Musicals Return to ATC: An Interview with Damon Kiely, Artistic Director
Why is Oklahoma! the right choice for you and for American Theater Company?
On a practical level, producing a musical every few years does several things for us. It expands our audience a bit. It allows us to showcase artistic talent in a different way; we have great singers in the ensemble who get a chance to shine. Why this musical in particular? Well, if we're here to tell great American stories, Oklahoma! is the first great American musical story. It asks the question, "What does it mean to be an American?" - following a bunch of pioneers trying to figure out that individual identity in a new and uncharted environment, while also stressing the idea of belonging to a community.
The play ends up being about how communities have to make compromises to govern themselves. And raises a lot of interesting questions about the image of the cowboy - someone whose boldness and brashness allow him to take new territory, but also can be incredibly ugly. He's a complex figure - and that's where we are as a country.
How do you envision this version of Oklahoma! being different or distinctive?
We're working for extreme reality and extreme theatricality at the same time. On the one hand, we'll try and ground it in the true given circumstances of 1901. In reality, these people were grappling with hardship, so you won't see Technicolor costumes. The same will be true of the choreography and the style of singing. The starting place is dance moves created before 1901 and the sounds of people singing these songs around the campfire. It'll be Richard Rodgers' music, sung in tune and sung correctly, but without that Broadway belt we've become accustomed to.
As for the extreme theatricality, we're using a pretty spare setting, leaving a lot to the imagination of the audience. And, within the cast, there will be lots of doubling and tripling; we're staging it with a cast of twelve. Actors playing principal roles will also be in chorus numbers, giving the sense of a little community of people telling a story together.
Finally, we'll be uncovering the grittiness and darkness in the script, trying to tell a truthful story that includes - some people forget - a murder and an attempted rape. This will be both an ATC show and a faithful version of Oklahoma!
What about the musical genre is a challenge given ATC's mission?
It is always an economic strain on an organization to do a musical because you have costs that you don't incur with a regular play - a choreographer, rights are more expensive and musicians aren't free. It's additionally tricky for us because there aren't a lot of musicals that ask what it means to be American - or something substantive. Many are just put out as a piece of entertainment. Eventually I'd love ATC to be developing new musicals, because there's no reason that a musical per se should be included in or excluded from our season.
As a director, how do you approach a musical differently than a play?
The only thing that's different is to understand why someone starts singing. This was the first musical written where the songs came out of the story, so we're helped by the way it seems to flow out of dialogue. But I'm attracted to the theatricality of people just starting to sing, so I'm going to trust my music director, Malcolm Rule, to stay on top of the actors musically and I will push to make sure that they are acting their way into the songs.
What about Rodgers and Hammerstein, the creators of Oklahoma! has inspired you?
I just read a great book about how this musical came into being. Both men had almost given up on musical theater; Rodgers had lost a partner to booze and Hammerstein had written some flops. Then, they met up, took a weird straight play and decided to break every rule they knew. I think that was pretty extraordinary. On top of that, they managed to inspire a huge cast of 60 - half of whom had the measles and hadn't slept much - to pull together to create this lasting piece of artwork. In the end, it's great music that still sounds great 60 years later.