Broadway saw many "great moments" throughout the 20th century, and we're visiting several of them in the course of this year's festival concert offerings. For one of Broadway's greatest, Richard Rodgers, the year 1943 held special significance: it saw both the end of his long-standing and brilliant collaboration with Lorenz Hart and the beginning of his shorter but equally brilliant collaboration with Oscar Hammerstein II. And it saw a significant shift as well in the style of show that his team created, from the witty, urbane musical comedies at which Rodgers & Hart excelled in the 1920s and '30s, to the serious, almost operatic musical dramas that marked Rodgers and Hammerstein's work during the 1940s and '50s.
Indeed, it could be argued that 1943 was a watershed year not only for Richard Rodgers, but for Broadway too. Certainly, fully-integrated, serious musical theatre had been attempted--and had often succeeded magnificently--before Rodgers & Hammerstein's Oklahoma! opened at The St. James Theatre on March 31, 1943. And musical comedy has continued to thrive along the Great White Way well after Rodgers & Hart's November 1943 revival of A Connecticut Yankee closed. Yet there is no doubt that what Rodgers had created with Hammerstein marked the beginning of something new--what historians now often refer to as the Golden Age of Musical Theatre--and that Rodgers' last hurrah with Hart could be seen as the symbolic end of what we like to call the Golden Age of Musical Comedy...an age that cared much more for word-play than the dramatic situation, that preferred a sophisticated witticism and shunned profundity like the plague. Two different ages of an art form that each reflected, perhaps, the unique spirit of their respective times.
So in the spirit of our theme, "Time After Time", we thought to celebrate Richard Rodgers' 1943 with all-new productions of both musicals: the light-hearted Rodgers & Hart comedy A Connecticut Yankee and Rodgers & Hammerstein's ground-breaking drama Oklahoma!. Two stunningly good, yet very different properties representing two very different "times" in the history of the musical and of America more generally.
This year, fulfilling a long-standing dream, we've mounted A Connecticut Yankee at The Shedd's Jaqua Concert Hall, which we believe to be, in size and intimacy, ideally suited to the musical comedy form. Oklahoma! we offer at the Hult Center's Silva Concert Hall, which in like manner is well-suited to the larger-scale musical theatre of the 1940s and '50s. We hope you can join us for both!
In early March 1943, the curtains opened at the Shubert Theatre in New Haven, a single cowboy named Curly stepped onto the stage, burst into song, and a new type of musical was born. Rodgers & Hammerstein’s musical adaptation of Lynn Rigg’s 1931 play, Green Grow The Lilacs, wasn’t the first “serious” musical, to stand out against the comedies that dominated the 1920s and ‘30s, but it was--and remains today-- one of the best…a stunning work on all fronts.
Based on a magnificent story that is both touching and heart-rending, Oklahoma! is filled with classic songs. Look for "Oh, What A Beautiful Morning", "The Surrey With The Fringe On Top", "I'm Just A Girl Who Cain't Say No", "People Will Say We're In Love", and more.
Our fresh new production at the Hult Center's Silva Concert Hall is once again under the direction and choreography of Richard Jessup, with past OFAM stars including Shirley Andress, Bill Hulings, Lyn Burg, Matt Musgrove, and Wade Hicks, with an energetic ensemble that includes members of The Eugene Ballet, who recreate the famous "Laura's Dream", originally set by Agness de Mille and set for us by Mr. Jessup. With Robert Ashens in the pit, it will be an evening to remember.
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Event Personnel |
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Creative Team |
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Cast |
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Female Ensemble |
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Male Ensemble |
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| Oh, What A Beautiful Mornin' |
| The Farmer And The Cowman |
| Reprise: Oh, What A Beautiful Mornin' |