Written by NCHS Theatre
New Canaan High School Theater presents Oklahoma! Online Screening March 18, 19 & 20 2021 at 7:00 PM
Book, Music, and Lyrics by Rodgers and Hammerstein
As the first collaboration of famed partners Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II,
Oklahoma! set the gold standard for American musical theatre. It was the first musical to treat its dramatic action seriously and to use both song and dance to advance the plot. It stressed the importance of community at a time when war was fracturing the world.
Now, over 75 years after its premiere in 1943, this is
Oklahoma! as you’ve never seen or heard it before reimagined for the 21st century. You’ll tap your toes and sing along to so many of its memorable songs including “Kansas City”, “Oh What a Beautiful Morning”, and of course the title song, Oklahoma ! This show-stopping, boot-stomping musical is full of fun, romance and music for the entire family.
“Robert David May (as he was billed then) is doing just that as Jud Fry . He has a deep, booming voice perfectly suited to his solid build, which helps him make Jud the physically and emotionally intimidating man he’s supposed to be in the Oklahoma territory.”
He was a physically imposing man which made him seem perfect for some of the darker characters he played over the years. But for anyone who knew him, even just a bit, it was obvious he was really just a big teddy bear, a warm, caring human being who happened to command attention on stage with his presence and robust voice.
Merry Melodies ×
Celebrating Hollywood’s Top Movie Musicals Of The 1950s.
By David Cohea, ReMIND Magazine
It was the decade of the American dream. World war and the Depression were fading in the rearview mirror. The future looked bright. The age of television was just dawning, but there was still something special about movies that kept theaters filled: singing and dancing and a good time for all, in Technicolor and VistaVision.
Hollywood movie musicals promised a vintage world of imagination, magic and toe-tapping pizzazz.
Sometimes there was polish to these movie musicals: tuxedoes and ball gowns, shiny shoes dancing on glittery floors. Other times they took us to distant places like Paris or the South Pacific, or into the golden past, be it a frontier farm out West, an old South riverboat floating down the Mississippi or a cab up Broadway in the Roaring ’20s.