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Really, both shows are about the same things: sex and violence.
Whose rules shape this country?
If anything, Daunnos Curly is a more complex and contemporary picture of self-satisfied masculinity.
And so is the disquieting resonance of his cheerful signature tune.
Justice will be bent to check that that everythingdoesgo Curlys way.
And a third option independence from men, or at least from these men doesnt exist.
We know we belong to the land / And the land we belong to is grand!
the company sings with gusto duringOklahoma!s title song.
Stroker is fantastic, with twangy country star mega-pipes and a devilish sense of humor.
Particularly when shes a wheelchair user, as Stroker is.
She holds herself straight and stares hard, seldom blinking.
Her standoffish repartee with Curly is less a well-bred girls cover-up for obvious passion than it is actual uncertainty.
Shedoeslike Curly, and shedoesflirt with him.
Shes even got sympathy, and perhaps something more than sympathy, for the sullen, creepy Jud.
But she wants well,more.
Want things Ive heared of and never had before, she says when Ali shows up peddling his wares.
Want things I caint tell you about not only things to look at and hold in yer hands.
Things to happen to you.
Things so nice, if they ever did happen to you, yer heartd quit beatin.
Youd fall down dead!
Jones zaps the fluffy romance from this text and delivers it with quiet intensity, almost with anger.
Here theres no one-to-one interpretation through dance of Laureys anxiety over Curley and Jud: The men are gone.
At times shes joined by a corps of girls, all galloping through the space like wild colts.
As for the crime in question, it involves the two men looming over Laurey.
/ I aint gonna leave her alone!
/ Goin outside / Git myself a bride / Git me a woman to call my own.
That smoldering aggression only gets worse when beta meets bro.
See whuts so elegant about him, makes girls wanta go to parties th him.
When he arrives, Fish and lighting designer Scott Zielinski plunge the stage into pitch blackness.
We hear only flat, tense voices through microphones.
You could hang yerself on that, Jud … Itd be as easy as fallin off a log.
His eyes glint and he almost drools at the idea of being loved and lamented.
Bright tinsel streamers hang in rows above the long, alley-style playing space.
), and Zielinskis lights are almost always piercingly bright on both audience and actors.
You cant hide in a bright yellow box.
We dont have to look at our fellow audience members or ourselves.
Plush darkness obscures all that we dont want to focus on.
We see where Juds mounting rage and Curlys complacent territoriality will lead.
Its a mad rush, and it feels like America.
