OKLAHOMA!

In the 1930-31 season, the New York Theater Guild presented a comedy by Lynn Rigg's entitled "Green Grow the Lilacs," with Franchot Tone and June Walker heading the cast. It wasn't a musical, it was a comedy. It ran only 64 performances, then went on tour. Theresa Helburn suggested it be made into a musical comedy but the guild had only $30,000 left in its treasury. She talked to Richard Rodgers about it and he was willing to consider it. However, his lyricist ever since he began writing had been Lorenz Hart, and Hart, who was ailing, didn't wish to undertake it, so Miss Helburn arranged for Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II to work as a Team. Rodgers had written only with Hart, and Hammerstein hadn't had a hit show since the 30's, so it wasn't a sure thing. Also, money was scarce. "Green Grow the Lilacs" hadn't been a popular play.

Rouben Mamoulian, who had directed "Porgy and Bess" for the guild, was signed as director, Lemuel Ayres was signed to do the sets, and Agnes de Mille was signed to do the choreography, although she had never worked in musical comedy before. To make things worse, the cast was made up of unknowns.

They first tried it out in New Haven, not as "Green Grow the Lilacs" but as "Away We Go." It was described as having little chance to succeed on Broadway because it had no striptease girls, no bawdy jokes, and wasn't raucous enough. It then went to Boston where the reviews were no better. Also, a man was killed on stage, and that should have been enough to do it in. Even worse, the chorus girls didn't appear till the play had run nearly 45 minutes.

The composers tried. Hammerstein wrote new lyrics for "All er Nothing," the duet sung by Ado Annie and Will Parker. It was in Boston that they changed the name to "OKLAHOMA" and re-staged the title song to make it a rousing number for the whole ensemble. Advance stories still were pessimistic on the eve of the New Nork opening. But the composers made only one more change … They added an exclamation point to the title.

Opening night was March 31, 1943, and there were some empty seats in the theater, but by intermission, everyone connected with the show knew they had a hit.

Of course they didn't dream it would break the world's record for consecutive performances. The critics thought it was wonderful … "truly delightful," "beautifully different," "colorful," "jubilant," "refreshing," "charming," and "completely enchanting."

After opening night, long lines appeared at the box office. There was publicity on how difficult it was to get tickets. To have seen "OKLAHOMA" during the early part of its run turned out to be something of a status symbol.