Denver Center for the Performing Arts Theatre Company's new production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's 1943 Broadway classic Oklahoma! is set in an all-African American town in 1906, at which time there were 50 similar towns in the Oklahoma Territory. Take a look at clips from the staging above.
Helmed by DCPA Artistic Director Chris Coleman and featuring choreography by Dominique Kelley, Oklahoma! is set to officially open at Denver Center for the Performing Arts September 14 and continue through October 14.
The production features Antoine L. Smith as Curly, Ta'Nika Gibson as Laurey, Cooper Grodin as Ali Hakim, Barrington Lee as Jud Fry, Rennie Anthony Magee as Will Parker, Sheryl McCallum as Aunt Eller, and Bre Jackson as Ado Annie Carnes, as well as Iman Barnes, Neville Braithwaite, Taylor Colleton, Christian Mark Gibbs, David Ginlet, Shabazz Green, Maurio Hines, Rashaan James II, Sheila Jones, Raven McRae Traor, Alia Munsch, Milton Craig Nealy, Brandon O'Neal, Jason Daniel Rath, Melissa Victor, and Erin Willis.
The limited engagement also has music direction by Darius Frowner, designs by Wilson Chin, costume design by Jeff Cone, lighting design by Diane Ferry Williams, sound design by Philip G. Allen, voice and dialect coaching by Dawn-Ellin Fraser, fight direction by Geoffrey Kent, dramaturgy by Heidi Schmidt, and stage management by Rachel Ducat, D. Lynn Reiland, and Kurt Van Raden.
“I am honored to be making my Denver directorial debut with Oklahoma!,” said Coleman in an earlier statement. “This gorgeous musical by Rodgers & Hammerstein is such a quintessential expression of what it means to be American. Oklahoma! is centered around a group of people on the verge of grabbing their part of the American dream and incorporating themselves into the fabric of the whole nation. Experiencing that drive and sense of possibility expressed by a community we haven’t traditionally seen tell this story opens up new windows on what it means to be a Westerner, what it means to be an American, what it means to ‘stake your claim’ in the land.”
