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Article: LESS SAP; MORE FILLING; Veteran director Michael Brindisi stages a fresh take on `Oklahoma!' at Chanhassen.(FREETIME)
- Article from:
- Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN)
- Article date:
- May 12, 2000
- Author:
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To hear director Michael Brindisi tell it, "Oklahoma!" is not just a hoary summer-stock musical centering on dancing and differences as a young woman decides whom to marry. He sees in it a grand statement on America's ideals, history, dreams and nightmare realities.
Such an interpretation might be news to those who have seen the 1943 musical as a sappy story about farm girl Laurey, who is conflicted about whether to marry farmhand Jud or cowboy Curly at a time when farmers and cattlemen fought bloody battles over the land; it's a kind of "Romeo and Juliet" on the prairie.
The show was the first collaboration between Richard Rodgers and Oscar ...