Daniel Fish’s innovative 2019 Tony Award-winning revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s much-loved Oklahoma! will transfer to the Young Vic next year.
Announced as part of the prestigious London venue’s spring 2022 season, the winner of the Tony Award for Best Revival will arrive in the UK direct from its acclaimed Broadway run and successful US tour.
Re-orchestrated and re-imagined for the 21st century, the critic and crowd-pleasing version of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein’s first musical features orchestrations, arrangements and music supervision by Daniel Kluger, choreography by John Heginbotham, set design by Laura Jellinek, costume design by Terese Wadden, lighting design by Scott Zielinski, sound design by Drew Levy, projection design by Joshua Thorson and casting by Jacob Sparrow. The creative team also includes associate director Jordan Fein and associate set designer Grace Laubacher.
The cast and additions to the creative team will be announced at a later date.
The Bard SummerScape production of Oklahoma! will be presented at the Young Vic in association with Eva Price, Sonia Friedman Productions and Michael Harrison.
Based on the 1939 play Green Grow The Lilacs by Lynn Riggs, Oklahoma! was first seen on Broadway in 1943. First seen in the West End in 1947, the musical was famously made into an Oscar-winning 1955 film. The enduringly popular musical has been revived on Broadway and in the West End numerous times.
Running from 26 April until 25 June 2022, Oklahoma! will be the second production in the season which will launch in February with the world premiere of Anthony McCarten’s The Collaboration directed by Young Vic artistic director Kwame Kwei-Armah and starring Paul Bettany as Andy Warhol.
Unveiling details of the spring 2022 season, Kwei-Armah said: “There is a moment at the beginning of every theatre show when you and your fellow audience take a collective breath before diving into a story that could change you or your perspective irrevocably. To my mind, the work and projects announced today channel this energy. As we offer them, I ask that together we take a breath, listen carefully, and be open to reimagining what we thought we knew.
“Tony Award-winning Oklahoma! unlocks a fresh perspective on a great American musical, whilst The Collaboration invites us behind the iconography and fame, and inside the intimate friendship between two artists. These stories ask us to lean in closely and challenge our preconceptions.
“At the same time, Sue Emmas and the Directors Program take an exciting new step: rebranding as the Creators Program. This new iteration innovates how we support anti-disciplinary and hybrid theatre-makers’ work and self-expression – as just one example, we launch Creative Headspace #2 by inviting artists to explore the medium of TikTok. We also take this moment to celebrate the 100 writers and directors who have participated in Five Plays, as we announce the latest group of artists to experiment with their craft in our house. Later next year Deirdre McLaughlin, our 2021 Genesis Future Directors Award recipient, will be supported to make a fully-resourced production at the Young Vic.
“Across all our work, we safeguard our accessible ticket pricing model, despite the financial challenges of the last 18 months, with 10% of tickets going free to schools, community members who experience barriers to access and early-career artists. Our commitment to channelling our work in the digital space continues, and we will be sharing more information about how audiences around the UK and globally can join us soon.
“So, I invite you to join us– whether you’re an artist, audience member or supporter – as together we take the bold step of inhabiting someone else’s world, receiving their perspective and being open to change. We’ll see you there as the lights go down – it’s going to be thrilling.”
Angela Thomas
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