Oklahoma

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Elizabeth Chen Baca English IV H., Period 2 11 April 2011 Critique: Oklahoma Rogers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma is a musical that involves romance, drama, and comedy, discussing several themes and motifs that correlate to the daily issues of the real world today. The plot begins with a cowboy named Curly, who meets love interest Laurey. Flirting, Curly intends on asking Laurey to the box social where the town tries to raise money to build a new schoolhouse for the community. Curly asks Laurey, but rejects his offer despite his courting promises because she feels he asked too late. Meanwhile the antagonist Jud Fry, a farmhand, also asks Laurey to the box social. She accepts in order to spite Curly. Oklahoma also contains another love story between the two characters Will and Ado Annie. Will loves Ado Annie unconditionally, and would do anything to marry her. In order to marry Ado Annie, Will has to get $50 for her father in cash. While Will won $50 at a fair in Kansa City, he foolishly spends it on gifts for Annie, like the “Little Wonder”. While Will was off in Kansas City, Ado Annie has a fling with Persian peddler Ali Hakim. Ado Annie insists that she loves both Ali and Will, and cannot choose. Once Annie and Ali were caught by Annie’s father, Ali regretfully agrees to marry Annie by gunpoint. Ali Hakim, the peddler, is eager to try to get out of the marriage. When Curly discovers Laurey was attending the box social with the bad Jud, he goes over to Jud’s shack to confront him. Jud continues to talk about how no one in town cares or appreciates him, and that he wants to find a wife for himself, strengthening his desire to also marry Laurey. In a dream, Laurey realizes her love for Curly, but cannot get out of her promise to Jud to go to the social. At the social, people are dancing and brawling. During the picnic basket auction, Ali

Hakim was able to get out of his marriage to Ado Annie by trading $50 with Will in order for Will to give the cash to Ado Annie’s father so that Will, instead of Ali, can marry Annie. Then the bidding war for Laurey’s picnic basket began between Curly and Jud. While Jud gave up his earnings working as a farmhand, Curly gave up his horse, gun, saddle, and other valuables, thus giving up his established career as a cowboy. Curly wins the picnic basket and Laurey. Enraged, Jud almost kills Curly with the “Little Wonder” he bought from Will, which was actually a secret blade, but Laury’s aunt avoids this mishap. Later, Laury fires Jud as a farmhand after Jud confesses his feelings for her, and fears for her life as Jud threatens to hurt her. Laurey goes to Curly for his protection and offers his hand in marriage. At the wedding, drunken Jud comes with a blade to kill Curly, but after a fight the blade “accidentally” hits Jud when he fell. The court judge declared Curly “not guilty”. The same day, Curly and Laurey wed and then go off on their honeymoon, ending Act 2. I thoroughly enjoyed this musical. Since my freshman year I have attended all of the Gahr High School Drama’s plays and musicals, including Reader’s Theatre. At first, I had some doubts of my interest in this musical, because the country stigma behind the title Oklahoma gave me a stereotype of the musical probably being too country or too bland. In fact, the musical was quite opposite. The musical was filled with comedy, romance, and action. The suspense given from the music from the band was great. I never lost any interest in any scene of the play. As I am writing this critique, I cannot get some of the musical numbers out of my head! I attended the opening night on Thursday with friends. I could tell all of the people involved with the musical production worked extremely hard and the hard effort showed with the success of this spring musical production. For me, the critical part to have a successful play is interesting characters and plot. If there was no comedy in Oklahoma, then the play would not have been as successful.

From Oklahoma I have seen how the story portrays the theme of that no matter what obstacles life may throw at you, you can always rely on family and loved ones. For example, Ado Annie and Laurey both had the nurturing love and care from their spouses and parents. Jud, on the other hand, had no one to rely on but himself, and perished because of that. I learned that it is necessary to have a social life- to have close friends and loved ones in order to better my chances of having a happy and successful life. The musicals here are Gahr are an educational and entertaining experience. I will definitely continue my tradition of trying to attend the drama productions for the years to come.

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