Oklahoma!

First published in 2007, "Oklahoma!": The Making of an American Musical tells the full story of the beloved Rodgers and Hammerstein musical. Author Tim Carter examines archival materials, manuscripts, and journalism, and the lofty aspirations and mythmaking that surrounded the musical from its very inception. The book made for a watershed moment in the study of the American musical: the first well-researched, serious musical analysis of this landmark show by a musicologist, it was also one of the first biographies of a musical, transforming a field that had previously tended to orient itself around creators rather than creations. In this new and fully revised edition, Carter draws further on recently released sources, including the Rouben Mamoulian Papers at the Library of Congress, with additional correspondence, contracts, and even new versions of the working script used - and annotated - throughout the show's rehearsal process. Carter also focuses on the key players and concepts behind the musical, including the original play on which it was based (Lynn Riggs's Green Grow the Lilacs) and the Theatre Guild's Theresa Helburn and Lawrence Langner, who fatefully brought Rodgers and Hammerstein together for their first collaboration. The crucial new perspectives these revisions and additions provide make this edition of Carter's seminal work a compulsory purchase for all teachers, students, and lovers of musical theater.

Tim Carter, David G. Frey Distinguished Professor of Music, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Tim Carter is David G. Frey Distinguished Professor of Music at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is the author of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Carousel (OUP, 2017), Understanding Italian Opera (OUP, 2015), and a wide range of other books on opera and musical theater.

List of Illustrations Preface
1. Setting the Stage 2. Contracts and Commitments 3. Creative Processes 4. Heading for Broadway 5. Some Musical (and Other) Readings 6. From Stage to Screen
Appendix A: A Time Line for Oklahoma! 5 May 1942 to 31 March 1943 Appendix B: Archival and Other Sources Notes Bibliography Permissions Index