oklahoma! Flashcards
1
Q
American musical theatre in the
1930s
A
In the 1930s, a drought hit
Broadway. No one picked up where
Show Boat had left off. Not even
Jerome Kern or Oscar Hammerstein
II followed up their success with
another notable show
* OH2’s next show was an operetta
with Sigmund Romberg, called The
New Moon (1928)
2
Q
Why were there few successes
after Show Boat?
A
Rise of radio (1920s)
* Rise of film (1920s), television (1950s), and the Hollywood
migration
* Great Depression (29 October 1929)
* World War II (begins 1 September 1939)
* The end of an era:
* Florenz Ziegfeld’s last show, a brief revival of Show Boat, opened in
May 1932; he died in July of that year
* George Gershwin’s last show opened in 1935; he died in 1937
* Jerome Kern’s last show opened in 1939; he died in 1945
* Lorenz Hart’s last show opened in 1942; he died in 1943
3
Q
How did these new technologies
and events affect musical
theatre
A
- 5,000+ theatres across the US went dark
- 1,000+ performers were forced to quit
- Virtually every Broadway producer went bankrupt, at
least temporarily - Fewer new shows
- 1926-28: 48 new shows/season
- 1931-33: 28 new shows/season
- 1936-38: 15 new shows/season
- Overall: In the 1920s, there were 423 new shows
In the 1930s, there were 170 new shows
4
Q
Bright Lights of the 1930s:
A
cole porter
Ethel Merman
Mary Martin
George Abbott
Richard Rodgers and Lorenz
Hart
George and Ira Gershwin
5
Q
Cole Porter
A
Composer-lyricist who wrote musical
comedies, including Anything Goes;
also Kiss Me, Kate
* His shows were about smart,
glamourous, rich, sexually
uninhibited people and his lyrics
often referenced French phrases, sex
jokes, high society names, brand
names, exclusive night clubs…
* “Let’s Do It” sung by Ella Fitzgerald
wealthy
6
Q
Ethel Merman
A
- Performer and Broadway
belter - Debuted in Girl Crazy by
George and Ira Gershwin;
starred in musicals for 25
years, including musical
comedies by Porter
brassy, tamber
fills the threatre
holding notes
7
Q
Mary Martin
A
Performer, neither
pure “legit” nor belter
* She was in Porter’s
Leave It to Me!
* In the 1940s and 50s,
she was Nellie in South
Pacific and Maria in
The Sound of Music
(right)
8
Q
George Abbott
A
- “Father of modern musical comedy”
- Producer, director, bookwriter,
choreographer, actor - After working on plays, he wrote his
first musical, Jumbo (1935), with
Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart
for 30yrs has shows running every single week w the execption of 1 week
9
Q
Abbott’s contributions:
A
- Mentored a generation of Broadway
practitioners, including Harold Prince and
Jerome Robbins - Makes the director the most important
member of the creative team - Emphasis on comedy, characters, and
situation - Emphasis on book, not star
- Integration of choreography
- Famous for Damn Yankees, Pajama
Game, and Pal Joey
10
Q
Richard Rodgers and Lorenz
Hart
A
- Rodgers and Hart’s 25-year
partnership created more than 15
musical comedies, including Pal
Joey (recall “Bewitched, Bothered,
and Bewildered”) - What comes first? Music or lyrics?
Rodgers wrote the music first,
then Hart added lyrics
11
Q
George and Ira Gershwin
A
- These brothers collaborated on a
trilogy of political operettas,
Strike Up the Band, Of Thee I
Sing, and Let ’Em Eat Cake, and
the Broadway opera, Porgy and
Bess (“Summertime”) - George (L) started his career as
a songplugger in Tin Pan Alley - In addition to working with his
older brother, Ira collaborated
with Jerome Kern, Kurt Weill, and
Harold Arlen
12
Q
Who is responsible for elevating the role of the book in
musical comedies
A
George Abbott
13
Q
The longest-running Broadway musical of the 1930s
enjoyed more performances than Show Boat when it
opened in 1927
t or f
A
false
14
Q
Cole Porter was a composer and lyricist whose musical
comedies dazzled audiences in the 1930s with
glamorous, sophisticated characters.
