Youngstown Playhouse is going big with the finale to its centennial season.

“Oklahoma!,” the first collaboration by composer Richard Rodgers and lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II, would be included on any list of the most influential stage shows of the 20th century, and it’s a musical the Playhouse first presented in 1969.

There will be more than 40 performers on stage, including dancers from Ballet Western Reserve, who will be doing the “Dream Ballet” sequence from “Oklahoma!”

Big cast musicals are more rare than they used to be but still occur on local stages. However, having 25 musicians performing the score for a live production just doesn’t happen anymore (with the possible exception of the concert presentations Easy Street Productions did with the Youngstown Symphony Orchestra during Randall Craig Fleischer’s tenure as conductor).

“This is the first time that this has happened at the Playhouse in decades,” said Tyler Stouffer, who is directing “Oklahoma!” “I’m talking a full orchestra with strings and harp and percussion and brass. We are covering every book that was sent from the licensing company to really make the show and the score.”

An orchestra that size will bring oomph and power to a score filled with songs that have become Broadway standards, including “Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’,” “I Cain’t Say No,” “The Surrey with the Fringe on Top,” “People Will Say We’re in Love” and the title song.

Going to that kind of effort and expense, Stouffer didn’t want to hide those musicians in the pit.

“I knew that I wanted the orchestra to be on stage with us,” he said.

“I worked with the incredible technical director, Johnny Pecano, and we came up with this set design that kind of resembles the walls of a barn, but is going to be covered in orchestra members. So the orchestra is really going to envelop the action and the actors on stage … I cannot wait to see how the audience reacts to that. I’m hoping it’s a show that people will talk about for generations.”

Todd Maki, who created the Youngstown Scoring Stage and leads the Legacy Scoring Orchestra, will conduct the musicians.

“Oklahoma!” made its Broadway debut in 1943 and has had five Broadway revivals, most recently in 2019-20. That production, which received eight Tony nominations and won for best revival, made significant changes to the original work.

When the Playhouse announced its centennial season, that’s the version the Playhouse planned to present; however, it’s not currently available for community theaters, so the Playhouse is doing the original version.

“We changed a couple words here and there, all of which are with the blessing of the licensing company,” Stouffer said. “But most of it, we’re staying true to the original script. I will say I present it through the lens of a millennial director, where some of the moments of physical violence and moments of character development, I really tried to present it through a lens of 2025 while still definitely staying true to the original script. I’m not changing but a few words, so people who know and love the original script will not be disappointed by what they see.”

The cast features: Molly Galano, Jonathan Beveridge, Ashlyn Young, Arcale Peace, Chase Miles, Samuel Long, Peter Sherman, Connor Bezeredi, Rebecca Campbell, Michael Allenbaugh, Allyson Kremm, Tim Carr, Brooke Jonas, Rachael Conrad, Olivia Anderson, Trudi Herrholtz, Joe Mayls, Tyler Alexander, David Leach, Rachel Theis, Zavier Rubante, Mira Martin, Brooklyn Moran, Josslin Ross, Kailey Meehan, Ella Dill, Megan Delaney, Carly Moritz, Cheyenne Carr, John Rock, Alec Toporcer, Amy Banks, Patty Carr, Lennon Ciavarella, Carly DelliQuadri, CJ Hall, Barbara Kremm, Samuel Long, Kailey Meehan, Olivia Rossi, Donovan Rubante, Kathryn Stanton, Kath Steeb and Emma Wason.

Like Stouffer, many of the cast members also are far removed from the style of a production that arrived on Broadway more than 80 years ago.

“We definitely studied that style that it was originally presented in,” Stouffer said. “I had discussions with each of my principal characters about trying to get in the head of Rodgers and Hammerstein when they originally wrote it. What do we think the original intent was of these characters? And then talking about how we view the characters now.

“For instance, the character of Jud Fry. Connor Bezeredi (who plays Fry), and I really discussed that character, because how him and I view Jud Fry may be slightly different than how Rodgers and Hammerstein might have viewed him. We talked about balancing those two styles to come to a character that we really — I don’t want to say love, because the character is troubled and has violent tendencies — but the portrayal that Connor does, I think audiences are going to be really impressed. And not just with Connor but with all of the actors in the show for really finding that balance between the classic style and maybe a more modern style, to come up with our own approach that I think is going to be really memorable.”

If you go …

WHAT: “Oklahoma!”

WHEN: 7:30 p.m Friday and Saturday and 2:30 p.m. Sunday through May 18

WHERE: Youngstown Playhouse, 600 Playhouse Lane, Youngstown

HOW MUCH: Tickets range from $17 to $27 adults and $12 to $22 children ages 12 and younger and are available online at experienceyourarts.org and by calling 330-788-8739.