50 Fun Facts About Oklahoma! (Musical)

Which young screen idol made a much-praised screen test for Curly in the 1955 film Oklahoma! but lost the part?

James Dean impressed in his screen test, but his singing voice was judged too weak, and the part went to a trained baritone. Paul Newman tried out for Curly too.

The 1955 film Oklahoma! was shot mostly in which other state, reportedly because oil wells cluttered the real landscape?

Arizona stood in for the title state, with the opening cornfield filmed at the historic Canoa Ranch. Studio scenes were shot on the MGM lot in Culver City, California.

Which Australian actor played Curly in the National Theatre's 1998 London revival of Oklahoma! before Hollywood fame?

Hugh Jackman earned an Olivier nomination as Curly shortly before X-Men made him Wolverine. Actors' Equity then blocked plans to bring the London cast to Broadway, insisting on American actors.

In Oklahoma!, Curly tempts Laurey to the box social by describing what kind of fringe-topped horse-drawn carriage?

A surrey is a four-wheeled carriage that was popular in America around 1900. Curly claims he invented the whole thing once Laurey teases him, though he really has rented one.

What food did the 2019 Broadway revival of Oklahoma!, set in a community hall, serve its audience at intermission?

Chili and cornbread were handed out at intermission, part of an immersive staging that sat the audience around the action. The production won the 2019 Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical.

Which singer under personal contract to Rodgers and Hammerstein made her film debut as Laurey in 1955's Oklahoma!?

Shirley Jones was the only singer the songwriters ever put under personal contract. She later won an Oscar for Elmer Gantry and played the mother in TV's The Partridge Family.

In 1953 Oklahoma's legislature gave the title number of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma! which official status?

State song honours went to the show tune in place of the obscure "Oklahoma - A Toast", adopted in 1935. No other US state has taken its anthem from a Broadway show.

In which 1980s romantic comedy do the two leads sing a karaoke version of a Curly number from Oklahoma!?

When Harry Met Sally has Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan croon Curly's carriage tune into a karaoke machine. The 1989 film arrived 46 years after the number was first heard on Broadway.

How does the farmhand Jud Fry die after attacking Curly at the wedding in the stage musical Oklahoma!?

Jud falls on his knife when Curly dodges his lunge, and a hasty trial on the spot clears the groom. The 2019 Broadway revival restaged the moment so that Curly kills him on purpose.

From which booming Midwestern town does Ado Annie's cowboy sweetheart return with souvenirs in Oklahoma!?

Kansas City gets a whole number about its modern marvels from the returning cowboy. The 1955 film moved it to a railway station, where he steps off the train to a waiting crowd.

At the box social in Oklahoma!, what do the local women prepare for the men to bid on at auction?

Lunch baskets go to the highest bidder, who wins the company of the woman who packed it. Curly and Jud turn the sale of Laurey's into a ferocious bidding war.

The box social auction in Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma! raises money to build what for the community?

A schoolhouse is the cause, so every bid doubles as a donation. Real box socials raised money the same way for churches and civic projects across rural America.

Which two feuding groups are told to get along in the square dance that opens Act II of Oklahoma!?

Farmers and cowmen are at odds over fences and water rights, and the dance meant to unite them breaks into a brawl. Aunt Eller has to silence the whole crowd before it can go on.

After selling his saddle and horse, what last possession does Curly give up to outbid Jud Fry in Oklahoma!?

His gun is the last thing to go, so the cowboy wins the auction with nothing left of his old trade. Curly soon accepts that marrying Laurey means settling down to work the land.

Which 1945 musical set on the Maine coast did Rodgers and Hammerstein write as their follow-up to Oklahoma!?

Carousel reunited much of the creative team behind Oklahoma!, and Rodgers later called it his favourite of all his musicals. It moved a Hungarian play from Budapest to New England.

The 1943 Decca release of Oklahoma!, a million-seller, set the precedent for which lasting Broadway tradition?

Original cast albums became standard after Decca recorded the stage performers with their full orchestra. Until then, show tunes were usually cut by pop singers with smaller bands.

Reversing the usual Broadway practice of the day, which part of each Oklahoma! number did its creators finish first?

The lyrics came first because Hammerstein liked to finish his words before any music existed, and Rodgers was happy to set them. It let each number arise from the story instead of stopping it.

Which film comedian did a producer want as the peddler in the original Oklahoma!, which opened with no stars?

