Oklahoma!

Rodgers and Hammerstein’s first collaboration transformed Broadway by bringing music, lyrics, drama, character, and dance together in service of a single story. Opening in 1943 and running for 2212 performances, it became the longest-running Broadway musical of its time and ushered in a new era for the American stage.

In unincorporated territory shortly before statehood, cowboy Curly McLain arrives at Aunt Eller’s farm intending to ask the headstrong Laurey Williams to the box social. Neither Curly nor Laurey is willing to admit how deeply they care for the other, and Laurey spitefully accepts an invitation from the isolated and menacing farmhand Jud Fry. Around them, the irrepressible Ado Annie struggles to choose between rodeo cowboy Will Parker and traveling peddler Ali Hakim, while farmers and cowmen attempt to put aside their own territorial differences.

Beneath its sunny skies and expansive landscapes, Oklahoma! explores a community poised between an unsettled past and an uncertain future. Laurey’s dream ballet gives physical form to her deepest fears, while Curly’s confrontation with Jud brings danger into a world otherwise filled with courtship, dances, and communal celebration. Rodgers and Hammerstein’s score remains virtually unmatched: “Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’,” “The Surrey with the Fringe on Top,” “Kansas City,” “I Cain’t Say No,” “Many a New Day,” “People Will Say We’re in Love,” “Out of My Dreams,” “The Farmer and the Cowman,” and the rousing title song.