicon Valley. There are many different contributing factors to the recent growth in the area. Many attribute this sudden surge with the fact the Dallas is known for its startup companies. Diversity drives innovation in any industry, and with so many eager young professionals trying to make their mark in the world, there are plenty of opportunities to work from.

Quite recently, many companies have experienced exponential growth. This growth has bolstered the local economy and led to a stronger technology infrastructure. High Tech Businesses in Dallas are making a change, and Texans are feeling the excitement. With this growth comes even more changes. There’s no telling what the future holds or how the industry will grow. Without direct knowledge from industry leaders, it’s impossible to tell which technological advancements are going to make the biggest difference. In an industry driven by change, adaptation is everything. As many industry leaders learned in the early two-thousands, it’s not a good idea to invest too heavily in a certain aspect of technology. The sudden drop in technology infrastructure throughout the country led to considerable losses for many companies. Now that the industry has recovered, it’s time to consider the future or computer technology and telecommunication.

Smaller companies might not seem to make the biggest difference, but they are making a difference. Companies such as Groupmeet are taking some of the more popular services and changing the game for the better. Adding value to well-known services has often been considered one of the most successful strategies, especially for smaller companies looking to make their mark. Cariloop is a company that offers services that many families are in need of. Elder care is one of the most important parts of any family besides general healthcare. This up and coming company make it easier to get the right help at the right time for elder family members. Skrise is another niche business that offer a sort of concierge service to facilitate communication and data connections between company leaders and employees as well as other vital business partners. This service might not seem like much, but it is absolutely vital for those in need of a reliable data connection with top-notch security.

It’s not hard to see that the technology industry is changing. Leaders such as AT&T are making their move to increase the value of their service by expanding service function and availability. This kind of growth is possible because they established themselves in one of the largest technology epicenters in the country. Smaller companies don’t have to miss out on this growth. In fact, many smaller companies are taking advantage of the vast amount of opportunities and making the most of the increased demand for bigger and better technology. Finding the latest information about the technology is as easy as taking a look and seeing what many of the up and coming startup tech companies are planning. The latest announcements and news can be found online through social media or more official news outlets. The future of the technology industry is looking bright, and the light is shining brightest in the Texas area. There more to come and everyone is eager to see what the future holds.

Raw and Heartwarming, The Show “Heisenberg” Should Capture Your Heart

Mary-Louise Parker and Denis Arndt star in a play about secrets, lies, and the joy of listening to every kind of music.”>

Set on the sparest, most un-Broadway-like stage, Simon Stephenss play Heisenberg is an intriguing tale of unlikely love.

With a few tables and chairs, arranged and rearranged by the actors themselves, we are convincingly transportedin an unbroken 80-minute spanfrom train stations to parks, a butchers shop, and a bedroom.

Georgie Burns and Alex Priest, total strangers, meet on the forecourt of Londons St. Pancras station, when she kisses him on the back of his neck.

She is 42, from New Jersey, and apparently very highly strung. He, a thousand times more self-contained, is 75, Irish (from Enniscorthy, County Wexford), and a butcher in North London.

The opposites attract is played for both laughs, and counterintuitively. She, at first, seems utterly bonkers, and he, like us, watches her with befuddlement and a little concern. Surely, you think, he would run a mile.

I have a complete inability to control my own language, she admits. Their surnames seem telling: She does burn, and he initially has the bearing of a priest.

Mary-Louise Parker, most recently famous for her role in Weeds, plays Georgie as a cat on a scorchingly hot roof. She wants to know all about Alex (Denis Arndt, whose freighted stillness bewitches her and us), and he will not tell her anything about himself.

She darts around him, gesticulates, leans in, recoils, laughs, shouts. Her enquiries are loud, relentless, and the more intrusive she is, the more an obelisk of non-confession he becomes.

She tells Alex that she is a waitress at a modish London restaurant and that her husband is dead: Its like I miss him in my skin and my bones and my blood. I miss him on a cellular level. She regrets not having children, she adds.