t or f
A
true
15
Q
Why were the 1930s a dark decade for Broadway?
a) The Great Depression left producers bankrupt
b) The rise of radio and movies offered affordable
alternatives to live theatre
c) Several prominent theatre practitioners like Florenz
Ziegfeld passed away
d) The number of new shows went down
e) All of the above
A
all
16
Q
Rodgers and Hammerstein
A
After years of
experience writing
with other
collaborators,
Rodgers and
Hammerstein (R&H)
joined forces to
create the most
consistently fruitful
and successful
partnership in the
American musical
theatre
11 shows in 17 years:
* Stage musicals: Oklahoma! (1943), Carousel (1945),
Allegro (1947), South Pacific (1949), The King and I
(1951), Me and Juliet (1953), Pipe Dream (1955),
Flower Drum Song (1958), The Sound of Music (1959)
* Movie musical: State Fair (1945)
* Television musical: Cinderella (1957)
* Collectively, the R & H musicals earned: 35 Tony Awards,
15 Academy Awards, 2 Pulitzer Prizes, 2 Grammy Awards,
2 Emmy Awards
17
Q
Composer oklahoma!
A
Richard Rodgers
18
Q
lyricist okloahoma
A
Oscar Hammerstein II
19
Q
Bookwriter okloahmma
A
OH2
20
Q
Source oklahoma
A
green grow the lilacs
21
Q
Main characters of Oklahoma!
A
- Curly McLain, a cowboy in love with Laurey
- Laurey Williams, an independent young woman, Aunt
Eller’s niece - Jud Fry, a hired hand on Aunt Eller’s farm
- Will Parker, a simple young man in love with Ado Annie
- Ado Annie, a flirtatious young woman
- Ali Hakim, a Persian peddlar
- Aunt Eller, Laurey’s aunt, a respected community
leade
22
Q
original name of okalohma
A
away we go
23
Q
oklahoma date
A
1943
24
Q
oklahoma dance
A
dance became important as it can be used for storh telling
25
why was away we go cool
muscial PLAY
not a musical comedy amnymore
26
what r tryouts
performing infront of live audience and make changes
27
What is a musical play?
When the title changed to Oklahoma!, its billing
changed from musical comedy to musical play
* Opening night critics assigned Oklahoma! to a
variety of subgenres, including musical comedy,
musical play, operetta, and folk opera. They lacked
a cultural frame of reference in which to place
Oklahoma!
28
What are the characteristics of a musical play?
the book
oppertta
not novelty acts
no numbers for no purpose
everything tells a stiry
avoids trivial subjects
29
Richard Rodgers
Composer
* Rodgers first wrote musical
comedies with Hart then musical
plays Hammerstein
* After Hammerstein’s death,
Rodgers continued to write for
Broadway with various
collaborators
* Rodgers composed more than 900
published songs and 40 musicals
30
Oscar Hammerstein II
Recall Hammerstein as lyricist and bookwriter of Show
Boat
* OH2 collaborated with composers Romberg, Kern, and
others before he worked with Rodgers
31
What comes first: music or
lyrics?
* OH2 wrote the lyrics first, then Rodgers added music
(the reverse of how Rodgers had worked with Hart)
* OH2 believed a play should always come first rather
than a song:
“There are few things in life of which I am certain, but I
am sure of this one thing, that the song is the servant of
the play, that it is wrong to write first what you think is
an attractive song and then try to wedge it into a story.”
