Happy birthday, Oklahoma! The musical that revolutionized the genre marks its three quarters of a century celebration.
The Rodgers & Hammerstein musical that opened on Broadway at the St. James Theatre on March 31, 1943 has just turned 75, marking three quarters of a century since the first collaboration of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein.
Oklahoma! is widely seen as a show that more seamlessly wove together story, song and dance to help refine the meaning and method of a musical.
The Rodgers & Hammerstein tours of The King and I, Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella and The Sound of Music are all celebrating the 75th Anniversary of Oklahoma!
The Sound of Music, appropriately enough, performed in the state of Oklahoma as the anniversary arrived.
While some legendary shows started slow, that wasn’t the case with Oklahoma!, which was a big hit, at least once it opened on Broadway.
The show ran for 2,212 performances, becoming the first Broadway production to run more than 500 performances, and closed on Broadway on May 29, 1948.
There have been four Broadway revivals since the original production, in 1951, 1953, 1979 and 2002. The first national tour began in October, 1943 at the Shubert Theater in New Haven and ran for nearly 11 years, ending the run at the Shubert Theater in Philadelphia in May, 1954.
The original Broadway cast album of Oklahoma!, the first comprehensive original Broadway cast recording of a musical, sold more than 1 million copies, just another way that this show revolutionized the musical.
There have been more than 20 studio cast recordings of Oklahoma!, featuring stars such as Nelson Eddy, John Raitt and Florence Henderson.
Rodgers & Hammerstein went on to collaborate on Carousel, State Fair, Allegro, South Pacific, The King and I, Me and Juliet, Pipe Dream, Cinderella, Flower Drum Song and The Sound of Music.
They earned 42 Tony Awards, 15 Academy Awards, two Pulitzer Prizes, two Grammy Awards and two Emmy Awards.