Heading for Broadway

Abstract

Although there was a complete libretto for what became Oklahoma! when the typical five weeks of rehearsals began on 8 February 1943, plus a number of the songs, there was still much work to do. The principal cast was fixed, including Alfred Drake (Curly), Joan Roberts (Laurey), Celeste Holm (Ado Annie), and Joseph Buloff (Ali Hakim), but others still needed to be recruited (Howard da Silva as Jud Fry). Some roles were expanded (Gertie Cummings) and others dropped (Lotta Gonzales, who was to have ended up marrying Ali Hakim). Act 1 was fixed early on, but act 2 was subject to constant revision even during the tryouts in New Haven and Boston (when the show was titled Away We Go!). In part this was due to problems of staging, but Rodgers and Hammerstein also remained unclear on the musical contents until the week before the Broadway opening, on 31 March 1943.