VOA标准英语2015--Classic Musical 'Oklahoma!' Gets a New, Darker Look

Classic Musical 'Oklahoma!' Gets a New, Darker Look

NEW YORK—

The musicals of Rodgers and Hammerstein have been staples¹ of the American theater since they were created in the 1940s and '50s. In just the last few years, South Pacific and The King and I have seen Tony-winning revivals³. Now, a highly experimental version of their first musical is being staged at the Bard⁴ SummerScape Festival in upstate New York.

Oklahoma! was different from the beginning. When it opened on Broadway in 1943, musical numbers were not an intergral part of the story.

"Even though today we take it for granted that all the pieces of a musical work with each other, it was a bit of a revelation then," said Ted² Chapin, who represents the Rodgers and Hammerstein estates. It's commonplace now to have every song connected to character, and to have dance numbers come out of the songs, "but before Oklahoma!, it was sort of unheard of."

On the surface, Oklahoma! seems like a simple story about a young woman deciding whether to go to a party with a nice young cowboy or a dangerous, lonely farmhand.  But there’s a dark undercurrent to the story: The show is set at the turn of the 20th century, before Oklahoma became a state, when the territory was in social and political upheaval⁵.

According to producer Gideon Lester, the composer and librettist⁶ understood this.

“There is no history of colonization⁷ or expansion or the building of nationhood that doesn’t contain violence in it," he said. "And Oklahoma! dramatizes that. Now, it does it in a way that is sunny and funny and full of beautiful music. And that juxtaposition⁸ makes that violence even more disquieting¹⁰.”

An immersive experience

And disquiet⁹ is just what director Daniel Fish is after. To help the audience feel the musical’s conflicting emotions, he puts them close to the action. They sit at long tables on all four sides of the playing space, which is made to look like a community hall. There’s no chorus, or orchestra, just a six-piece band onstage. And the actors sometimes just speak their lines, sitting in chairs.

The staging of a crucial scene in which Curly, the cowboy, confronts Jud, the farmhand, is especially unsettling.

Fish said Hammerstein described Jud's gloomy hovel in detail — "that it’s dark, that it’s the source of a kind of sexuality and a kind of unknown. And so, well, how do you do that in this space?  Well, sometimes the dumb answer is the best answer: Well, what will happen if we do the scene in the dark?”

Damon Daunno plays Curly and said the staging has an impact on the audience.

“It’s amazing how uncomfortable a bit of darkness [laughs] makes people — understandably — but it really changes the sort of spine¹¹ in the room.  You can really feel that," he said.

Where the production may be most controversial is at its end.  The original play’s accidental death becomes a coldblooded murder.

Fish said this makes a deliberate point.

“It makes the community culpable¹² and, I would argue, it also makes the audience culpable, as well,” he said.

And that, he said, gives them something to think about.

“You know, it’s an old story, but it’s also a story that matters now," he said thoughtfully, "in terms of issues of community, in terms of violence, in terms of how we create outsiders and in terms of love.”

1 staples   

n.（某国的）主要产品( staple的名词复数 )；钉书钉；U 形钉；主要部份v.用钉书钉钉住( staple的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• The anvil onto which the staples are pressed was not assemble correctly. 订书机上的铁砧安装错位。 来自辞典例句
• I'm trying to make an analysis of the staples of his talk. 我在试行分析他的谈话的要旨。 来自辞典例句

2 ted   

vt.翻晒，撒，撒开

参考例句：

• The invaders gut ted the village.侵略者把村中财物洗劫一空。
• She often teds the corn when it's sunny.天好的时候她就翻晒玉米。

3 revivals   

n.复活( revival的名词复数 )；再生；复兴；（老戏多年后）重新上演

参考例句：

• She adored parades, lectures, conventions, camp meetings, church revivals-in fact every kind of dissipation. 她最喜欢什么游行啦、演讲啦、开大会啦、营火会啦、福音布道会啦--实际上各种各样的娱乐。 来自辞典例句
• The history of art is the history of revivals. 艺术的历史就是复兴的历史。 来自互联网

4 bard   

n.吟游诗人

参考例句：

• I'll use my bard song to help you concentrate!我会用我的吟游诗人歌曲帮你集中精神！
• I find him,the wandering grey bard.我发现了正在徘徊的衰老游唱诗人。

5 upheaval   

n.胀起，(地壳)的隆起；剧变，动乱

参考例句：

• It was faced with the greatest social upheaval since World War Ⅱ.它面临第二次世界大战以来最大的社会动乱。
• The country has been thrown into an upheaval.这个国家已经陷入动乱之中。

6 librettist   

n.(歌剧、音乐剧等的)歌词作者

参考例句：

• The musician and the librettist were collaborators. 音乐家与剧作者通力合作。
• Italian-born American composer and librettist whose operas include The Medium(1946) and The Consul(1950). 梅诺蒂，吉安卡洛生于1911意大利裔美国作曲家和歌剧词作者，其歌剧作品包括女巫（1946年）及领事（1950年）

7 colonization   

殖民地的开拓，殖民，殖民地化； 移殖

参考例句：

• Colonization took place during the Habsburg dynasty. 开拓殖民地在哈布斯堡王朝就进行过。
• These countries took part in the colonization of Africa. 这些国家参与非洲殖民地的开发。

8 juxtaposition   

n.毗邻，并置，并列

参考例句：

• The juxtaposition of these two remarks was startling.这两句话连在一起使人听了震惊。
• It is the result of the juxtaposition of contrasting colors.这是并列对比色的结果。

9 disquiet   

n.担心，焦虑

参考例句：

• The disquiet will boil over in the long run.这种不安情绪终有一天会爆发的。
• Her disquiet made us uneasy too.她的忧虑使我们也很不安。

10 disquieting   

adj.令人不安的，令人不平静的v.使不安，使忧虑，使烦恼( disquiet的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• The news from the African front was disquieting in the extreme. 非洲前线的消息极其令人不安。 来自英汉文学
• That locality was always vaguely disquieting, even in the broad glare of afternoon. 那一带地方一向隐隐约约使人感到心神不安甚至在下午耀眼的阳光里也一样。 来自辞典例句

11 spine   

n.脊柱，脊椎；(动植物的)刺；书脊

参考例句：

• He broke his spine in a fall from a horse.他从马上跌下摔断了脊梁骨。
• His spine developed a slight curve.他的脊柱有点弯曲。

12 culpable   

adj.有罪的，该受谴责的

参考例句：

• The judge found the man culpable.法官认为那个人有罪。
• Their decision to do nothing makes them culpable.他们不采取任何行动的决定使他们难辞其咎。