Oklahoma! - 1943 - US Tour Articles Page 14

Today in 2002, Oklahoma! opened at the Gershwin Theatre, where it ran for 388 performances. Oklahoma! is the first musical written by the team of composer Richard Rodgers and librettist Oscar Hammerstein II. The musical is based on Lynn Riggs' 1931 play, Green Grow the Lilacs. Set in Oklahoma Territory outside the town of Claremore in 1906, it tells the story of cowboy Curly McLain and his romance with farm girl Laurey Williams. The original Broadway production opened on March 31, 1943. The 2002 revival featured Josefina Gabrielle as Laurey, Shuler Hensley as Jud, Patrick Wilson as Curly and Andrea Martin as Aunt Eller.

-This summer marks another historic milestone for the annual Bard SummerScape festival. For the first time since its founding, this season's focus is on the music and culture of Italy, with seven weeks of music, opera, theater, dance, film, and cabaret keyed to the theme of the 27th Bard Music Festival, "Puccini and His World." This intensive examination of the life and times of Giacomo Puccini opens a window onto Italy's rich musical heritage from Palestrina to Menotti, by way of the most popular and successful - yet, paradoxically, frequently critically underrated - opera composer of all time. Complementing the music festival, some of the Tuscan master's most compelling compatriots provide other key SummerScape highlights.

This summer marks another historic milestone for the annual Bard SummerScape festival. For the first time since its founding, this season's focus is on the music and culture of Italy, with seven weeks of music, opera,theater, dance, film, and cabaret keyed to the theme of the 27th Bard Music Festival, "Puccini and His World." This intensive examination of the life and times of Giacomo Puccini opens a window onto Italy's rich musical heritage from Palestrina to Menotti, by way of the most popular and successful - yet, paradoxically, frequently critically underrated - opera composer of all time. Complementing the music festival, some of the Tuscan master's most compelling compatriots provide other key SummerScape highlights. These include a rare, fully staged production of Iris, a forerunner of Madama Butterfly by Puccini's close contemporary Pietro Mascagni; the world premiere of Demolishing Everything with Amazing Speed, four newly unearthed puppet plays from leading Italian Futurist Fortunato Depero, as reimagined by Dan Hurlin;the world premiere of Fantasque, a new ballet set to the music of Respighi and Rossini by John Heginbotham and Amy Trompetter; a film series on "Puccini and the Operatic Impulse in Cinema"; and the return of Bard's authentic and sensationally popularSpiegeltent,hosted by the inimitable Mx. Justin Vivian Bond. Taking place between July 1 and August 14 in the Frank Gehry-designed Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts and other venues on Bard College's stunning Hudson River campus, SummerScape's 2016 offerings provide new opportunities to discover that, as Time Out New York puts it, "the experience of entering the Fisher Center and encountering something totally new is unforgettable and enriching." Tickets go on sale on Monday, February 15; click here for more information.

As BroadwayWorld reported this morning, Bette Midler will indeed return to Broadway in one of the most cherished shows in musical theater history when she takes on the role of Dolly Gallagher Levi in Michael Stewart's (book) and Jerry Herman's (music and lyrics) masterpiece, Hello, Dolly!. Directed by four-time Tony Award® winner Jerry Zaks, Hello, Dolly! will begin performances on Broadway on March 13, 2017, with an official opening night of April 20, 2017. Rehearsals begin one year from today. This new production of Hello, Dolly!, the first new production of this classic musical to appear on Broadway since it opened more than fifty years ago, will have at its helm Jerry Zaks as its director, and will feature choreography by Tony Award-winner Warren Carlyle. The new Dolly! will pay tribute to the original work of legendary director/choreographer Gower Champion, which has been hailed both then and now as one of the greatest stagings in musical theater history. Below, reacquaint yourself with the creative team, old and new!

Equal parts self-congratulatory and self-deprecating--and wholly entertaining--the three-man show BARITONES UNBOUND pays homage to that elusive vocal part between the tenor and the bass: the titular baritone. Conceived by Marc Kudisch (who originated the role of Pastor Greg last spring in Broadway's Hand to God), and written by Kudisch, Merwin Foard, Jeff Matsey, and Timothy Splain, BARITONES UNBOUND traces the evolution of the baritone from the 18th century to the present, with fun quips and historical tidbits along the way. The show deftly follows the path of the baritone from Mozart's 1791 opera THE MAGIC FLUTE to the emergence of American musical theater with Rodgers and Hammerstein's 1943 OKLAHOMA! to present-day Broadway--with some popular music thrown in there, as well--all in under two hours.

Westport Country Playhouse will host a holiday online auction, called "Encore! Encore," to support the historic theater, for one week only, from Monday, December 14, at 5 p.m., through Monday, December 21, at 5 p.m.

