NRR Project: “Oklahoma!”
Words by Oscar Hammerstein II, music by Richard Rodgers
Performed by Alfred Drake, Joan Roberts, Celeste Holm et
al
Released Dec. 1, 1943
1 hr., 18 min.
This is popularly thought of as the first “original cast album.” That’s not quite true, but this 1943 recording of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma! was the first musical to sell massive amounts of records, paving the way for the regular creation and marketing of original cast albums.
Oklahoma! was a phenomenon. For (almost) the first time (see the earlier “Princess” musicals [1915-1918], Show Boat [1927], Pal Joey [1940], and Lady in the Dark [1941]), an American musical was created the songs of which advanced the plot or illuminated the character singing it. Before this musicals were largely catch-alls, repositories of songs that could have easily fit in anywhere in a given production.
Composer Richard Rodgers was just coming to the end of his long and highly successful collaboration with lyricist Lorenz Hart, who was becoming more and more unreliable. Rodgers turned to Oscar Hammerstein II, who famously collaborated with Jerome Kern on Show Boat and many other works. Together, R & H crafted an immensely memorable score, a romantic triangle that played out in the Oklahoma Territory of 1906.
Cowboy Curly (Alfred Drake) loves farm girl Laurey (Joan Roberts), but has a rival in the morose and violent Jud (Howard da Silva). The play follows the ins and outs of the two getting together and overcoming the hateful Jud.
This simple plot is studded with memorable songs – “Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’,” “Surrey with a Fringe on Top,” “People Will Say We’re in Love,” “Kansas City,” “I Cain’t Say No,” “Many a New Day,” and of course the title tune. The recording sold over a million copies.
Audiences were wildly enthusiastic. Even in the middle of World War II, the show sold out for months in advance. It ran for 2,212 performances, well into 1948. R & H were a winning team, and they went on to craft a long and fruitful sequence of musicals that captivated America for decades.
The National Recording Registry Project tracks one writer’s expedition through all the recordings in the National Recording Registry in chronological order. Next time: Paul Robeson’s Othello.