Theres something about cities that just makes me really fucking happy, she says, any notion of overshare totally absent. Its the monumental amount of people. The gaps in between them creates this crackle. I find it intoxicating.

Alex is so stolid and Georgie so skittish that the impulse seems less set toward romance between them than simply whether they can survive being in each others company without some harm, physical or psychological, being done.

Parker and Arndt are each others perfect foil. Nothing is overstated or overplayed: The lack of adornment in Mark Wendlands stage design focuses the audiences mind on Stephenss crisp, witty text and Mark Brokaws unflashy direction.

The duos second encounter takes place five days later at his butchers. Alex again is puzzled and irritated at Georgies intrusion, responding gruffly to her admission that she had Googled his name with I dont know what to say about that.

This encounter turns her story on its head: She admits she has lied to him. I think its probably best if you assume that everything I told you when I saw you last week was a complete fabrication.

His rigidity in the face of her incursionsAre you a bit freaked out now? she asks. A little, he repliesmakes for a fascinating parry and thrust and cat-and-mouse. But again, that nagging question: At this point, wouldnt you just take your leave? Alex, implausibly, does not.

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Still, at this point the play pirouettes to bring him out of his shell. Im not shy, Alex says, ushering from this quiet man the most unquiet of speechesthe first of a standout trio, in which he decries the obsession with feeling in todays world. Alex, it turns out, is full of passion.

You cant go anywhere without these fucking wretched conversations about feelings being shoved down your throat, he says. Literally down your throat. With clenched fists. I feel my clothes and the wind on my face. I dont feel. I fucking think.

Hes a great dancer, he reveals. Teach me, she says coquettishly. I dont teach. I dance with other dancers. Go and learn. Then come back and ask me again, is his light response.

Both he and she reveal a litany of true past hurts. At the next scene, a Turkish restaurant in Holborn, Alex says: Ive never spoken as honestly as this about anything before. It feels as a bit like having an electric shock.

Love has eluded both Alex and Georgie for very different reasons, but even chewing over this doesnt bring saccharine confessions and pat self-discovery.

If Alex has a bedrock of pain, he lives with an eye to pleasure: He loves both walking everywhere and music, and in a truly delightful speech recites the genres of music he listens to.

Arndt recites this on-the-page-prosaic list with lilting, serenely punctuated precisionhalf an exercise in composition, half an exercise in watching his face break out in excitement and joy: I started with rock n roll. And then I moved on to rhythm and blues. Gospel music. Country and Western. And Mod music. Garage rock. Psychedelic. Hippie music. Jazz music. Funk. String quartets And it goes on, we tickled by each new addition, until the conclusiondub step, said as lightly as you will ever hear that said.

Later, Arndt performs a completely charming mini-act of ballet, which was greeted with a chorus of wows from our audience.

However, we discover, the kiss on the neck at the station hadnt been so spontaneous after all, which may have been obvious to those deconstructing the title of the play carefully: The Heisenberg Principle asserts there is a limit to the precision with which certain pairs of physical properties of a particle can ever be fixed.

The play doesnt overtly state this, or even mention Heisenberg, so all your Heisenberg homework must be done before or after seeing the play. My guess: Alex and Georgie possess behavior and personalities unknowable singly, and even more so having collided together.

Personalities are just the sum of the individual things that people do, Georgie says. And the path that connects between them. Theyre never fixed. They can always change. They mean nothing.

The plays denouement takes place overlooking the Hackensack River in New Jersey, Alex savoring its foreign-to-him name as well as the Pulaski Skyway. Another tour de force speech about love in the everyday, spoken initially as a repudiation of love, was equally savored by our audience.

The play has divided critics. It was hailed by The New York Times when it was first performed last year, but others have found Heisenberg trite. For me, its romantic focus was plausibly leavened with big themes, its two lead performances were in thrumming tandemwith Arndt particularly winning.

It still seems baffling Alex didnt run a mile on that first meeting, though.

Heisenberg is at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre, 261 W. 47^th Street, until Dec. 11.

