The wind will come sweeping down the plain when Broken Arrow High School Theatre presents Rodgers and Hammerstein’s classic musical, “Oklahoma!,” running April 30- May 3 at the Broken Arrow Performing Arts Center. This student produced, acted and technically directed production features nearly 100 BAPS students in one of the largest musicals of the region.
“The legacy of this musical in conjunction with our state and the Broadway world at large is thoroughly astounding,” said BAHS Theatre director Jeremy Stevens. “It’s known as the quintessential American musical not only for its gorgeous songs and score, but also for its dramatic telling of pre-statehood Oklahoma and the folks who inhabited this region.”
The first musical collaboration between Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, “Oklahoma!” is based on the 1931 play “Green Grow The Lilacs,” written by Claremore native Lynn Riggs. The musical first came to the stage in 1943 and ran for five years and nine months for 2,248 shows, debuting during WWII, bringing a sense of joy and American identity to an anxious nation at war.
Winning a Pulitzer Prize and spawning an Oscar-winning film version starring Shirley Jones and Gordon MacRae, “Oklahoma!” has been credited with being the first musical to fully integrate its book, score and choreography towards advancing the plot of the show—something musicals at the time rarely did. The show has been reimagined many times over the years all over the world, but the Discoveryland production in Sand Springs that ran from 1977 to 2011 was designated as the “National Home of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma!”
Set in farm country outside the town of Claremore in 1906, “Oklahoma!” tells the story of farm girl Laurey Williams and her courtship by two rival suitors: cowboy Curly McLain and the sinister and frightening farmhand Jud Fry. Other colorful characters including the flirtatious Ado Annie, her cowboy fiancé Will Parker and the sturdy-handed matriarch of it all, Aunt Eller.
With such memorable musical numbers as “Oh, What A Beautiful Mornin’,” “I Cain’t Say No,” “People Will Say We’re In Love” and the rousing title song, Broken Arrow fans have been waiting since 1999 to see the production again, when it was last directed by theatre department legacy JoJo Nichols.
Tickets for “Oklahoma!” are available at the Broken Arrow PAC box office by calling 918-259-5778 or visiting online at BrokenArrowPAC.com.