Classic Film – Oklahoma! – Ireland s Own
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Green Grow Goes Wild
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Liliom (1909), a play featuring several Jewish characters and themes written by Hungarian Jewish playwright Ferenc Molnár.
Ferenc Molnár
Molnár (1878-1952), born Ferenc Neumann in Budapest, was a Jewish dramatist and novelist who is remembered principally for
The Paul Street Boys, the story of two rival gangs of youths in Budapest, a classic of youth literature beloved in Hungary and abroad for its treatment of the themes of solidarity and self-sacrifice, but he is best known to Americans and to Broadway aficionados for
Liliom.
Molnár wrote
Liliom in an attempt to publicly justify himself after his wife, suing him for divorce, alleged that he had struck their daughter. (This evokes in my mind the 15-year-old Louise characterizing Billyâs slapping her hand as âa kiss.â) When it premiered in Budapest in 1909, the audience was confused by the play, and it ran for only 30 performances before closing.
Shirley Jones and Gordon MacRae in
Oklahoma! Courtesy of Rodgers & Hammerstein: A Concord Company, www.rnh.com
The 1955 film adaptation of
Oklahoma! joins the streaming catalog on Disney+ April 30. Starring Gordon MacRae and Shirley Jones, the film is the first of Rodgers and Hammerstein s stage works to make the jump to the big screen, and is adapted from the duo s first collaboration, which premiered on Broadway in 1943.
Based on Lynn Riggs play
Green Grow the Lilacs,
Oklahoma! centers on a farm community living in the territory that will soon become the state of Oklahoma. Farm girl Laurey Williams is courted by cowboy Curly McLain and farmhand Jud Fry, while a secondary and more comedic plotline centers on Ado Annie and cowhand Will Parker. The standard-filled score includes such tunes as Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin , People Will Say We re in Love, The Surrey with the Fringe on Top, and the rousing title number.