Review of Broadway “Oh, Hello” – Repulsive Old Geezers Having Audiences Rolling on the Floor

Is it the Odd Couple all over? The comic antics of Nick Kroll and John Mulaney hilariously skewer theatrical conventions in a hilarious show that makes Broadway feel like the place to be.

Gil Faizon and George St Geegland those legends of public access television, icons of the Upper West Side, and superstars of ill-fitting sweater vests have finally made it to the main stem with Oh, Hello on Broadway, which George describes as a love letter to theater. Or, as Gil suggests, more of a stalker’s note scrawled in lipstick on a mirror. Despite the fact that this show, directed by Alex Timbers, is silly, crude, and wildly indulgent, it is also uproariously, rib-tickling funny.

These 70-year old grotesques are the alter egos of the comics Nick Kroll (Gil) and John Mulaney (George), first developed on alternative comedy stages and more recently seen on The Kroll Show in the segment “Too Much Tuna.”

5 Reasons You Should See A Broadway Show Before You Turn 30

There are many things you should try between the age of 20 and 30.

You can stay out late, travel the world, live in a big city, or a small one and have fun without having to deal with all the numerous responsibilities that will inevitably multiply with age.

You should add going to the theatre to that list.Lots of people think that theatre is reserved for only those who are really into it, would die to see the newest Broadway musical or are older with lots of time and money.

But your 20s can actually be the best time to see shows. You’re old enough to embrace and involve yourself in the culture of theatre, yet still young enough to get discounted tickets because you cant afford to see Hamilton at full price and pay for your rent.

Here are five reasons why the theatre is always a good idea:

1. Discounted Tickets

With the price of Broadway musicals skyrocketing people equate theatre with expensive tickets.

For some shows, I hear you.

But believe it or not, you can actually avoid dropping your entire paycheck on a ticket. Theatres in tons of cities, and even on Broadway, offer pretty decent tickets for students in college or grad school. Some lovely theatres even offer discounted tickets to people under a certain age.

Your 20s are the only time you’ll get to take advantage of these discounts, so do your research and go see as many shows as you can.

2. A Sense Of Connection

If you’re a 20-something, chances are you’ve been struck by the feeling of loneliness at one time or another.

Relationship or not, tons of friends or just a few, fulfilling career or soul-sucking office job, this decade of life can make you feel pretty lost and alone. Its normal.

But fortunately, theatre provides the perfect hack for that; It is so much about human connection, even in the nature of the performance. The stories delve deep into the characters (oftentimes sad) lives and will definitely evoke some much needed catharsis.

When you’re that close to the actors onstage, you feel much more connected to the story than when you’re watching something unfold in a film or TV show.

Also, the energy of the crowd around you will allow you to feel like you are with hundreds of friends rather than alone in a sea of 100 people.

3. Alternative To A Movie

Going to the movies scores high on the list of things to do with your friends or dates,but Hollywood tends to keep disappointing us these days.

While a few quality films show up here and there, theres only so many times youre willing to spend 20bucks for the millionth superhero movie or bro comedy.

Theatrecan provide you with a similar alternative to film: you can watch a story unfold in front of you while you sitting in a comfy chair.

Exceptions do exist, but most theatrical productions are character based, meaningful and more original than whats playing on the silver screen.

4. Get To Know The Town You Live in

You might have packed up for a city upon graduating, or stayed at home for a few years before venturing off, but most 20-somethings eventually live in, or near, a city.

If you’re new in city, what better way to get to know the city than by getting immersed in the culture?

The theatre scene tends to reflect the city as a whole, producing shows that appeal to the people living there and usually made by the people living there. You’ll start to feel a part of things after seeing some local theatre.

Maybe because its not seen as completely accessible, or maybe because it often deals with important issues or heavy topics, but going to the theatre never feels like mindless entertainment.

Even if you go to a fun comedy, there’s something about going to the theatre that makes you feel super cultured. You contributed to your city’s arts scene! You’re so much more intelligent and enlightened now.

Whether or not that’s actually true, you’ll still feel that way.

Though the struggle to leave your bed and Netflix behind is real, venturing out to see shows will be incredibly fulfilling.

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