Oklahoma | Research & Encyclopedia Articles

The musical Oklahoma! was the first collaboration between composer Richard Rodgers (1902-1979) and lyricist/librettist Oscar Hammerstein II (1895-1960), both of whom already had extensive careers in show business behind them. Oklahoma! was based on the play Green Grow the Lilacs by Lynn Riggs, first produced by the Theatre Guild in New York in 1931. It took a radically new approach to musical theatre on several fronts. The story of ordinary, real-life people and rural life during the Oklahoma land rush was an unusual subject at that time. The libretto followed the play closely, breaking with the conventional placement of song and dance elements. The choreography by Agnes de Mille synthesized ballet and American vernacular dance, and a "dream ballet" advanced the story. Oscar Hammerstein's libretto and lyrics celebrated the hardy, optimistic spirit of the American West during the bleakest years of World War II. Oklahoma! became a runaway hit show and won a Pulitzer Prizefor drama in 1944. Many of the young actors and dancers in the opening production went on to stellar careers. Since the initial run, touring companies have presented the musical around the world, and revivals have been frequent. Oklahoma! proved to be only the first of a series of artistically and financially successful musicals by Rodgers and Hammerstein, but none of their works has influenced the development of musical theater more than this one.

Oklahoma! takes place at the turn of the twentieth century between the Oklahoma land rushes in 1889 and 1893, and statehood in 1907. Curley, a cowhand, and Jud Fry, a farmhand, are in love with Laurey. She is in love with Curley, but after an argument with him agrees to go to a dance with Jud Fry, whom she secretly fears. At the dance Curley puts up his entire belongings to buy Laurey's box lunch. She and Curley admit their love for each other and are married. After the wedding Jud fights with Curley and is killed with his own knife during the struggle. Laurey's Aunt Eller engineers a trial at the scene and Curley is acquitted, enabling the young couple to begin married life happily. A second, more comic subplot involves man-crazy Ado Annie, her true love cowboy Will Parker, and her temporary interest, peddler Ali Hakim. Like Laurey and Curley, Ado Annie and Will work out their problems and settle down to married life.

The happy combination of events which produced Oklahoma! began with the 1940 revival of Green Grow the Lilacs by the Westport Country Playhouse in Westport, Connecticut. The Playhouse was owned by Lawrence Langer and his wife Armina Marshall, who were also partners in the Theatre Guild, a theater management group active in New York since 1918. Another partner in the distinguished Theatre Guild was Theresa Helburn. After seeing the Riggs play revival in Westport with square dances choreographed by Gene Kelly, Helburn thought it would make a good musical theatre production. Later in the summer of 1940, Richard Rodgers saw the play and told Langer and Helburn that he agreed the musical theatre adaptation was a promising idea. Rodgers was still working with his first partner Lorenz Hart in 1940; their shows Pal Joey (1940) and By Jupiter (1942) had yet to open. Hart had struggled with alcoholism for years, and although he continued to write inspired lyrics, his working habits had become erratic. Rodgers, however, was determined to continue collaborating with Hart as long as possible, and he asked Hart to join the Oklahoma! project. Hart refused, feeling that Riggs's play did not provide good musical theatre material. Rodgers turned to Oscar Hammerstein II for Oklahoma! Hammerstein knew the play and was eager to write the book and lyrics.

Oklahoma! opened at the St. James Theatre in New York on March 31, 1943, remaining on Broadway for a remarkable 2,212 performances. The reviews after opening night in New York were dazzling. New York Times reviewer Lewis Nichols said, "Wonderful is the nearest adjective, for this excursion of the Guild combines a fresh and infectious gaiety, a charm of manner, beautiful acting, singing and dancing, and a score by Richard Rodgers that doesn't do any harm, either, since it is one of his best." The next morning the box office was in pandemonium and performances quickly sold out for the foreseeable future. But no accolade could have meant more to Richard Rodgers than that of his former partner Lorenz Hart. In Musical Stages Rodgers remembered the traditional post-show gathering at Sardi's when a grinning Hart threw his arms around Rodgers and said, "Dick, I've never had a better evening in my life! This show will be around 20 years from now!" Max Wilk's OK! The Story of Oklahoma! quotes lyricist/librettist Alan Jay Lerner, who said, "A musical in the twenties and the thirties had no dramatic validity and the wit was the lyric writer's, never the characters'. Oscar Hammerstein, on the other hand, was very much a dramatic writer, and with Oklahoma! he and Dick Rodgers radically changed the course of the musical theatre. The musical comedy became a play."

A remarkable number of popular songs came from Oklahoma!, especially when compared to earlier shows. Except for the monumental Show Boat (1927) by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II, most musicals of the 1920s and 1930s contained one or two memorable songs. Oklahoma! gave birth to several: "Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin"'; "The Surrey with the Fringe on Top"; "Kansas City"; "I Cain't Say No"; "People Will Say We're in Love"; and of course, "Oklahoma," the energetic "title song" which caused the musical's original title Away We Go! to be changed. Songs from the show became overnight smashes: "People Will Say We're in Love" was the top radio song of 1943, and the cast recorded the first "original-cast" recording of a Broadway show, beginning a practice which continues today. Since 1943 the original cast album has been in print as 78s, LPs, cassette tapes, and now as compact discs.

Writing his autobiography Musical Stages in 1975, Rodgers theorized about what made Oklahoma such an extraordinary work. "When a show works perfectly, it's because all the individual parts complement each other and fit together. No single element overshadows any other…. That's what made Oklahoma! work. All the components dovetailed. There was nothing extraneous or foreign, nothing that pushed itself into the spotlight yelling 'Look at me!"' Critics and audiences have agreed with Rodgers for over half a century about Oklahoma!'s significance. In 1993 the United States Postal Service acknowledged its place in American cultural history with a stamp commemorating the show's fiftieth anniversary.

de Mille, Agnes. Dance to the Piper. New York, Da Capo, 1980.

Riggs, Lynn. Green Grow the Lilacs. New York, Samuel French,1931. Reprint, The Easton Press, 1991.

Rodgers, Richard. Musical Stages: An Autobiography. New York, Random House, 1975. Reprint, with a new introduction by Mary Rodgers, New York, Da Capo Press, 1995.

Rodgers, Richard, and Oscar Hammerstein. Six Plays. New York, Random House, n.d.

Wilk, Max. OK! The Story of Oklahoma! New York, Grove Press, 1993.

This is the complete article, containing 1,170 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page).