32
Lynn Riggs
* Poet, playwright, screenwriter,
who grew up in Oklahoma
* He wrote Green Grow the Lilacs in
France on a Guggenheim
Fellowship in 1928-29
* Compare pp. 7-9 of Riggs’s play
(eReserves) with OH2’s lyrics and
dialogue for “The Surrey with the
Fringe on Top” (Content, module
5)
33
“The Surrey with the Fringe on
Top
Sung by Curly (with Laurey
and Aunt Eller)
Example of an “I am/want” song, musical scene
(includes dialogue and underscoring), and charm song:
a number that pleases and delights with an optimistic
tone and celebrates the positive values and experiences
of life
non diegetic
fondness for laury
34
Theatre Guild
The original purpose of the group, which was active
from the 1920s-1970s, was to produce non-commercial
works by American and foreign playwrights. They were
unique because their board oversaw the choosing of
plays, management, and production
* The Theatre Guild contributed greatly to the success of
Broadway
* Productions include: Porgy, Porgy and Bess, Green Grow
the Lilacs, Oklahoma!, Carousel, and more than 200
others
35
Agnes de Mille
Dancer and choreographer
* De Mille is known for elevating the
role of dance so that it too
contributed to the narrative
* Choreographed 15 musicals,
including Carousel, Allegro (also
directed), Brigadoon, 110 in the
Shade
36
Rouben Mamoulian
* Theatre and film director
* He had already directed Porgy and
Bess as well as its source, the play
Porgy
* He would later direct Carousel
37
When Oklahoma! had tryouts in Boston, what was the
show titled?
away we go
38
Who elevated the role of dance and continued to work
with Rodgers and Hammerstein in some of their later
musicals
agnes de mille
39
All of the following are characteristics of musical plays
EXCEPT:
a) Book shows that focus on a story
b) Music and dance are used to propel the narrative
c) Frivolous, light-hearted topics are avoided
d) Establishing numbers always feature long lines of
dancers
e) Unnecessary theatrical spectacle is avoided
D-Establishing numbers always feature long lines of
dancers
40
False “firsts”
First title of a musical to end
with an exclamation point?
First musical to have an
original Broadway cast
recording?
First musical to start without a chorus number?
First dream ballet?
41
Cast recordings in oklahoma
* Although many other shows had original cast albums before
Oklahoma!, it was the 1943 release by Decca Records of 12 songs
from Oklahoma! that made it possible for legions of out-of-towners
to hear the popular musical without going to NYC and it convinced
record companies to record virtually every musical that opened on
Broadway
* The original Oklahoma! album consisted of six 10-inch double-
sided discs in 78 RPM format. In 1949, Decca re-released the
album on LP (“long-playing” record)
* Original cast recordings owe their popularity in part to
developments in recording technology. The rise of the LP allowed
listeners to enjoy longer stretches of music before having to flip
the side or change discs
42
Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’”
* Sung by Curly
* It might be the first a cappella opening to a musical (a
cappella = unaccompanied singing) and the first to start
with the sound of an offstage voice
* Example of an establishing number: it conveys the
location, introduces main characters, and sets the tone
and mood of the show
* Does this number fall into any other categories of song
types?
diegetic
fated to be mated-laury sings it
43
real firsts (3)
1. First show to cast exclusively unknown stars
* star of show is the story
2. First Broadway musical to have such a long
run (2,212p.)
* The previous record for a book show was held by
Irene (1919), which ran 670 p.
* Show Boat ran 572 p.
* Oklahoma! redefined the parameters of a Broadway
show as a commercial enterprise
3. First to demonstrate the principles of integration (everything sitting together and complimenting each other)
44
Principles of integration
The songs advance the plot
* The songs flow directly from the dialogue
* The songs express the characters who sing them
* The dances advance the plot
* The orchestra, through accompaniment and
underscoring, parallels, complements, or advances the
action
45
Problems with the idea of
integration
integration should not be equated with artistic
success. An integrated musical isn’t necessarily good
or better than one that isn’t integrated
* Celebrating integration casts a shadow over the shows
that came before Oklahoma!, including the works of
the Gershwins, Irving Berlin, Rodgers and Hart, and
Hammerstein and Kern
46
Jerome Kern started his career as a songplugger
Tin Pan
Alley, not as a rehearsal pianist at a ballet school or law clerk.
