Essay on Oklahoma

In 1943, the musical Oklahoma!, by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein, influenced the artistic style of American musical theatre. The integration of music, book, dance, and design provided a new foundation for the future of Broadway. The musical illustrates the 1940s lifestyle by capturing the essence of rural America during World War II. Americans were at their rock bottom, as the Great Depression wiped them of all things good. Additionally, some of the most vivid and abrupt changes in the history of American civilization occurred, reshaping society forever. America at war and eight million Americans unemployed in the continuing depression, feared for safety of loved ones abroad fighting for freedom. These things affected American life intensely in 1940s. (Brinkley, 1994). Fortunately, Oklahoma! gave people the opportunity to escape from the real world for the duration of the show.

Oklahoma! The first collaboration of Rodgers and Hammerstein was entitled Oklahoma! The idea of the musical came from a play called Green Grow the Lilacs, written by Lynn Riggs in 1931. This story is about the state of Oklahoma at the turn of the century, when the Indian Territory joined the United States. It is the story of a girl named Laurey Williams and her (sort of) love triangle with two boys by the names of Curley McClain and Jud Fry. Laurey is in love with Curley, but she attends a dance with Jud instead. At the dance, Curley surprised Laurey by bidding an enormous amount on the basket of food she has prepared. They soon marry, and after the wedding, Jud starts a fight with Curley, but he

Oklahoma and New York have several different attributes that make both of them beautiful states in their own right, but they are very differing attributes. Oklahoma being located in the central United States has a completely different climate from that of New York, located in the northeast. Inhabitants from both states come from several different ethnic backgrounds, speaking several different languages. The standard of living in New York can be a lot higher than that of Oklahoma, especially if looking in the New York City area where an apartment can be one and half million dollars.

While Iowa’s top corporate income tax rate of 12% is the highest in the nation, the state did not always tax corporate income at such high levels. When corporate income collections began in 1934, the tax rate was a flat 2% at all levels of corporate income. As the state economy expanded, lawmakers gradually raised the flat rate, until all corporate income was taxed at 4% in 1965. Upon raising the corporate rate again in 1967, the state moved from a flat rate to a graduated rate, which maintained the bottom rate of 4% while adding brackets at 6% for income over $25,000 and 8% over $100,000 (Iowa Dept. of Revenue, 2016). Because most businesses earn over $100,000 in revenue during a given year, the average Iowa business saw their income tax

On December 27, 1927 when the premiere of Show Boat opened in the spectacular new Ziegfeld Theater, producer Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. had brought something new to Broadway. As Katherine Leigh Axtell writes, the show was “neither an operetta nor a musical comedy, neither a vaudeville nor a revue.” For the first time, composer Jerome Kern and lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II seamlessly integrated plot, character, music, and dance into a modern musical production -- starting a new genre of musical, which is often called “musical theater” or “book musical.”

The Black Crook (1866), Show boat (1927), and Oklahoma! (1931) are some examples of early musical theater compositions.

Whiting and Sigmund Romberg,but he is best known for his collaborations with Richard Rodger,as the duo Rodgers and Hammerstein which include oklahoma!

On a warm afternoon in the Pacific, an Admiral inspects the deck of his battleship from the bridge. Battleships play a large role in the Navy as long range artillery support, and as floating fortresses. The U.S.S. Oklahoma was one of these grand ships. After the U.S.S. Oklahoma was commissioned, she served her country for many years before falling victim to the Japanese invasion of Pearl Harbor.

Hammerstein and Rodgers agreed that Hammerstein would write the lyrics to the play and that Rodgers would set the lyrics into the music. Before the play even started Rodgers and Hammerstein were faced with a serious question which was, how they could evoke a pioneer spirit of the turn-of-the-century Oklahoma. The play Oklahoma is about a pair of lovers who are named Curly and Laurey, the lovers can’t figure out how to tell each other that they love each other. There is turmoil in the story because there is a character named Jud, who is a worker at Laurey home. Judd also confesses that he has feeling for Laurey. Oklahoma was able to resonate with the audience because, it was a personal story that was centered around its characters.

The musical was a collaborative effort by the two talents of Rodgers and Hammerstein. Prior to Carousel, the two had found success in various shows independently including shows like The Boys From Syracuse, Pal Joey, and Show Boat. After a falling out between Rodgers and his previous writing partner Hart due to alcoholism, Rodgers approached Hammerstein for opportunity to create new work together (Columbia). On March 31st 1943 Rodgers and Hammerstein found major success with the hit musical, Oklahoma! (Hauser). The musical was the duo’s first step in a direction of evolution in response to resistance to their vision for musical theater. The two had wanted to produce a musical that told more complex stories and substantial character arcs and psychologies, but found resistance in their older partners (Columbia). It was not until the two had met up to work together that they began their journey into their own artistic vision. Naturally after the success of

Richard Rodgers, composer and Oscar Hammerstein II librettist/lyricist joined forces in 1943 to create the most consistently productive and successful partnership in the American musical theatre. Oklahoma!, the first Rodgers & Hammerstein musical, was also the first of a new genre, the musical play, blending Rodgers' sophisticated style of musical comedy with Hammerstein's innovations in operetta. A milestone in the development of the American musical, it also marked the beginning of the most successful partnership in Broadway musical history, and was followed by Carousel, Allegro, South Pacific, The King and I, Me and Juliet, Pipe Dream, Flower Drum Song and The Sound of Music (Rodgers). Within Rodgers and Hammerstein’s show, South Pacific it has an underlying theme dealing with race. Rodgers and Hammerstein instilled a social change dealing with racism through, insistence on including a message about racial tolerance within South Pacific and how it is directly dealing with miscegenation and its tragic after-effects in the 20th century South.

composed by Rudolph Firml, Sigmund Romberg, and George Gershwin. Oscar Hammerstein had a successful career before beginning his partnership with Rodgers. He collaborated with Jerome Kern on eight musicals, most notably Show Boat, and wrote the book and lyrics for Carmen Jones, which was the 1943 all-black version of Georges Bizet’s opera Carmen.

Hawaii and Oklahoma share similarities but live very differently at the same time. Hawaii and Oklahoma remain mostly complete opposites. However, they both hold popular tourist attractions. Hawaii, a democratic state, and Oklahoma, a republican state, vote differently. Hawaii remains considered the healthiest state, unlike Oklahoma, which remains considered one of the least healthiest states, taking into account smokers and people who are obese. Hawaii and Oklahoma may stay opposites but most people will not deny both can share experiences of a lifetime.

The film version of Oklahoma utilizes the song and movements similarly to the stage performance. Much of the Oh What a Beautiful mornin' number was done by Curly riding his horse on his way to Aunt Eller's farm. However he continues to sing upon his arrival. Thus luring Laurey out of the house.

He continued to say that with their first collaboration, Rodgers and Hammerstein ushered in a new era for the musical theatre. This beautiful folk play realized fully that which the earlier Rodgers and Hart musicals had been striving to obtain: a synchronization of all the elements of the musical theatre into a single entity. At best Oklahoma! could lay legitimate claim to have carefully woven a new element, dance, into the artful fabric of the modern musical. No longer would singers sing and then go into their dance, a purely decorative dance at that. (248)