RECONCEIVED AND REJUVENATED, OKLAHOMA! OPENS IN CLEVELAND

Rodgers & Hammerstein’s landmark musical, Oklahoma!, will open in Cleveland at Playhouse Square Center’s Palace Theatre beginning Tuesday, May 3. This newly conceived national tour is not-to-be-missed, with brilliant direction by Fred Hanson and choreography by former Cleveland Ballet great Ginger Thatcher!

Daniel Robinson as Will Parker and Company perform "Kansas City" in the National Tour of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s OKLAHOMA!

Based on the Lynn Riggs’ play Green Grow the Lilacs, Oklahoma! was Rodgers & Hammerstein’s first collaboration and remains, in many ways, their most innovative, having set the standards for modern musical theater featuring such classical musical numbers as “Oh, What A Beautiful Mornin’,” “People Will Say We’re in Love” and the title song. Set in the territory of Oklahoma at the turn of the century, against a background of the rivalry between cattlemen and farmers, Oklahoma! is the story of the farm girl Laurey and the two rivals for her affection: the cowboy Curly and Jud, the brooding farmhand.

Written in 1943, Oklahoma! became an instant hit for Rodgers & Hammerstein, launching a remarkable career that went on to include Carousel, The King and I, South Pacific and The Sound of Music. Oklahoma! has been honored with numerous awards including a special Pulitzer Prize®, two Academy Awards®, an honorary Grammy® and a special Tony Award®. In 1993, it became the first musical commemorated on a U.S. postage stamp and a recent survey by New York’s Drama League deemed Oklahoma! “the best musical of the century.”

With accolades and critical praise such as these, this show is a must see for everyone!

PLOT SYNOPSIS
It is, quite simply, the show that changed the American musical forever--Rodgers and Hammerstein’s landmark musical Oklahoma!

Act One
On a radiant summer morning, Aunt Eller sits out on her farm in Indian Territory, looking over the horizon while churning butter. Curly, a local ranch hand, serenades Eller’s niece Laurey: “Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’.” Laurey and Curly are smitten with one another, but both are too proud and stubborn to admit it. When Curly grandly offers to take Laurey to the Box Social that evening, she doubts that he can escort her in proper style. Jud Fry, the hired hand, lets it be known that he intends to ask Laurey to the social and she, intimidated by Jud, is too frightened to turn him down. Curly, hurt by Laurey’s apparent ambivalence, invites Aunt Eller to ride to the Box Social with him.

At the train station in Claremore, Will Parker receives a hero’s welcome upon his return from Kansas City. While there, he won enough prize money at the rodeo-- $50--to earn the hand of Ado Annie, whose strict Pa, Andrew Carnes, wasn’t going to let Will marry his daughter without cash up front. But Will has a new problem he doesn’t even know about yet: in his absence Annie has taken up with the exotic Persian peddler man, Ali Hakim. Annie confides to Laurey that she can’t choose between Will and Ali.

Even if Annie can’t choose, her father sees no such dilemma. As far as he’s concerned, Ali’s sweet talk to his daughter amounts to nothing less than a marriage proposal. Carnes intends to deliver his message with a shotgun if Ali tries to back out.

Act Two
Despite plenty of division between farmers and cowmen, the community has come together to raise money for a new schoolhouse. High-spirited and competitive, the different factions meet that night at the Box Social where they manage to dance a little and fight a lot. Funding for the schoolhouse is earned by bids place on each of the picnic hampers prepared by the farm girls. As the auction begins under the stern eye and sturdy gavel of Aunt Eller, Ali Hakim has a transaction of his own to see through. In order to maneuver his way out of marrying Ado Annie, Ali contrives to pay $50 for all the gifts Will bought in Kansas City. With cash in hand, Will can once again claim Ado Annie for himself.

The crowd is ready to bid on two final hampers--Ado Annie’s and Laurey’s. Will trumps everyone by bidding $50 on Annie’s hamper; Carnes mocks him because, with the money now going towards the schoolhouse, Will is broke once more. Ali swallows hard and outbids Will by $1. Ali gets Annie’s hamper, but Will gets Annie.

One picnic basket is left: Laurey’s. Curley and Jud outlast the other bidders and now they are clearly determined to outlast each other as their bids climb higher and higher. It’s a showdown, and it isn’t about Laurey’s hamper anymore, it’s about Laurey herself. Each man gives up every penny he has; Curly even sells his saddle, his horse and his gun. In the end, Curly outbids Jud, but to do so he has given up his livelihood as a cowboy.

Jud tries to tell Laurey what she means to him. When his clumsy attempts fail, he turns to threats. Angrily, Laurey summons her courage and fires Jud, warning him never to set foot on her property again. But once alone, she breaks down, calling tearfully for Curly. He finds and consoles her; terror turns to relief, and joy, as the two lovers finally admit what everyone has long known.

Several weeks later, Curly and Laurey are married. As the wedding night unfolds, good fun turns deadly serious when an unwanted guest, Jud Fry, stumbles onto the scene. Drunk and angry, he becomes dangerous as he takes on Curly, switchblade in hand. A parry, a fall, and Jud collapses on his own knife. A short time later, he is dead. Curly is arrested, and charged with Jud Fry’s murder.

Out of necessity, a frontier community is often required to make its own laws, set its own terms of justice. No one wants Curly to spend his wedding night in jail, and so an impromptu trial is held at Aunt Eller’s farm. Curly is acquitted on the grounds of self-defense. The prisoner is free to commence his honeymoon.

The sun begins to rise on another radiant morning. Curly and Laurey ride off to start their new life together, serenaded by friends, family and neighbors.