The Friends of the Arts will be attending the Saturday, March 2, performance of Oklahoma! at Illinois State University’s Center for the Performing Arts.
The Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II classic will be directed by Richard Corley and performed by School of Theatre and Dance students.
The March 2 show will run from 7:30–10 p.m. Tickets cost $17 for adults, $14 for Illinois State faculty and staff, and $12 for seniors 60 or older and Illinois State students.
Tickets are available at the Center for the Performing Arts Ticket Office or by calling (309) 438-2535.
Oklahoma! is the first collaboration between composer Rodgers and librettist Hammerstein. It is a landmark in the history of musical theater, fully realizing the integration of songs with serious dramatic goals.
Set in the Oklahoma Territory—on the verge of statehood in 1906—the play spins the story of Curly, a love struck cowboy who is sure his gal Laurey will fall for him when he takes her riding in a surrey with fringe on the top. Meanwhile the brutish Jud lurks in the background, obsessed with Laurey, and farmers feud with cowboys over fences and water rights. Highlights include a dream ballet sequence originally choreographed by Agnes de Mille and the songs “Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’,” “People Will Say We’re in Love,” and the rousing title tune in which the whole cast proclaims, “We know we belong to the land / And the land we belong to is grand.”