47
Mid-century musicals (aka golden age
musicals)
Oklahoma! (1943) marks the beginning of what came to be
know as the golden age of the musical. It ended in the late
1950s and early 1960s with shows like Gypsy (1959) and
Fiddler on the Roof (1964)
* Fewer shows opened but many enjoyed long runs
* Approximately 300 shows opened during the golden age (7-
17 per season); compared to 53 during the 1926-27 season
* What’s wrong with calling this era “golden”? If we
acknowledge that there was a golden age of the musical,
that assumption diminishes the value of other works that
fall outside these years
48
Mid-century stats
20 musicals enjoyed initial
runs exceeding 1,000
performances, including
Oklahoma!, Carousel;
Annie Get Your Gun; Kiss
Me, Kate; South Pacific;
Guys and Dolls; The King
and I; My Fair Lady; West
Side Story (left); The
Sound of Music
49
Characteristics of mid-century
musicals
1. More adventurous in its subject matter
2. More serious in its social commentary
3. “Integrated”
4. Elevation of dance so that it was on par with the
music, lyrics, and book
5. Expansion of formal parameters from standard AABA
song forms to complex musical scenes with underscoring
50
From opening night to
legendary hit
Critical reception
* From positive opening night reviews to detailed articles and features
* Reviews in nationally-circulating publications whetted appetites for the
national tour
* Compared to Show Boat and Porgy and Bess
* “Birthday” pieces
* Celebrated as an integrated musical
Awards
* Won a special Pulitzer Prize but no Tony awards
* The Pulitzer Prize for Drama, awarded annually, recognizes an exceptional
theatrical work staged in the US
* 11 musicals have won the prize, starting with Of Thee I Sing
51
Revivals and national tours ok
By the early 1950s, R&H had permeated Broadway. In 1953, they had 4 shows
running: a revival of OK!, South Pacific, The King and I, and Me and Juliet
* A chain of virtually unbroken revivals, professional and amateur, foreign and
domestic, brought Oklahoma! to each successive generation and crystallized the
show’s iconic reputation
52
Film adaptation ok
The Oscar-winning 1955 film version was a box office hit
53
The reputation of its creators
From 1943-1960, R & H amassed a number of critically-acclaimed shows and film
adaptations: Oklahoma!, Carousel, South Pacific, The King and I, The Sound of
Music
54
Broadway today
Broadway has always been a risky pace to invest money
* In the late 20th century, mounting productions of
musicals became exorbitantly expensive
* Phantom cost $8 million in 1988
* Lion King cost $20 million in 1997
* Hamilton cost $12.5 million in 2015
* Broadway producers need guaranteed hits
* Take a chance on new shows or look to the past for revivals
and jukebox musicals?
55
Revival-mania
Revivals are not new but their pervasiveness is:
* 14 of the 20 seasons between 1950 and 1970 saw no
Broadway revivals; of the remaining 6, only 1 season had
more than 1 or 2
* In the 1990s, revivals started to outnumber productions of
new shows
* Revivals offer directors in particular an opportunity to assert
themselves: Hal Prince’s Show Boat, Ivo van Hove’s West
Side Story, Daniel Fish’s Oklahoma!
* More recently, new shows have started to make a
comeback: Fun Home, Hadestown, A Strange Loop, Six
56
Tony Award for the Best Revival
of a Musical
Revivals of musicals became such an
integral part of the Broadway
landscape that, in 1994, the Tony
Awards added a new category to
acknowledge the trend
* For interest: In 2022, Marianne
Elliott’s reinterpretation of Company
by Stephen Sondheim and George
Furth won the award
57
Are Revivals Bad for Broadway?
* Too many revivals could stifle Broadway’s future
* But revivals also provide new generations with the
opportunity to experience new interpretations of old
shows
58
Approaches to Revivals:
replicate, improve and update, concert stagings, reinterpretations
59
Replicate revival
Reproduce the show
exactly as it would have
originally been seen
* University of North
Carolina School of the
Arts (UNCSA) production
of Oklahoma! (2011)
Take
60
The Surrey with the
Fringe on Top
curly sings it
laurey repirses mornin
61
2. Improve and update
Adapt the original material for modern audiences
* Show Boat (1994), Porgy and Bess (1942), The
Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess (2012)
62
3. Concert stagings
* Since the 1990s, there have been
an increasing number of concert
stagings with little or no set,
costumes, etc.
