GOING BIG: When Lyric Stage puts on a musical, it doesn’t do things half way. Case in point: it’s current staging of Oklahoma! featuring a full orchestra. “Music director Jay Dias conducts the extraordinary 33-piece orchestra with zest and sensitivity, from the enticing overture to the rousing finale in this original Broadway orchestration,” Martha Heimberg writes on theaterjones.com. “In short, this Oklahoma! has, as its song says about Kansas City, ‘gone about as fur as it can go’ toward musical comedy perfection,” raves Lawson Taitte on dallasnews.com. “With an incredible cast, flawless music direction courtesy of Jay Dias, and perfectly timed direction from Cheryl Denson, this Oklahoma! gets everything right,” Lindsey Wilson writes on Front Row. Sounds as if you’d better get thee to one of the final four performances Thursday through Sunday.

ART FOR WORDS: On Sunday, ArtSlam 2012 will be held at Steve Paul Productions in Dallas. The event will feature an art auction, with the proceeds benefitting WordSpace. Thinking of going? Some of the art that will hit the auction block has been posted at glasstire.com.

WHO NEEDS COMPOSERS?: “What we are trying to find out is whether you need a composer to make music. And we don’t think you do.” What the what? But that’s the take of Armand Leroi, a professor of evolutionary developmental biology. He explains why in a BBC news story.