The latest in unauthorized gossip and buzz from the heart of Chicago's showtune video bars, and musical theater news from Chicago to Broadway. 'Irving Berlin' arrives in town, and screenings of 'Little Shop' and 'Oklahoma!' light 'em up. Jess Godwin sang with Kristin Chenoweth, and a Thanksgiving musical prepares, as do 'Seussical,' 'The Merry Widow' and 'My Way.' And Broadway In Chicago and the Drury Lane Theatre announce lineups for 2016!

Students will soon be able to take the stage in new, age-friendly versions of the classic musicals OKLAHOMA! and ONCE UPON A MATTRESS.

People will say they're in love when they take their families to see Hale Centre Theatre's rendition of the iconic Rodgers and Hammerstein production, Oklahoma! Tickets are on sale now for the Midwestern masterpiece scheduled to run August 12 - October 3 in nearly 60 consecutive performances at the theatre in West Valley City.

The theatre program at Oakland University will open its 2015-2016 season with a true American classic, Rodgers and Hammerstein's "Oklahoma!" The iconic show broke new ground and set the standard for musical theatre when it first opened on Broadway in 1943. Its glorious, much-loved songs and famously innovative use of dance frame a love story between Curly, a handsome but headstrong cowboy, and Laurey, a spirited farm girl, in the rapidly changing West of the 1900s.

The latest in unauthorized gossip and buzz from the heart of Chicago's showtune video bars, and musical theater news from Chicago to Broadway. 'Oklahoma!' is very ok, as are 'Side Show,' 'Triassic Parq' and 'Next To Normal,' 'The Revel' and 'One Brain More' join Super September, and 'Cupid' keeps his heart on. Porchlight has 'Babes In Arms' and a 'New Faces' series, 'Irving Berlin' and 'Elf'plan to light up the holidays, and 'The Wiz' gets replaced by 'Xanadu!'

Boston's 115-year-old Colonial Theatre, where so many notable (and not so notable) Broadway-bound productions worked out their kinks and licked their wounds, will be closing in October for at least a year, its future not determined.

Today in 1980, the second Broadway revival of Oklahoma! closed at the Palace Theatre, where it ran for 293 performances. Oklahoma! is the first musical written by the team of composer Richard Rodgers and librettist Oscar Hammerstein II. The musical is based on Lynn Riggs' 1931 play, Green Grow the Lilacs. Set in Oklahoma Territory outside the town of Claremore in 1906, it tells the story of cowboy Curly McLain and his romance with farm girl Laurey Williams. The original Broadway production opened on March 31, 1943.

Bucks County Playhouse producers Robyn Goodman and Alexander Fraser just announced the 2nd Annual Oscar Hammerstein Festival -- named in honor of the master lyricist who wrote some of America's most beloved and recognizable musicals at his family farm in Bucks County.

People will say they're in love when they take their families to see Hale Centre Theatre's rendition of the iconic Rodgers and Hammerstein production, Oklahoma! Tickets are on sale now for the Midwestern masterpiece scheduled to run tonight, August 12 - October 3 in nearly 60 consecutive performances at the theatre in West Valley City.

This week we celebrate a musical theatre classic thanks to an astonishing recently surfaced vintage performance clip!

In Scene Two of Lynn Riggs' play, Green Grow the Lilacs, farm girl Laurey Williams speaks passionately to her Aunt Eller about the ranch where she grew up:

People will say they're in love when they take their families to see Hale Centre Theatre's rendition of the iconic Rodgers and Hammerstein production, Oklahoma! Tickets are on sale now for the Midwestern masterpiece scheduled to run August 12 - October 3 in nearly 60 consecutive performances at the theatre in West Valley City.

OKLAHOMA! opens tonight, Friday, July 17th , 2015, playing until Sunday, July 26th, and features an added mid-week matinee on July 22nd, at the 1,800-seat Kavli Theatre at the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza, located at 2100 Thousand Oaks Boulevard in Thousand Oaks.

Everything's up to date in Aurora, where nearly 27,000 subscribers (and still counting) have already signed up for the Paramount Theatre's 2015-16 four-show Broadway Musical Series.

Rodgers and Hammerstein's classic feel-good musical Oklahoma! comes to the Lyceum stage from Tuesday 21 July - Saturday 1 August, starring television and stage stars Belinda Lang and Gary Wilmot.

An interview with choreographer John Charron, who is working on the upcoming Cabrillo Music Theatre production of 'Oklahoma!'

According to the New York Times, Henry Holt will publish Todd S. Purdum's 'Rodgers and Hammerstein' in 2018- the 75th anniversary of the composing team's first musical, Oklahoma!. The biography will follow both their contributions to musical theatre, as well as their personal lives.

The Bard SummerScape festival presents an entirely new way to experience Oklahoma!, Rodgers and Hammerstein's quintessential celebration of the American frontier

OKLAHOMA! opens on Friday, July 17th , 2015, playing until Sunday, July 26th , and features an added mid-week matinee on July 22nd , at the 1,800-seat Kavli Theatre at the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza, located at 2100 Thousand Oaks Boulevard in Thousand Oaks.