The Very Last Show and Tell Blog

Well, the other day, Dr. Fletcher got Oklahoma! on my mind and since it is one of my good old favorites, I decided to use that one for my very last show and tell blog post.  Like Dr. Fletcher said, it was one of the very first musicals as we know it musicals so it is pretty old.  It is based off a play written in 1931 called Green Grown the Lilacs by Lynn Riggs.  Later, it was turned into the beloved musical by Richard Rogers and Oscar Hammerstein II.  Its first notable performance was in 1943 on Broadway and it was an incredible success.  It has been reproduced many, many times since then and continues to charm audiences today.

Oklahoma! is the story of a young farm girl named Laurey living in Oklahoma territory right after the turn of the 20^th century.  We meet the cowboy Curly McLain and farm hand Jud Fry who both have their hearts set on the pretty Laurey, Ado Annie her flirty best friend who “cain’t say no”, Will Parker the rope swinging cowboy, Ali Hakim the traveling salesman, and Aunt Eller Laurey’s (and pretty much everyone else’s) aunt.  It’s a story of two love triangles.  While Laurey and Curly both try to play “hard to get,” Jud (who is a little bit stalkerish) tries to go after Laurey.  On the other side of the story, there’s Ado Annie who is young and naïve.  Will Parker, who she promised to marry, has been away for a while at a fair competing in a roping contest.  When he returns after winning $50, he discovers that Ado Annie has fallen for a Persian peddler man (Ali Hakim) who she truly believes wants to marry her.  Unfortunately, Ali just wants one night at the hotel with her before he leaves town.  The play tells the story of how the two girls figure out how to work through their love triangles and end up marrying the right man.

The order of scenes in the first act is very notable.  There is a scene introducing each character and the story begins to develop before we really get to see much about the character of Jud.  All of the scenes are very light and happy.  The music is upbeat and playful.  A little over halfway through Act 1, though, there is a shift.  During the song “People Will Say We’re In Love,” there is a significant shift in the rhythm of the song after Curly leaves and Laurey continues the last refrain.  This segues into the first scene in Jud’s smoke house.  This entire scene has a darkness surrounding it and the music definitely reinforces that.  Curly and Jud sing the song about what Jud’s funeral would be like.  Jud tells a story of how a farm hand burned down a farm and the family that lived there when his affections for the girl weren’t returned.  When Jud is finally left alone again, the dark mood continues in his song “Lonely Room” where we see a bit more of who he is and his desires.  The dream sequence that follows that stays in the more serious place as well.  It contrasts all of the happy scenes introducing the characters and focuses in on how Laurey and Jud are actually feeling about things. 

The second noteworthy choice is sequence of the scenes in Act 2.  There is a very clear back and forth in the rhythm of the scenes.  It begins with the very lighthearted scene at the Box Social with laughing and dancing, then the auction scene where Curly and Jud bid on Laurey’s hamper—really bidding on her, then “All Er Nuthin’,” the song where Will and Ado Annie decide to either love only one another or not at all, then a scene with Jud and Laurey full of intense dialogue followed by the decision of Laurey and Curly to be married, then a scene where Ali Hakim shows Ado Annie how they say goodbye in Persia (a big kiss) and Will shows Ado Annie how they say hello in Oklahoma (an even bigger kiss!), last there’s a huge fight between Curly and Jud where Jud actually dies, and in the end Ado Annie and Will Parker come in with a humorous line to finish off the play.  There is an extremely obvious tension and release pattern between the scenes with Ado Annie and her men vs. the scenes with Laurey and hers.  Ado Annie, Will, and Ali’s scenes are all very amusing and comedic and the music in them helps to create that feeling while Laurey, Jud, and Curly’s are all very intense and dramatic with the music backing that up as well.  I feel like this story could easily be switched.  The way in which each story is told sets up how it ends up feeling.  The stories of Ado Annie and Laurey and their trouble with boys truly aren’t very different.  Ali Hakim could easily be portrayed as manipulating con man and definitely a villain taking advantage of a young naïve girl.  While if Jud had different music and rhythm in his lines, he could be portrayed as a sort of goofy and socially awkward farm hand that has his sights set on a pretty girl seeming far out of his reach.