Editing Oklahoma! (section)

====2009 Chichester Theatre Festival====
In the summer of 2009, British director [[John Doyle (director)|John Doyle]] directed the musical at the [[Chichester Festival Theatre]]. The production was dark in concept and featured new orchestrations by [[Jonathan Tunick]].  On a spare stage, decorated only with blue sheets, "Confetti of rose petals stains the floor like drops of blood, and a nightmarish dream-dance sequence has Freudian overtones as Laurey's bridal gown becomes her shroud."<ref name=guardian>Gardner, Lyn. [https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2009/jun/27/oklahoma-chichester-festival-theatre-review "'Oklahoma!'Chichester Festival Theatre"]. ''[[The Guardian]]'', June 27, 2009</ref><ref name=telegraph>Cavendish, Dominic. [https://web.archive.org/web/20090629063454/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/culturecritics/dominiccavendish/5638481/Oklahoma-at-Chichester-review.html "''Oklahoma!'' at Chichester"]. ''The Telegraph'', June 25, 2009, accessed June 7, 2010</ref>  It received mixed reviews.  ''The Times'' reviewer wrote: "This is a very stylised, overdrilled production, no friend of intimate moments or quiet depth of emotion."<ref>Nightingale, Benedict. [https://web.archive.org/web/20110615105945/http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/stage/theatre/article6577412.ece "'Oklahoma!' at the Chichester Festival Theatre, West Sussex"]. ''The Times'', June 26, 2009</ref> ''The Guardian'' liked it the most, stating that "it's a delight, with one brilliant tippy-tappy-toed song after another and a nugget of darkness lodged in its sweet heart."<ref name=guardian/> ''Whats On Stage'', like most of the papers, gave the show three out of five stars and wrote that this is a "downbeat vision" and that "all told it's a somewhat disappointing show", but their "average reader rating" was four stars.<ref>Cooter, Maxwell. [http://www.whatsonstage.com/reviews/theatre/london/E8831245924735/Oklahoma!+(Chichester).html "'Oklahoma!'"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110615170835/http://www.whatsonstage.com/reviews/theatre/london/E8831245924735/Oklahoma!+(Chichester).html |date=June 15, 2011 }} Whatsonstage.com, June 25, 2009</ref> A review in ''[[The Daily Telegraph|The Telegraph]]'' commented, "Doyle uses shadow and silhouette to bring out the musical's nightmarish aspects but doesn't over-labour them. There are enough sunny spots – no more so than in Act 2's rousing title song – to keep the tone evenly textured."<ref name=telegraph/>