Ok! The Story Of Oklahoma! Book

The first pairing of Richard Rodgers's music and Oscar Hammerstein's lyrics along with Agnes de Mille's choreography turned the sentimental Green Grow the Lilacs written by a playwright named Lynn Riggs into a phenomenon that was to set the standard for musical theater. And few first-nighters attending the 1943 Broadway opening of Oklahoma! could have known that they were witnessing the genesis of modern musical comedy. Conveying a "Hey I was there" ambience Wilk ( Don't Raise the Bridge Lower the River ) author of 20 books many of them on the performing arts here recounts the arduous odyssey of the Theatre Guild-Shubert undertaking from conception to SRO box-office success. Readers are made privy to the joys and sorrows of struggling for theatrical perfection while romancing investors battling auditors overcoming cynical critics--and coping with a measles-ridden cast. The book which combines scores of black-and-white illustrations with Wilk's delightful text has the mark of a hit or to paraphrase Agnes de Mille's unabated enthusiasm for the show: "My God this is put together with real skill."