Notes on Oklahoma!
Oklahoma!, by
Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein
II, is a musical adaptation of the play Green Grow the Lilacs by dramatist Lynn Riggs. In his nostalgic play, Riggs, a native
Oklahoman of Cherokee descent, pays tribute to the hearty people and close-knit
communities that populated the frontier territory of his childhood memories.
Green Grow the Lilacs
has been described as a “poem for
the theatre.” Into his simple
storyline about the courtship between Laurey, a farm girl, and her cowboy
sweetheart, Curly, Riggs interweaves traditional American ballads and folk
songs to conjure a lost world of rustic simplicity, community spirit, and
innocence. For the musical Oklahoma!, librettist Oscar Hammerstein
sought to capture the richly evocative language and cadences of Riggs’s source
play. Hammerstein wrote:
I recalled how deeply I had been
impressed by Lynn Riggs’ description at the start of his play: “It is a radiant
summer morning – the kind of morning which, enveloping the shapes of earth. . .
makes them seem to exist now for the first time, their images giving off a
visible golden emanation that is partly true and partly a trick of imagination,
focusing to keep alive a loveliness that may pass away.”
On first reading these words, I had
a thought, what a pity to waste them on stage directions. . . I reread the description and determined
to put it into song.
The first collaboration between Oscar Hammerstein II and
Richard Rodgers, Oklahoma! marked the
beginning of an innovative creative partnership. Determined to capture Riggs’s unique voice, the duo labored
to interlayer plot, dances, songs, and characters into what is now considered
one of the best examples of a “book musical.” Oklahoma! launched the Golden Age of the American musical and was
awarded a special Pulitzer Prize in 1943.
Today, it remains one of American’s most beloved musicals, evoking
poignant reminiscences of an era of limitless promise and possibility.
Debra Charlton
Production Dramaturg
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