OK! at 65

Sixty-five years ago tonight, Oklahoma! opened at the St. James on Broadway and musical theatre was never the same again. Eveyone who has ever been connected with theatre in one way or another probably has an Oklahoma! story. Our high school did the show when I was eleven, and I vividly remember watching the cast perform a sneak preview of "The Farmer and the Cowman" and "All 'Er Nuthin'" at a choral concert in a gymnasium. I saw the complete show when it actually went up and can still close my eyes and see the staging of "Kansas City," the dream ballet at the end of the first act," and "It's a Scandal! It's an Outrage!" I remember being disappointed when I saw the movie and the latter wasn't in it.

In 1993, to celebrate the show's 50th anniversary, Agnes de Mille (who died later that year) appeared on the Tony Awards. Gregory Hines - who has also left us - brought her on stage in her wheelchair. She got a standing ovation and then read a speech about the show that has stayed with me ever since. Last year, I got out my tape of the '93 Tonys (which has sadly not weathered the test of time very well) so I could hear that lovely speech again, which I have transcribed below. Enjoy.

Rodgers and Hammerstein gave us their tale of a light and brilliant calibre that has not been surpassed. And yet, Oklahoma!! was not a hit opening night. I was there. I've been present at hits, and this wasn't one. The audience was the regular Theatre Guild opening night: Spotty. Dull. Jaded. [this got an enormous laugh] I had eight front row balcony seats and I couldn't fill them. And the [advance] press wasn't that good, it was - mixed.

Four days later, I found myself in the middle of a volcano. 'What happened?' A New York reporter told me, 'The biggest hit of the twentieth century!' And I believe, taking into consideration all its translations and international companies and recordings, it still is.

But what's its appeal? First, of course, its extraordinary score. But then the subject, which is the love of our native land. Home. Roots. During the war, I remember the triple row of enlisted men standing every night at the back of the theater, pitched and laughing at this pleasant comedy. Standing and watching with their tears streaming down their cheeks. They were going out to die. And this play meant what they were dying for. This was home.

Oklahoma.

New York, Oregon, Utah, Texas, Georgia, Vermont, Oklahoma. Home.

Home. O.K.

Hundreds of Broadway musicals have come and gone in the past 65 years. Some have had an extraordinary impact on the form, but there has never been another Oklahoma!

Yeeow!