In the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical Oklahoma!, Ado Annie is the comic foil to Laurey’s ingenue — Annie is half of the Second Couple, as it were. And one of her signature songs, “I Cain’t Say No,” perfectly summarizes Ado Annie’s plight.
The general plot goes like this:
Set in Western Indian Territory just after the turn of the 20th Century, the spirited rivalry between the local farmers and cowboys provides the backdrop for the love story between Curly, a handsome cowboy, and Laurey, a beautiful farm girl.
stageagent.com/...
Oklahoma! was a watershed in the development of modern musical theater.
This musical, building on the innovations of the earlier Show Boat, epitomized the development of the "book musical", a musical play where the songs and dances are fully integrated into a well-made story, with serious dramatic goals, that is able to evoke genuine emotions other than amusement.[2]
en.wikipedia.org/...!
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Monday Youffraita
Who sang it best?
Celeste Holm:
Hammerstein’s collaborators before Rodgers
all wrote music first, for which Hammerstein then wrote lyrics. The role reversal in the Rodgers and Hammerstein partnership permitted Hammerstein to craft the lyrics into a fundamental part of the story so that the songs could amplify and intensify the story instead of diverting it.[8] As Rodgers and Hammerstein began developing the new musical, they agreed that their musical and dramatic choices would be dictated by the source material, Green Grow the Lilacs, not by musical comedy conventions.[9] Musicals of that era featured big production numbers, novelty acts, and show-stopping specialty dances; the libretti typically focused on humor, with little dramatic development, punctuated with songs that effectively halted the story for their duration.[11]
en.wikipedia.org/...!
Christine Ebersole (with Christine Andreas as Laurey; 1979 Broadway revival):
The collaborators’ choices in casting represent another innovation:
Between the world wars, roles in musicals were usually filled by actors who could sing, but Rodgers and Hammerstein chose, conversely, to cast singers who could act. Though Theresa Helburn, codirector of the Theatre Guild, suggested Shirley Temple as Laurey and Groucho Marx as Ali Hakim, Rodgers and Hammerstein, with director Rouben Mamoulian's support, insisted that performers more dramatically appropriate for the roles be cast. As a result, there were no stars in the production, another unusual step.[8]
en.wikipedia.org/...
Kristin Chenoweth:
Oklahoma! was an instant hit.
The first title given to the work was Away We Go! which opened for out-of-town-tryouts in New Haven's Shubert Theatre on March 11, 1943.[12] Expectations for the show were low; Hammerstein had written six flops in a row, and the show had no star power. Producer Mike Todd walked out after the first act during the tryout and wisecracked, "No girls, no gags, no chance."[13] ✂️Of the changes made before the show went to Broadway, two would prove significant: the addition of the show-stopping musical number, "Oklahoma" and the decision to retitle the musical after that number.[14]
Todd had been wrong; the show opened on Broadway to raves from the critics, sold out, and won a special Pulitzer Prize.[15] Brooks Atkinson wrote in The New York Times that the show's opening number, "Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin'" changed the history of musical theater: "After a verse like that, sung to a buoyant melody, the banalities of the old musical stage became intolerable."[10]
en.wikipedia.org/...!
Vicki Simon (Original London cast, 1998 — this is the famous revival starring Hugh Jackman as Curly):
William A. Everett and Paul R. Laird wrote that this was a "show, that, like Show Boat, became a milestone, so that later historians writing about important moments in twentieth-century theatre would begin to identify eras according to their relationship to Oklahoma!".[62]
en.wikipedia.org/...
Melissa Errico:
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Lagniappe: Hugh Jackman
(with Maureen Lipman as Aunt Eller)
(with Josefina Gabrielle as Laurey)
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Have a terrific day!