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... oma! had proved, on opening night, a stunning stage experience such as one does not often encounter in a lifetime of play going. From the moment the curtain rose and the first lines of the first song were sung, down to the final scene with the presentation of the title number, the audience sat spellbound as a new kind of stage art unfolded with incomparable beauty and majesty. (181) Along with dance and villains, Rodgers and Hammerstein also took on a new approach to forming the music that they included in the musical.
In Gerald Bordman's second book American Musical Theatre: A Chronicle, he stated that long before they wrote their first lyric to "Oh What A Beautiful Mornin' ", Rodgers and Hammerstein had arrived at an all-important decision. The "flotsam and jetsam" of musical comedy would have to be abandoned in translating a sensitive, poetic folk play for the musical theatre. Musical comedies traditionally opened with a big, crowded stage scene. Oklahoma! would begin simply: a single character would be seen on the stage (a woman churning butter), and from off-stage would come the strains of the first song. Musical comedies usually started with a dazzling line of chorus girls from the stage aprons early in the production, but Rodgers and Hammerstein decided to delay its appearance until halfway through the first act. (535) Audiences had become accustomed to the grand opening number and chorus.
It did bring a certain magical and triumphant beginning to a musical, starting with excitement and volume. This was also criticized, many feeling an audience would not stand for their most treasured attributes of a play being taken away. But Rodgers and Hammerstein once again took another risk, and it proved to be a risk that was not too bad to take. Audiences were at first disappointed with the deletion of the opening chorus, but eventually excused it, for they fell in love with the style of musical that Rodgers and Hammerstein were presenting to them.
The play grew from a simple opening to a grand finale, which built the excitement of the audience and kept them stimulated and interested in the unfolding of the musical until the final chorus line and curtain call. It built suspense and a burning for more. Rodgers and Hammerstein obviously knew what they were doing, even if the critics thought they did not. Bordman also noted that the show's musical director, Jay Blackton, appreciating the work's nature, discarded the common musical comedy practice of having the entire chorus sing only songs' melodies. Instead, he reverted to the tradition of operetta and comic opera by dividing his singers and assigning them various parts, not always the principal melodic line. (535) Once again, Oklahoma! was making breakthrough innovations in the world on Musical Theatre.
A denial of basic characteristics of the original musical comedy could have upset the audience, and push Oklahoma! into an area of outcast musicals that all writers fear. But Rodgers and Hammerstein's ideas were undeniably refreshing to the American audiences. Rodgers' music also marked a new direction for the writer in Oklahoma! .
He reinvented his style of music from what he knew was popular to the audience to a rugged flatness. Davis Ewen also states in his book The Story of Americas Musical Theatre, that most musical comedies expected the music to be written before the lyrics, since the lyrics were something functional tacked on to the melody. But the writers were so determined to make each word an essential part of the text that they agreed at once for Hammerstein to write the lyrics first, and Rodgers would write the music from the lyrics. (180) Bordman reiterates that it is sometimes hard to realize that "Oh, What A Beautiful Mornin' " is a waltz. The melody of "The Surry With The Fringe On Top" captures the clippers-clop of a horse pulling the vehicle.
Rodgers' long-sustained opening note of his title song coupled with the driving melody that follows was of the freshest inventions of the sort and the impeccable blending of words and music in "People Will Say We " re In Love" justifiably made it the most popular of the year. Much proclaiming ensued over how well the songs and plot were integrated. (535) This coordination of musical rhythm and words was amazing. They were able to catch simple sounds of the actions on stage and incorporate them into the song, as if the lives of the characters could only survive with the music. This combination of music, sound, and stage movement is an essential key in musical theatre. The audience must be made to believe that the characters life is a song.
It is essential that the character make the audience feel like the music is not just a silly addition to the developing plot, but an existing item that has and will always exist at that point in time. The audience must be pulled into the world of the musical, not just simply entertained. And once again, Rodgers and Hammerstein had achieved that goal. The integration was complete to the T. They were well on their way to creating a musical that was so seamless that extracting one minor detail of it would throw the whole work of art off.
It was a work of complete union and an accomplishment that was in no way easy to create in the first place. One factor in the success of Oklahoma! that cannot be overlooked was the attitude of the American people at the time it was presented. In The World of Musical Comedy, Stanley Green adds that World War II was more than a year old when the musical opened, and those who remained at home were becoming increasingly aware of the heritage they enjoyed as a free people. Seeing the happier, sunnier days that were so much a part of this heritage gave audiences both an escape from daily headlines and a feeling of optimism for the future. (212) In American Musical Comedy, Bordman believed that Oklahoma!'s importance lay elsewhere. The show made the American musical theatre look at America's own heritage for inspiration.
Members of the American past hereafter provided a fertile field for librettists. (160) Play writes were beginning to recognize the vast amount of inspiration the American country could provide for the new revolution of musicals. During the time of and after World War II, pride in America was gaining strength and so was the interest of writing plays and musicals that showed that pride of how great America was. Oklahoma! in turn brought more than just new innovations of song, music, and dance to the stage, but a love for musicals that showed how beautiful older American culture was.
Oklahoma! was a musical of Americas expansion into the western front and the western culture. In more ways that one, Oklahoma! was a way for city dwellers in New York City who sat in the audience to find their way to the west without ever leaving the city. Rodgers and Hammerstein had experienced achievement when they could tell a story through song and dance and transport the audience into the setting of the musical. Playgoers would leave the theatre feeling like they had just returned from an adventure out west, which is a play writes exclusive objective when creating a play.
The audience must be made to believe that they are experiencing the plot right along with the actors on stage. Thus is the main objective of theatre in general; to capture the audience and bring them to a different place and time where the plot of the play is the only struggle in the world at the time. Rodgers and Hammerstein captured the essence of the musical art in Oklahoma! . The audience was able to experience the sounds and motions of the west through the characters, music, lyrics, costumes, sets, and dance of the musical.
All aspects had been woven together to form a musical quilt that attracted a spectrum of attention and amazement like no other play or musical had done before. Bordman writes in American Musical Theatre: A Chronicle that what started in 1927 was perfected in 1943 when Oklahoma! premiered. It is considered by many to be the first musical comedy to have a plot, musical score and dances that were necessary ingredients to advance the story line. (536) It is only fair to agree with him.
Rodgers and Hammerstein added the exact ingredients to create a magical and seductive musical that riveted audiences and even continues to attract audiences all over the world to this day. Although Oklahoma! premiered some 40 years ago, and its style of music and dance have grown old with the passing of time, it still demands respect for its combination and imaginative ideas that revolutionized the musical industry at the time. Rodgers and Hammerstein were the dominate force in musical comedy in the 1940 's and 50 's.
Even their flops had notable songs. Several of their shows became successful films. Oklahoma!'s importance in opening a new era in the American Musical Theatre will never be challenged. It has become an American classic that society will forever treasure for its beautiful integration of song and dance. Works Cited Bordman, Gerald. American Musical Comedy.
Oxford: Oxford UP, 1986. -- -. American Musical Theater: A Chronicle. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1986. Ewen, David. American Musical Theater.
New York: Henry Holt, 1959. -- -. The Story of Americas Musical Theater. New York: Chilton, 1968. Green, Stanley. The World of Musical Comedy. Washington, DC: Da Capo, 1980.
Swain, Joseph P. The Broadway Musical: A Critical and Musical Survey. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1990.
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