Nine important life lessons from Oklahoma!
On 11 August 2017, John Wilson and his orchestra returned to the Royal Albert Hall with a bevy of Broadway stars for a performance of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s classic musical, Oklahoma!
As well as being a treasure trove of tunes, the show is also the source of some important life lessons, from punctuation to positive thinking and even dietary advice. Here's what we learned.
1. Punctuation improves place names
Oklahoma! Westward Ho! Skegness?
OK, we made the last one up. And Oklahoma doesn’t actually have an exclamation mark after it anywhere except in the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical.
Oklahoma! (the musical) is set in 1900s Oklahoma (the place); now a US state, but in 1906 a mere "organized incorporated territory”. The musical acquired its exclamation mark just before its 1943 debut on Broadway, where it ran for an unprecedented five years.
Oklahoma! was at the vanguard of a bevy of excitingly punctuated musicals, from Oliver! (1960) to Hello, Dolly! (1964) and Moulin Rouge! (2001).
2. If you start the day right, it’ll end right
“Oh what a beautiful morning, oh what a beautiful day. I've got a wonderful feeling, everything's going my way…”
... sings cowboy Curly McLain as he bursts into the musical’s opening, en route to visit beautiful local homesteader and love interest Laurey Williams.
This is the kind of positive mental attitude that we can all benefit from, whether we be handsome, primary colour-wearing cowboys or dental nurses in Croydon.
Curly starts his day with a song and by 9pm has purchased the bride of his dreams at the box social. Who knows where it will get you?
Oh, What A Beautiful Mornin', from Rodgers & Hammerstein's Oklahoma! (Prom 35)
Rodgers & Hammerstein: Oh, What A Beautiful Mornin' (orch. Robert Russell Bennett)
3. Everybody needs an Aunt Eller
Aunt Eller is everyone's favourite character: a wise-cracking, tough-as-nails frontier woman whom everybody wants to claim as a blood relative.
A fearless community leader, she dispenses solid gold life advice, breaks up catfights (sometimes with gunfire) and reveals that she doesn’t wear undies within 35 minutes of the show’s opening.
She’s the kind of woman who can always be relied upon in a crisis and whom everybody, cowboys included, secretly wants to be when they grow up.
4. If you want people to like you, embrace the great outdoors
“Oklahoma! where the wind comes sweepin' down the plain,
And the wavin' wheat can sure smell sweet,
When the wind comes right behind the rain…”
Oklahoma! is as much a celebration of the American landscape as it is of frontier romance. Oscar Hammerstein II's book is packed with references to nature, from rivers to meadows (“medders”) and the produce raised by the farmers.
Oklahoma! from Rodgers & Hammerstein's Oklahoma! (Prom 35)
Rodgers & Hammerstein: Oklahoma! (orch. Robert Russell Bennett)
Oklahoma! A beginner's guide
- Oklahoma! was the first ever collaboration between Broadway composer Richard Rodgers and librettist Oscar Hammerstein II (AKA Rodgers and Hammerstein). Their other big-hitting shows include Carousel (1945), South Pacific (1949), The King and I (1951) and The Sound of Music (1959).
- The musical was a box-office smash when it debuted in 1943 and has enjoyed several revivals both on Broadway and in London's West End. A 1955 film version starring Douglas MacRae and Shirley Jones in the lead roles won Academy Awards for Best Music and Best Sound.
- Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma! is based on Green Grow the Lilacs, a 1931 play by Lynn Riggs that explored the lives of settlers in Oklahoma's Indian Territory. Rigg's play was named after a popular folk song of the era and featured several folk songs in its script – all of which were scrapped in Rodgers and Hammerstein's adaptation. The plot, however, remains almost identical.
- The show charts the tempestuous romance of cowboy Curly McLain and Laurey Williams, a beautiful and spirited farm girl from Oklahoma Territory. Despite the support of the wise community leader Aunt Eller, their match is threatened by Jud Fry, a menacing labourer from Aunt Eller's farm whose obsession with Laurey very nearly leads to tragedy. Meanwhile, Laurey's friend Ado Annie contemplates matches with two very different suitors, Ali Hakim and Will Parker.
- Most of the show's action happens on the day of the box social, a community dance and auction where local farmers and cowboys come together to raise money for their local community, despite long-standing rivalries over fencing rights.
Notably, all of the show’s heroes are marked by their willingness to spend time outdoors, doing wholesome activities like swimming in the river, riding in the cornfields and hanging around Aunt Eller’s orchard.
Meanwhile, we know that shifty farm labourer Jud Fry is a bad un’ from the start because he spends most of his time brooding in the smokehouse.
5. When it comes to technology, never speak too soon
"Everything that can be invented, has been invented." Could the 19th-century patent commissioner who made this short-sighted (and possibly apocryphal) remark have guessed that it would one day resurface, heavily paraphrased, in a Broadway musical?
Probably not.
This wide-eyed sense of wonder at the march of turn-of-the-century technology is expressed by Will Parker and a bevy of tap dancing cowboys in the song Kansas City:
"Everythin's up to date in Kansas City,
They gone about as fer as they can go.
They went an' built a skyscraper seven storeys high.
About as high as a buildin' orta grow."
In 1906, New York already had buildings 12 storeys high. Will Parker's an idiot, but we love him.
6. If you ain’t had no breakfast, go and eat yourself a green apple
It is astonishing how few nutritionists have taken the time to properly credit or acknowledge this excellent piece of dietary advice (as given by Laurey to the local pedlar, Ali Hakim, when he moves in for an amorous nibble).
How can I be whut I ain't? I cain't say no!
7. Indecisiveness is just another word for positive thinking
Ado Annie is one of Oklahoma!’s most relatable characters. In the song I Cain't Say No, she vocalises feelings that nearly all of us have experienced, whether in relation to romance, careers or biscuits.
Annie spends much of the musical trying to choose between nice-but-dim Will Parker and inappropriately lustful Ali Hakim. Her frustration at being told that “You can't just go around kissing every man that asks you” is entirely understandable, given that most of the time she’d really quite like to.
In the modern world, Ado Annie would be contemplating life at the head of a polyamorous family unit consisting of Will Parker, Ali Hakim and her inspirational self. Unfortunately, Oklahoma! is set in the 1900s, so she must content herself with being a subplot.
All Er Nuthin' from Rodgers & Hammerstein's Oklahoma! (Prom 35)
Rodgers & Hammerstein: All Er Nuthin' (orch. Robert Russell Bennett)
8. The best response to romantic rejection is to continue being fabulous
Picture the scene. It's around lunchtime on the day of the box social and Laurey is eagerly awaiting the arrival of on-off beau Curly at the farm – when who should he turn up with but the irritating and beautiful Gertie Cummings.
Many a new face will please my eye, many a new love will find me...
Laurie is royally peeved, but refuses to let her heartbreak show, singing:
"Why should a woman who is healthy and strong
Blubber like a baby if her man goes away,
A weeping and a wailing how he's done her wrong?
That's one thing you'll never hear me say."
It’s the kind of thing you can sing into your hairbrush after a particularly painful break-up; the upbeat Broadway equivalent of or .
9. The farmer and the cowman should be friends
Another timeless piece of wisdom that we can all agree on.
Best bits from Oklahoma! (2017)
Highlights from the Oklahoma! Prom, with John Wilson and his orchestra.
On 11 August a star-studded cast including Scarlett Strallen, Nathaniel Hackmann and Marcus Brigstocke joined John Wilson and his orchestra for a semi-staged Oklahoma! at the 麻豆社 Proms. Listen on and watch on .
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