Ode to ‘Oklahoma’ Out director Kevin Moriarty says musical’s themes are as relevant as ever. By Don Maines
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evin Moriarty asks himself three questions when directing a show such as Oklahoma!, which Theatre Under the Stars (TUTS) will present this month to kick off its 50th-anniversary season. First, he asks, “Why does this play matter to me?” For one thing, Oklahoma! is the first musical that the “currently single” gay director ever saw at age seven or eight, growing up “surrounded by cornfields in rural Rensselaer, Indiana.” When Curly opens the show at TUTS by singing “The corn is as high as a’ elephant’s eye,” Moriarty admits it warms his soul. But there has to be more than nostalgia. What is it about the story itself that speaks to Moriarty? To answer that question, he says he looked at when Oklahoma! was written and first performed. Its Broadway premiere was March 31, 1943, in the midst of World War II. “The lives of our citizens were at stake as we considered what [it means to be a] just society,” Moriarty says. “It was not an abstract question. People were giving their lives.” Armed with that history, Moriarty looked at the show’s setting, the unincorporated Oklahoma Territory of 1906, where farmers, cowboys, and merchants cussed and scuffled before coming together as “brothers” to form America’s 46th state. “Oklahoma! posited an argument that farmers and cowmen should and could be friends,” he says. “They had to look each other in the eye and envision building relationships and forging together a community that lives in harmony.” Next, Moriarty asks, “How does the play speak to an audience today?” At its heart, the show is a love triangle that
If You Build It, They Will Dance Kevin Moriarty (below) says Oklahoma! was the first musical he saw growing up surrounded by cornfields in Indiana. He directs a production of the show at Houston’s Theatre Under the Stars this month.
finds an optimistic cowboy, Curly McLain, and a sullen farmhand, Jud Fry, vying for the attention of local beauty Laurey Williams. However, Moriarty sticks with his idea of community, characterizing Jud as a loner, “an expression of violence,” and drawing parallels to today’s combative culture. “We are at a moment at which we have to decide how we are going to get along, and what kind of society we will be,” he says. “Whether we have the opportunity to find love and express that, and to be open and vulnerable, is a real question for us today in America. Jud isolates himself in the shed where he lives, and very possibly has reduced love to the pornographic images he gets from magazines. That speaks to how easy it
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is for us to retreat to our own ‘sheds’ and live out our days in solitary and isolation instead of making authentic human relationships.” Oklahoma! succeeds in its presentation because of its “joy, optimism, and hope. That is what was needed then, and that is what is needed now,” says the director. Thirdly, Moriarty explores how his cast and crew can convey the essence of a story “past the footlights and into the bloodstream of the audience.” For that, he examined Oklahoma! and found three distinct elements: words, music, and dance. The show’s dialogue is based on the 1931 play Green Grow the Lilacs by Lynn Riggs. Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II collaborated together for the first