Groucho Marx was the suggestion of producer Theresa Helburn, but the writers held out for performers who suited the roles. Casting singers who could act, not actors who could sing, was unusual then.

Which HBO series set in Tulsa threads songs and character names from Oklahoma! through its story?

Watchmen goes as far as a fully staged performance of the title number, and its Tulsa police chief is called Judd. Several tunes from the show also run through the 2019 superhero drama's score.

Which later musical was the first to outlast the five-year Broadway run of Oklahoma!, a record for musicals?

My Fair Lady took the long-run crown after opening in 1956. Oklahoma! had kept it through every hit of the years between, having closed in 1948 after 2,212 performances.

Which future Hollywood villain earned an Olivier newcomer nomination as Jud Fry in London's 1980 revival of Oklahoma!?

Alfred Molina went from the menacing farmhand to Doctor Octopus in Spider-Man 2 and the treacherous guide in Raiders of the Lost Ark. The same staging gave Maria Friedman her West End debut.

Which future star of The Conjuring films earned a Tony nomination as Curly in Broadway's 2002 revival of Oklahoma!?

Patrick Wilson took over Curly when the London staging crossed the Atlantic with a mostly American cast. It was his second Tony nomination, following one for The Full Monty.

Which honour did Oklahoma! receive in 1944, at a time when the Tony Awards had not yet been created?

A special Pulitzer Prize went to Rodgers and Hammerstein in 1944. The Tonys caught up half a century later, giving the show a special award for its 50th anniversary in 1993.

Which future star of TV's Green Acres played the travelling peddler in the 1955 film version of Oklahoma!?

Eddie Albert played the womanizing salesman a decade before Green Acres made him a sitcom star. His character's big stage number was one of only two songs the film left out.

Under what title did Oklahoma! begin its out-of-town tryouts in March 1943, before a hit number renamed it?

Away We Go was the name on the posters until the restaged title number proved a show-stopper and gave the musical its new name. Expectations were low, since the show had no stars at all.

Which 1931 play by Oklahoma-born playwright Lynn Riggs did Rodgers and Hammerstein adapt into Oklahoma!?

Green Grow the Lilacs lasted only 64 performances on Broadway in 1931. Its Curly was Franchot Tone, and its peddler was Lee Strasberg, later famous as a teacher of method acting.

Which choreographer was hired for the original Oklahoma! on the strength of her 1942 cowboy ballet Rodeo?

Agnes de Mille built a long dream ballet in which dancers stood in for the leads, letting movement carry the plot, a device many later musicals borrowed.

Which longtime partner of Richard Rodgers passed on the project that became Oklahoma!, finding its cowhands corny?

Lorenz Hart preferred urbane, witty shows and left for Mexico, telling Rodgers to try Hammerstein. On opening night he applauded from Row B and hugged his old partner at the party afterwards.

Which showman walked out of an Oklahoma! tryout predicting failure, then backed the widescreen process used to film it?

Mike Todd left after the first act, sure that a show without chorus girls or gags was doomed. His Todd-AO 70 mm process made its debut twelve years later with the screen version.

Which Austrian-American director made the only musical of his career with the 1955 film version of Oklahoma!?

Fred Zinnemann was known for tense dramas such as High Noon and From Here to Eternity. He shot most scenes twice, once for each of two widescreen systems, so two versions with different takes exist.

Which baritone, a regular screen partner of Doris Day, won the role of Curly in the 1955 film Oklahoma!?

Gordon MacRae had sung opposite Doris Day in Tea for Two and On Moonlight Bay. His trained voice won out over the film stars who tested for the cowboy lead.

Which actor, fresh from playing Marlon Brando's brother in On the Waterfront, played Jud Fry in 1955's Oklahoma!?

Rod Steiger did his own singing as the brooding farmhand, a rare musical outing for an actor who later won an Oscar for In the Heat of the Night.

Which actress became the first wheelchair user to win a Tony, for playing Ado Annie in the 2019 Oklahoma! revival?

Ali Stroker had already been the first actor using a wheelchair to appear on a Broadway stage, in Spring Awakening in 2015. Her Ado Annie won Best Featured Actress in a Musical.

Which woman with a loud, grating laugh does the peddler end up marrying by the end of Oklahoma!?

Gertie Cummings spends the show flirting with Curly, then returns as the peddler's bride after her father forces the match. He had spent two acts wriggling out of marrying Ado Annie.

