The Song from Oklahoma!

It’s a Scandal! It’s a Outrage! is a song from the 1943 musical Oklahoma!

Traveling salesman Ali Hakim has just been pushed into marrying Ado Annie Carnes by her father, Andrew Carnes. In the musical, Hakim is the type of character who would flirt with forty women but would prefer marriage only over being shot. Feeling trapped, he sings with the men of Oklahoma about how tricky and dirty girls are in getting husbands, using their fathers (with their guns) as backups. The song ends with the men declaring a revolution and then having their plans thwarted by women, who come in and drag them away.

During the song, Ali Hakim compares humans to chickens (“A rooster in a chicken coop is better off’n men, he ain’t the special property of just one hen!”) and tells of the dangers of being caught flirting (“If you make one mistake when the moon is bright, then they tie you to a contract so you make it every night!”).

Sherman High School Outrage

Sherman High School planned on producing the musical Oklahoma, but the school may cancel the presentation. The “problem” according to the school administrators is that a transgender student Max Hightower won the part of a male character (Ali Hakim) in the school’s production. Now the school has removed him from the part and told Max’s dad that “the biological sex of actors in the school play must match the biological sex of the characters they play.”

Adding insult to injury, the Sherman School District said Oklahoma contains “mature adult themes, profane language and sexual content.”

The district gets a failing grade for removing Max and misrepresenting the musical.

How dumb can a group of educators be? In Shakespeare’s time, men played the part of women. Shakespeare’s plays The Merchant of Venus and Twelfth Night include cross-dressing. Under Sherman District’s rules, Mary Martin would be prohibited from playing the lead in Peter Pan. Mrs. Doubtfire would never be shown in Sherman. Wikipedia site “Cross-gender Acting” contains a list of male and female actors who have played the opposite sex. In 1982 Linda Hunt played the role of Billy Kwan in The Year of Living Dangerously. In 1996, Eddie Murphy played the role of Mama/Granny Klump in The Nutty Professor. In 2005, Tyler Perry played the role of Madea in Dairy of a Mad Black Woman. In 1982, Dustin Hoffman plays Dorothy Michaels in the show-within-show soap opera Southwest General in Tootsie.

What about Cross-species Acting? Should humans be allowed to play lions, cats, tigers, and giraffes? How about fictional beings like tin men, scarecrows, cowardly lions, and beasts?

Should Oklahoma! have an R-rating? An editorial in The Dallas Morning News says “no.” “Oklahoma! is about as American musical theater can get. In 2008, Time reported that Oklahoma! was the eighth-most popular show staged by American high schools, right up there with such scandalous content as Beauty and the Beast and Seussical, the Musical.

Ali and Allen

Well, Max, you and I have something in common. I played Ali Hakim in my high school’s performance of Oklahoma! way back in 1960. My classmates and teachers thought I had a “a comic touch.” I remember my first stage kiss and singing “It’s a Scandal! It’s a Outrage.” The cast was great with fine voices and acting skills. I remember being offstage and joining my fellow cast members in singing the title song. We couldn’t part ways and had many cast parties after our two-night run.

So Max, long before you or your father were born, I made my musical debut as Ali Hakim.

School District Comes to Its Senses

Thanks to many voices, the Sherman School District has changed its decision and reinstated Max.

“We want to apologize to our students, parents and our community,” board President Brad Morgan said Monday night. Please see the video.

I am glad that the Sherman School District realized its error and returned Max to the part his was born to play.