* Encores! presented by New York
City Center specializes in such
productions: Allegro, Lady in the
Dark, Pal Joey, Of Thee I Sing,
Anyone Can Whistle, Merrily We
Roll Along, The Most Happy Fella,
Love Life (coming soon)
* Les Miz’s and Phantom’s
63
4. Reinterpretations/revisals
The original material serves
as a starting point of an
adaptation
* Cabaret (1988), Girl Crazy
(1930) became Crazy for You
(1992), Rodgers and
Hammerstein’s Oklahoma!
(2019), West Side Story
(2020), Company (2021
64
Production history of OK!
Broadway: 1943, 1951, 1979,
2002, 2019
* West End: 1947, 1980, 1998
* The 2019 Broadway production
transferred to London in 2022 and ran
in the West End in 2023
* Films: 1955, 1999 (stage recording
starring Hugh Jackman
65
When was Oklahoma! first recognized as a legendary musical with
implications for an entire genre?
a) From the very first reviews of the show, critics predicted that
Oklahoma! would change the landscape of musical theatre
b) At the Tony Awards, Oklahoma! won more awards than any other
musical, signaling its prominence
c) From the beginning when Rodgers and Hammerstein first started
working together, the press anticipated record-breaking success
d) It took time for Oklahoma! to earn its status and it helped that R&H
wrote more hit shows in the 1940s and 1950s
e) The most recent Broadway revival in 2019 convinced any remaining
skeptics of the show’s strengths
C
66
Why are revivals popular?
a) Because they are less financially risky
b) Because the shows are familiar to audiences
c) Because directors get a chance to make the show
their own
d) Because the shows have proven to have worked in the
past
e) All of the above
E
67
During the heyday of the mid-century musical, revivals
started to outnumber new shows
false
68
If Broadway has too many revivals, then new theatre
practitioners and creators will have a harder time getting
new works produced.
true
69
Oklahoma! (2019 Broadway)
A reinterpretation directed by
Daniel Fish at Circle in the
Square Theatre (328p)
* Won Tony for Best Revival of a
Musical and Best Performance
by an Actress in a Featured
Role (Ali Stroker as Ado
Annie), among others
* Reconceptualized as a
musical about sex,
deprivation, violence, and
loneliness
70
Reception
* “This production shocked me and moved me,” raves
Frank Rich of New York Magazine
* “Forget your traditional idea of OKLAHOMA! Daniel
Fish’s daring, brilliant, utterly absorbing re-
interpretation is dark and different — brilliantly so.”
(The Daily Beast)
* “An audacious, sexy, upending ride” that’s “as
stimulating and jolting—and as fresh—as last night’s
fever dream. OKLAHOMA! is astonishing.” (The New York
Times)
71
Hammerstein’s grandson, Oscar Andrew (“Andy”) on OK 2019
Hammerstein III had a different reaction to the revival:
“It’s a betrayal of what Oscar and Dick [Richard
Rodgers] had in mind ... I think that it’s a travesty . . .
They would be rolling in their graves if they saw this
current production that defies what the words meant
and what the songs represented
72
What makes this revival so
different
1. New
orchestrations
2. Casting
3. Plot twis
73
People Will Say We’re in Love”
sung by laurey and curly
a conventional love duet
fated to be mated
74
Orchestrations
The art of choosing and combining instruments to produce a
particular sound. The same music played by different
instruments and combinations of instruments can sound very
different
* Sondheim’s anecdote about orchestrator Jonathan Tunick and
A Little Night Music
75
Robert Russell Bennett
A composer, orchestrator, and conductor
responsible for orchestrating more than
300 scores, including the original
Oklahoma!
* He also orchestrated Show Boat, Of Thee I
Sing, South Pacific, The King and I, The Sound
of Music, and more
* Bennett worked well under pressure
* In the weeks leading up to an opening night,
Bennett was known for putting in 20 hours of
work per day. OH2 recalls, “Russell can work
20 hours at a stretch, then take a shower and
come out looking as though he just had a
vacation.”