Oklahoma! is credited with perfecting which form of show, in which songs and dances serve a serious story?

The book musical weaves every number into a well-made plot with real dramatic stakes. Show Boat had pointed the way in 1927, but Oklahoma! made the approach the Broadway model for decades.

In Oklahoma!, where on the farm does the hired hand Jud Fry live, the setting for his tense visit from Curly?

The smokehouse is where Curly jokingly suggests Jud would only be appreciated once he was dead, in the duet Pore Jud Is Daid. Left alone there, Jud vows to make Laurey his bride.

Which Doctor Who actor won a 2023 Olivier Award for playing Curly in the West End revival of Oklahoma!?

Arthur Darvill, Rory Williams in the BBC series, won Best Actor in a Musical after the production moved from the Young Vic to Wyndham's Theatre. It also took the Olivier for Best Musical Revival.

Which director of Cats and Les Misérables staged the dark-themed 1998 National Theatre revival of Oklahoma! in London?

Trevor Nunn's production sold out, moved to the Lyceum and was filmed for DVD and US public television. It returned to cinemas in 2023 to mark its 25th anniversary.

Which director of the first Porgy and Bess staged the original 1943 Broadway production of Oklahoma!?

Rouben Mamoulian backed the writers when they refused to cast stars, and he returned with the same choreographer to direct the 1951 Broadway revival.

Oklahoma! is set in 1906 in farm country outside which real town, near the birthplace of playwright Lynn Riggs?

Claremore still honours the link with a Lynn Riggs Memorial. Riggs, who was of Cherokee descent, was born on a farm nearby when the area was still Indian Territory.

Which earlier composer partner of Oscar Hammerstein declined when he proposed adapting the play that became Oklahoma!?

Jerome Kern, the composer of Show Boat, turned the idea down in 1942. Hammerstein then learned that Rodgers held the rights and needed a writer, and he eagerly took the chance.

Because its new 70 mm process ran at 30 frames per second, the 1955 film Oklahoma! was also shot in which format?

CinemaScope 35 mm prints let ordinary cinemas show the film, because the 70 mm negative could not be reduced to standard 24-frame stock. The two versions are made up of different takes.

Why did the 1947 British premiere of Oklahoma!, its company arriving by sea, open a day late in Manchester?

Their ship ran aground on a sandbank off Southampton with the cast, scenery and costumes aboard. The show reached London twelve days later and stayed for 1,543 performances.

Which brooding solo for Jud Fry was cut from the 1955 film Oklahoma! but sung in 2020's I'm Thinking of Ending Things?

Lonely Room gives the villain his only solo, a vow to win Laurey. The film dropped it along with the peddler's comic number, the only two songs it left out.

In Oklahoma!, which picture-viewing souvenir hides a blade that Jud Fry plans to use on Curly at the box social?

Little Wonder is the name of the metal tube, bought as an innocent gift by a cowboy unaware of its secret. Aunt Eller foils the attack by loudly asking Curly to dance.

Which director reimagined Oklahoma! for Broadway in 2019 with a seven-piece band and a far darker ending?

Daniel Fish first tried the idea in a 2015 workshop at Bard College, then at St. Ann's Warehouse in Brooklyn. His version made the farmhand's death a deliberate killing, followed by a sham trial.

The peddler in Oklahoma! is Syrian in Lynn Riggs's 1931 play, but Rodgers and Hammerstein gave him which nationality?

Persian is how the musical bills its travelling salesman, who sells Laurey a potion said to reveal her true love. The bottle sends her into the long dream that closes the first act.

Which West 44th Street playhouse was home to the original Broadway production of Oklahoma! from 1943 to 1948?

St. James Theatre audiences kept the show running for 2,212 performances. Howard Keel took over as Curly there before leading the London company.

Which future Oscar winner for Gentleman's Agreement originated Ado Annie in the 1943 Broadway cast of Oklahoma!?

Celeste Holm made her name with the comic role and its showpiece, I Cain't Say No. Hollywood followed, and she won her Academy Award for a film released four years later.

Which struggling New York producing society staged the original Oklahoma! in the hope that a hit would revive it?

The Theatre Guild's Theresa Helburn had the idea after seeing a summer-stock revival of the original play padded out with folk songs and square dances. The Guild had first staged that play itself in 1931.