2023-24 Season

Mainstage Musical: Kirkpatrick Auditorium

Music, Book & Lyrics: Stephen Sondheim, Hugh Wheeler

Inspiration: Victorian penny dreadful character

Of note: Original production and revivals won 12 Tony Awards; movie adaptation won Golden Globe's Best Musical

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"Haunting, horrible, and thrilling... It's a nightmare of a show and in some ways a dream, pushing at the boundaries of what a musical might say and do and be." - The Guardian

Spotlight Opera: Burg Theatre

Music, book, & lyrics: Adam Guettel, Craig Lucas

Inspiration: 1960 novella by Elizabeth Spencer, followed by 1962 film

Of note: Winner of six Tony Awards, including Best Original Score

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"A work of such consummate beauty, truth, energy... you leave the theater filled with joy and revived by hope for the future." - The New York Observer

Mainstage Opera: Kirkpatrick Auditorium

Pietà Music & Libretto: Andrea DelGiudice, Jake Landau

Suor Angelica Music & Libretto: Giacomo Puccini, Giovacchino Forzano

Inspiration: Puccini's classic inspired the 21st century Pietà

Of note: Pietà, acclaimed by IndieOpera as "lush and lyrical" will be making its Oklahoma premiere

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"Suor Angelica makes a profound introduction to opera for newcomers, yet offers plenty to ponder for aficionados. More than a century after its debut, Puccini's music still dazzles and casts a spell over listeners." - KDHX.org

Mainstage Opera: Kirkpatrick Auditorium
7:30 p.m. Feb. 16-17 & 2 p.m. Feb 18 

Music: Otto Nicolai

Libretto: Salomon Hermann Mosenthal

Inspiration: Shakespeare's comedic 1602 play has inspired operatic adaptations across three centuries: In addition to Nicolai's version, Antonio Salieri debuted his Falstaff in 1799; Giuseppe Verdi's Falstaff premiered in 1893, followed in 1929 by Ralph Vaughn Williams' Sir John in Love.

Of note: The OCU production will be set in the 20th Century.

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"The brilliant and justly celebrated overture is no false guide to what follows. Nicolai's touch is light and witty... The orchestration is constantly imaginative and the melodies flow one after another, repeatedly warming the listener's heart with some extra-delicious touch." - Gramophone

Spotlight Opera: Burg Theatre

7:30 p.m. Feb. 23-24 & 2 p.m. Feb. 25, 2024

Music & Libretto: Arthur Sullivan, W.S. Gilbert

Inspiration: The Victorian fascination with fairies and of lampooning public figures.

Of note: Iolanthe made its premiere in London's Savoy Theatre, the world's first all-electric public building, and used the new technology in stagecraft that lit stars in the fairies' hair and at the tip of each wand.

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"The fantastical satire Iolanthe has delighted audiences with its clever combination of romance, humor, political satire, and the memorable musical numbers that made Gilbert and Sullivan household names." -stageagent.com

Mainstage Musical: Kirkpatrick Auditorium

7:30 p.m. April 19-20 & 2 p.m. April 21, 2024

Music, Book, & Lyrics: Jonathan Larson

Inspiration: Puccini's beloved 1896 opera, La bohème

Of note: Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and four Tony Awards, including Best Musical

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"For 25 years, Jonathan Larson's Rent has inspired audiences to choose love over fear and to live without regret [celebrating] artists and the raw courage and commitment they evince in daring to pursue their craft - almost always in a community of like-minded misfits, non-conformists and crazies." - BroadwayWorld