Chicago Tribune - Recommended
"...If you know this show backwards, you'll be, at minimum, fascinated. Bonus thrills come from seeing the great Broadway star Barbara Walsh as Aunt Eller. You'll be especially intrigued by the performance of Sis, who turns Ado Annie into the smartest character in the show, and by Christopher Bannow's intense Jud Fry, a symbol of fraught masculinity if ever there was one. Sean Grandillo's sweet-voiced Curly comes and goes but then this is not Curly's show - it's Laurey's narrative, as ever was the case."
Chicago Sun Times - Highly Recommended
"...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."
Daily Herald - Highly Recommended
"...For theatergoers who welcome alternative interpretations of classic tuners, who don't mind being confronted by troubling truths that reflect these tense times, director Daniel Fish's intrepidly re-imagined revival of "Oklahoma!" is for you."
Chicago Reader - Recommended
"...for those familiar with Oklahoma!'s original narrative, this imaginative reconception offers plenty of bold, smart, provocative, even disturbing new takes on the material. Every contrarian choice that Fish has made in terms of staging and casting is a response to, even a comment on, the traditions that have accrued to Oklahoma! since its landmark 1943 premiere."
Chicago On the Aisle - Somewhat Recommended
"...But for this version of "Oklahoma!," on a tour stop in Chicago under the official Rodgers and Hammerstein imprimatur, I'd need to find a mark further into the alphabet. The production concept doubtless succeeded swimmingly in the more intimate Circle in the Square environment on Broadway, with the audience of 800 or so, circling close around, as it was done for New York audiences in 2019 when it won a Tony for best revival. It was the brainchild of director Daniel Fish, a Northwestern University drama graduate, now an experienced professional, who dug into this classic with gusto and found keen new insights."
Let's Play at ChicagoNow - Somewhat Recommended
"...Broadway In Chicago's CIBC Theatre Oklahoma is moderately enjoyable with its cast of characters but lacks the Broadway feel that most theatergoers desire when leaving their homes to enjoy an evening of theater."
Around The Town Chicago - Somewhat Recommended
"...The positives to the production are of course the actual story and music and while this is more of a staged concert than an actual full blown production, there are some wonderful moments and a few sparkling numbers. Bannow brings a special flavor to his Judd Fry. One almost feels that he is the guy that is being bullied and that Curly is indeed a bad guy who thinks that he is special and that Fry is beneath him. SIS is a powerful Ado Annie ( as you have never seen before) and I am happy that they kept the Ali Hakim song in the show ( often deleted, and BTW, Hoffman nailed it along with his Persian "goodbye"). Barbara Walsh is a young Aunt Eller but handles the role with ease. As I said earlier Hutchings is a delight to watch onstage."
WTTW - Not Recommended
"...To get straight to the point: The touring production of "Oklahoma!" that arrived Wednesday evening on the stage of Broadway in Chicago's CIBC Theatre is "a travesty of a mockery of a sham." And, for the profoundly painful 2 hours and 45 minutes it took for this desecration of a glorious American musical theater classic to play itself out, all I could think about was that its genius creators Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein, Jr. were not only rolling over in their graves, but were pounding their fists on their headstones as they wondered how those who now hold the rights to their brilliant initial collaboration, and its many glorious and groundbreaking elements, allowed this to happen. (In 2009, the rights were sold to a Netherlands-based pension fund. Disastrous.)"
Chicago Theatre Review - Highly Recommended
"...Do not miss to this exciting, emotionally affecting new take on an old classic. If you've never seen "Oklahoma" before, you'll be in for an eye-opening new experience; if you already know this musical by heart, you'll be astonished at how it springs to life in this new, emotionally reimagined production. Daniel Fish makes Rodgers & Hammerstein's first hit musical feel fresh, original and au current. With Andy Collopy's talented seven-piece stringed onstage ensemble (plus accordion) accompanying this brilliant, 12-member cast, the waving wheat sure smells sweet again as this company breathes life into this production. This, after all, might just have been the show that Rodgers & Hammerstein's originally intended."
Chicagoland Musical Theatre - Somewhat Recommended
"...To those attending or contemplating buying a ticket to this transformational production, know going in that the experience might best be described as sepia-toned. A pigment added to a black and white photograph in the darkroom to warm photographs, sepia still leaves the image monochromatic. And that, perhaps, is simultaneously the blessing and curse of this OKLAHOMA! There's a purposeful absence of technicolor in this production-from the gun rack-adorned, harshly lit plywood of the unit set to the concert storytelling approach that renders it sometimes unclear as to why characters are sitting in on a scene or where that scene is supposed to be taking place. Add to that some dialogue in pitch dark and the construct of filmed live closeups projected on the back wall in black and white."
Third Coast Review - Somewhat Recommended
"...As beautiful as the singing was, it was uneven. Some voices boomed to the back of the house and others were nearly sotto voce. The pacing of this Oklahoma! needs to be tightened up especially in the end coda sequence. The reimagining of Jud and Curly's fatal showdown is bleak and revisionist from the original book by Rodgers and Hammerstein. It dampened the enthusiasm of the show and lent a dour feeling to the reprise of the title song. It is quite indicative of the times that we live in that some of the audience loved it and some were befuddled asking, "What was that?" on their way out of the theater."
Chicago On Stage - Highly Recommended
"...I loved this re-imagining of Oklahoma. Were some choices hard for me to understand- yes. But I enjoyed seeing this classic in a new light that welcomed so many more perspectives and people. It is ok to hear stories in new ways. In this way we can include all of the people who need to fit into the fabric of our story. We can rethink what our stories teach us. Most importantly, we can question what we know and use that discomfort to grow."
Splash Magazine - Recommended
"...If you’re looking for happy go-lucky entertainment, this might not be your show of choice. If you are looking for something very different from the norm, especially in the world of musicals, and you want to challenge your mind and be a bit in awe, this is the show for you. "
NewCity Chicago - Highly Recommended
"...In ensuing decades, however, "Oklahoma!" has come to embody everything that is conventional about musicals. Thus, a staging that sweeps those plains clean and restores a sense of the innovation and daring of the original is a welcome thing."