76
Daniel Kluger
Orchestrator for the 2019 revival of Oklahoma!
* He replaced RRB’s orchestrations for 28-piece orchestra
with new ones for a 7-piece bluegrass band, including
mandolin, steel guitar, banjo
77
Reinterpreting the ending
Without changing a word of the
“text,” the revival reinterpreted the
ending and shifted the focus to
injustice
* Instead of Jud falling on his own
knife and dying, he gifts a gun to
Curly as a wedding present. Jud
then takes a small step towards the
happy couple, and Curly shoots him
* The pseudo-trial that follows feels
even more unfair. The audience
must ask themselves, “Where is the
justice?”
78
What changes were made to Oklahoma! in the 2019
Broadway revival?
a) The original orchestrations were replaced making the
score sound even more authentic
b) The dream ballet became a solo and it shifted from the
end of Act I to the start of Act II
c) The ending was changed making Jud’s death even
more unjust
d) The size of the cast was drastically reduced
e) All of the above
E
79
The Rodgers & Hammerstein organization that controls
productions of Oklahoma! and other shows allowed the
most recent revival to change aspects of the score so
long as the melodies, harmonies, and rhythms remained
intact.
True
80
When diversity happens naturally and without effort, it
becomes inclusivity
True
81
Simple characters and complex
themes
Oklahoma! was the first musical to experience almost
immediate national resonance as an American cultural
artifact
* It tapped into a shared sense of wartime nationalism in
America
82
The Farmer and the Cowman”
Production number sung by Aunt Eller and cast at the beginning of
Act II
83
Solos in Oklahoma!
only 3 solos
“Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’” by Curly (Aunt Eller onstage)
* “I Cain’t Say No” by Ado Annie (Laurey onstage)
* “Lonely Room” by Jud
* Neither “The Surrey with the Fringe on Top” (Curly), “Kansas
City” (Will), “Many a New Day” (Laurey), nor “It’s A Scandal!
It’s An Outrage!” (Ali Hakim) are true solos because they are
backed by the onstage support of other characters or
members of the chorus
84
It’s A Scandal! It’s An
Outrage!”
* Sung by Ali Hakim with male chorus
* What is the song type?
* Ballad with male chorus
* Comedy song
* Describe musical characteristics of this musical
number
* Speech-style vocal delivery
* Call-and-response between Ali and the group
85
Lonely Room”
Sung by Jud Fry
* What is the song type?
* “I am/want” song in which Jud describes his dreams, somewhat
tragic
* Describe musical characteristics of this musical number
* Vocally demanding, operatic, wide range, long-held notes
* No chorus to support soloist
* For interest: Compare performances of “Lonely Room”
* The 2019 Broadway revival with Patrick Vaill
* The 2012 production at 5th Avenue (Seattle) with Kyle Scatliffe
who played Marquis de Lafayette / Thomas Jefferson in Hamilton
86
This excerpt includes many examples of the sound “f,” as
in “first,” “flying,” “five,” and “faces.” What is the term
for this repetitive textual device?
consonance
87
In these words and elsewhere in the musical number, the
character returns to the words “fly” and “flying” to such
an extent that they are called
lyric motives
88
who has worked as a song plugger?
jerome kern and george girshwin
89
why was it a big deal that ok! won a pulitzer prize
bc usually given to a play not a musical
90
do ppl get chances to mess up these days on broadway
no but they used to
91
what kind of song is ppl will say we're in love
a list song
92
does compsoer do orchestrations
no a proffesionall orchestratot
93
when r musicals orchastrated
late, after all songs hv been scored
94
effect of daniel kulger new orchastrations
sounds more authentic
95
casting in daniel kluger
historicall the play was rlly white
he made it more divesere
96
what did hamilton show procducers about diversity
that audiednces and society likes it
97
what is the broadway paradix
fitting into a notm even if the lyics say its good to say otherwose
98
Ali stroker
disabled and a good exmaple of divsity in broadeay
she perfomed in a deaf west play too
99
who is mississing from the farmer and the cowman
jud bc he is the outsider so he is never in the group songs
100
