After promising two different men she’d accompany them to the box social, Ado Annie can’t bring herself to refuse either one. Laurey asks, “Which one d’you like best?” and Ado Annie earnestly responds, “Whutever one I’m with!”
Kansas City
Fresh from the big city, where he won a steer-roping contest, Will Parker is full of awe and amazement as he recounts the wonders of the modern world, including gas buggies, telephones and skyscrapers eight stories high.
The Surrey with the Fringe on Top
When the confident young cowboy Curly comes calling on Laurey Williams, he describes the fancy surrey he has arranged to take her to the social.
Oh, What A Beautiful Mornin’
As the show opens, Curly enters a virtually empty stage, singing a simple tune celebrating the natural beauty of the territory. When setting out to write the first lyrics for an adaptation of Lynn Riggs’ Green Grow the Lilacs, Hammerstein didn’t have to look any further for inspiration than the first paragraph of stage directions. “On first reading those words,” … Read More
2019 Broadway Revival
Director Daniel Fish’s Tony Award-winning reinterpretation of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Oklahoma! allowed audiences to see the show with a new lens. With a bluegrass twang, this cast album features Tony Award-nominated orchestrations by Daniel Kluger for a band of seven, under the musical direction of Nathan Koci. Kluger’s reimagining of the score was described by The New York Times as … Read More
2018 75th Anniversary Rerelease
In honor of the 75th Anniversary, a remastered, expanded version of the 1943 Original Broadway Cast recording of Oklahoma! was reissued by Decca Broadway and Verve Label Group to celebrate the first Broadway cast album of all time. While the show celebrated its 75th anniversary, an off-Broadway, cult-hit production twelve years in the making was being performed under the direction … Read More
1998 National Theatre West End Revival
The recording of the Royal National Theatre’s 1998 landmark production included more of the score, including the new dance arrangements created for the Susan Stroman dances. It was recorded at Whitfield Street Studios with the London cast, featuring Hugh Jackman and Shuler Hensley, and released on CD under the label First Night.
1979 Broadway Revival
The first Broadway revival cast recording included more of the score than any previous Oklahoma! albums at its time, but it did not include Laurey’s dream ballet and dance music. Recording technology was rapidly improving to allow for longer capacity; had the album been cut four years later, it might have included more of the score. This cast featured Laurence … Read More
1955 Motion Picture
Led by Gordon MacRae, Shirley Jones and Rod Steiger, the cast of the 1955 film adaptation of Oklahoma! recorded their tracks prior to the film’s shooting, as was the custom. The motion picture soundtrack recording was released on Capitol Records and spent a staggering 400 weeks on the album charts, including a full month at the #1 spot. The album … Read More
1943 Original Broadway Production
To parallel the enormous success of Oklahoma!, for the very first time a recording company brought the theater orchestra and cast into the studio and performed the songs as they were heard in the theater, with the original orchestrations. Thus the concept of a Broadway cast album was born. There was, however, a strike happening, which prevented the album from … Read More