Line #0 YMMV/Oklahoma


1	* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation:
2	** One production managed to change how we view the entire cast and story by performing the musical completely normally... with the only change being that Jud is played by the only black man in the cast.
3	** Could Jud be part Native American? It seems odd that in Oklahoma at this time period we don't see ANY Natives. In the source material, ''Green Grow the Lilacs'', Jud's counterpart Jeeter Fry is based on Jetar Davis, a half-Cherokee contemporary of playwright Lynn Riggs.
4	** In the 1999 filmed stage recording, Hugh Jackman plays Curly as letting himself warm up to Jud Fry after "Pore Jud Is Daid," as if Curly realizes that Jud may not be such a bad person after all. But when Jud brings up the story of the girl, that's when Curly puts two-and-two together and lets himself get suspicious again.
5	** In the 2019 Broadway revival, Jud and Curly's brawl at the wedding is replaced with Jud merely offering Curly a pistol as a wedding present, whereupon Curly shoots Jud in claimed self-defense. The trial is thus played much more like a hasty cover-up and leaves the audience with the question of Jud perhaps being suicidal.
6	** The 2019 Broadway revival has an added racial element in that Laurey is a black woman navigating two white men's feelings for her, and a farmhand, played by a black actor, is noticeably shut down by Aunt Eller.
7	** Ali Hakim has always been a controversial character due to exemplifying a racial stereotype, which many productions lean into by having him put on an exaggerated accent or other indicator. This may not have always been the intention: the character was written for a "Jewish Comic"-actor, potentially offering that the character is more worldly than the others (i.e. a Jewish man from New York), but is lying about not being American-born in order to attract women. The 2019 Broadway production leans into the latter interpretation, with white actor Will Brill not even putting on a fake accent.
8	* BaseBreakingCharacter: Curly, with the divide being whether or not he's charming and likable enough to forgive his deplorable initial treatment of Jud.
9	* BrokenBase:
10	** The movie adaptation has one version filmed in 65mm TODD-AO, and one in 35mm [=CinemaScope=]. They present differing takes of each scene, leaving viewers torn over which version provides superior performances.
11	** The DarkerAndEdgier 2019 Broadway revival divided audiences, with many believing it was a brilliant reworking of the show that gave it a new feel without changing a single word. Others thought it felt like it was trying to be weird and dark just for the sake of being weird and dark.
12	* DesignatedHero: The ''hero'' tries to drive a lonely, unstable young man to suicide over a girl? That's pretty messed up.
13	* DracoInLeatherPants: Happens to Jud more and more as time goes on (with a healthy dose of RonTheDeathEater for Curly). It mainly hinges around "Pore Jud Is Daid", a scene where Curly tries to convince Jud that hanging himself would be a good idea, and the town's general exclusion of him. Some people take it so far as to claim that ''Jud'' is in fact the hero of the story and Curly is the ''villain''. Of course, this ignores Jud's multiple murder attempts on Curly (especially in the movie, where he tries to kill him ''and'' Laurey), the implication that he'd be willing to rape/kill Laurie if she rejects him and the fact that he's been stalking Laurie for at least two years, while Curly's bad behavior is confined to that one scene.
14	* EndingFatigue: Curly, Laurie, Will, and Annie all resolve their respective relationship dramas while Jud and Hakim leave everyone for good, leaving Curly and Laurie to discuss how exciting their future is and how much they love Oklahoma. The perfect feel-good ending has arrived. Then there's another ''half hour'' of their wedding day, which eventually ends with them riding off into the sunset like they were set to do already. Given that the only important part of that sequence, Jud's death, basically gets brushed over in less than five minutes and that the show is already two-and-a-half hours without it, removing the last half hour of the show would basically change nothing.
15	* EnsembleDarkhorse: [[HandicappedBadass Ali Stroker as Ado Annie]] in the 2019 Broadway revival. While the production itself caused a divided response ([[BrokenBase discussed above]]), the one thing that everyone agrees on is that Stroker was excellent, not just giving a great performance despite her disability, but actually using it to her advantage. She ended up winning the Tony, being the first performer in a wheelchair to ever receive this honor (or be nominated for that matter). Even people who disliked the production were happy for Stroker and noted that her work and recognition was a great breakthrough for handicapped actors and actresses. All this is particularly impressive given Ado Annie, while a fun part, is rarely regarded as the standout in the cast.
16	* FoeYayShipping: Between Curly and Jud in the 2019 revival. To quote Damon Daunno, who played Curly:
17	--> “There’s no denying that there’s physical chemistry there as well between Curly and Jud. We definitely lean into that. We used to refer to [‘Pore Jud’] as the kissing scene because we get so close to each other.”
18	* JerkassWoobie: Jud Fry's sympathy varies between productions, but even his most villainous portrayals are pitiful. He's indeed a creepy stalker to Laurie, but he lives an abysmally lonely life and is hated by everyone around him. That hatred may be justified since he's possibly already got blood on his hands and may be planning to rape Laurie. But even such wicked portrayals are easy to feel sorry for when Curly feigns friendship with the loner whilst trying to convince him he should kill himself just because Jud asked Laurie out.
19	* NeverLiveItDown: Curly trying to get Jud to commit suicide. He's otherwise presented in a positive, romantic, and heroic light, but some viewers just can't look past such a vile act and thus sympathize with the villainous Jud instead.
20	* OlderThanTheyThink: A lot of the ground-breaking elements featured in this musical were also featured Hammerstein's collaboration with Jerome Kern, ''Show Boat'', almost twenty years earlier. They didn't catch on until this one, though.
21	* OnceOriginalNowCommon: It is ''really'' hard to see what the big fuss is about this show unless you know the history of theater.
22	* {{Padding}}: We now interrupt this storyline to tell you about how great the state of Oklahoma is.

Context YMMV / Oklahoma