DATE=4/11/02

TYPE=English Feature

NUMBER=7-36171

TITLE=Oklahoma!: Portrait of an Original

BYLINE=Robin Rupli

TELEPHONE=401-7430

DATELINE=Washington

EDITOR=vicki swaney

CONTENT=

INTRO: One of the hottest tickets selling on Broadway this season is for the new London revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma which opened last month in New York. The original Oklahoma marked the first collaboration of composer Richard Rodgers and lyricist, Oscar Hammerstein, II the beginning of an extraordinary partnership that created such musical classics as South Pacific, Carousel, and The Sound of Music. In this report, Robin Rupli looks back at the musical that created a new standard upon which all subsequent musicals would be based.

TAPE: "OKLAHOMA" OVERTURE

TEXT: On March 31st, 1943, a war-weary audience took refuge at the St. James Theater in New York City where they escaped to the sun-lit plains of the southwest.

TAPE: RICHARD RODGERS

"If you look at the line-up of Oklahoma, there wasn't anything very inviting about it. Everybody connected to the show had had ten horrible years. We had no stars. And so, your man with the money said 'these people have got to fail.'"

TEXT: Composer Richard Rodgers described his anticipated failure in a 1957 interview. Oklahoma was different from anything anyone had ever seen. Based on the 1931 play, Green Grow the Lilacs, by Lynn Riggs, there was no chorus line of leggy girls, comedians or star performers - but a simple story of a farm girl and a cowboy living in a territory destined to become a state. But more than that, what Oklahoma had that no other musical had preceding it -- was the perfect combination of music, lyrics, narrative and even dance to tell a story.

TAPE: ETHAN MORDDEN

"Hammerstein, all through his career, had been making the musical logical. When he arrived, the musical was basically vaudeville anything that entertained was what was good for the show."

TEXT: Theater historian Ethan Mordden is the author of several books on the theater, including a study of Rodgers and Hammerstein's musicals. He says before Oklahoma, no one expected a musical to make any sense.

TAPE: MORDDEN

"Hammerstein said, 'No, it should be better than that. If I tell a sensible story in a sensible way, you're going to get a lot more out of it.

TAPE: MUSIC "OH WHAT A BEAUTIFUL MORNING"

TEXT: Rodgers and Hammerstein's heartrending story of American pioneers, combined with a brilliant score, made Oklahoma an unprecedented hit. Joan Roberts, who played the original lead role of Laurie, remembers the audience on opening night.

TAPE: ROBERTS

"The opening night in New York was the most thrilling thing I ever experienced. I don't think the people wanted to leave. They said there were empty seats there were no empty seats, the theater was filled! And I'm sure that half of them were my relatives! LAUGHS. . I always brought my own audience, it was safer that way. . . ."

TAPE: MUSIC "PEOPLE WILL SAY WE'RE IN LOVE"

TAPE: ROBERTS

"When the show opened, Mayor La Guardia was mayor. He was there pretty much every night. He acted like he had personally produced it, it was his play. And then the governor of Oklahoma was always there. There was always somebody up there on the stage after every performance, of some importance. And then, from then on, everything was patented after it, and they proved that you could do a serious play with music."

BRING MUSIC UP FULL

TEXT: The phenomenal success of Oklahoma made stars of its players and millionaires of its creators. Lyricist Oscar Hammerstein, who hadn't had a hit in ten years, talked about his newfound success in a 1957 interview.

TAPE: HAMMERSTEIN

"The answer to Oklahoma is, in part, that in spite of all those technical revolutions, which might have been called mistakes if they were failures, there was a spirit in Oklahoma, there was a spirit in Green Grow the Lilacs that's the intangibility. And that's why because of the presence of intangibility in success and failure, do not rely too much on the tangibles."

TEXT: Oklahoma ran five years on Broadway, toured four fifty-one weeks, while a national company traveled for ten years, appearing in 250 cities. It was the first musical to be awarded a Pulitzer Prize. The once wary financial backers increased their investments by 2500%. Oklahoma would prove to be the dawn of the golden age of the Broadway musical. SIGNED.

TAPE: MUSIC

(OPT) TEXT: Stay tuned tomorrow at this time, for a report by Adam Phillips about the new revival of Oklahoma, which is once again wowing the crowds on Broadway.