Editing Oklahoma! (section)

===Casting and development===
Between the world wars, roles in musicals were usually filled by actors who could sing, but Rodgers and Hammerstein chose, conversely, to cast singers who could act. Though [[Theresa Helburn]], codirector of the Theatre Guild, suggested [[Shirley Temple]] as Laurey and [[Groucho Marx]] as Ali Hakim, Rodgers and Hammerstein, with director [[Rouben Mamoulian|Rouben Mamoulian's]] support, insisted that performers more dramatically appropriate for the roles be cast.  As a result, there were no stars in the production, another unusual step.<ref name=Nolan/> The production was choreographed by [[Agnes de Mille]] (her first time choreographing a musical on Broadway), who provided one of the show's most notable and enduring features: a 15-minute first-act ballet finale (often referred to as the [[dream ballet]]) depicting Laurey's struggle to evaluate her suitors, Jud and Curly.<ref name=Kenrick2/>

The first title given to the work was ''Away We Go!'' which opened for out-of-town-tryouts in [[New Haven, Connecticut|New Haven]]'s [[Shubert Theatre (New Haven)|Shubert Theatre]] on March 11, 1943.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.capa.com/newhaven/venues/shubert_history.php|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080511195305/http://www.capa.com/newhaven/venues/shubert_history.php|url-status=dead|title=Try out history|archive-date=11 May 2008}}</ref>  Expectations for the show were low; Hammerstein had written six flops in a row, and the show had no star power.  Producer [[Mike Todd]] walked out after the first act during the tryout and wisecracked, "No girls, no gags, no chance."<ref>Mordden (1988), [https://books.google.com/books?id=WFyJdLgYlikC&pg=PA139 p. 139]</ref> But Rodgers and Hammerstein were confident.  The New Haven and [[Boston]] audiences were enthusiastic, although the reviews were only fair. Of the changes made before the show went to Broadway, two would prove significant: the dramatic restaging of the show-stopping [[Number (music)|musical number]], "[[Oklahoma (Rodgers and Hammerstein song)|Oklahoma]]" and the decision to retitle the musical after that number.<ref>[[Helene Hanff|Hanff, Helene]]. [http://thingsthatmadeanimpression.wordpress.com/2013/06/16/excerpt-from-underfoot-in-show-business-by-helene-hanff-away-we-go/ "Excerpt ... ''Away We Go''"], ''Underfoot in Show Business'', Harper and Row, 1962. {{ISBN|0-316-34319-6}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Green |first1=Stanley |author-link1=Stanley Green (historian)|editor1-last=Root |editor1-first=Deane L. |title=Oklahoma!: Its Origin and Influence |journal=American Music |date=1984 |volume=2 |issue=4, Winter 1984 |page=92 |doi=10.2307/3051564 |jstor=3051564 |issn=0734-4392}}</ref>

Todd had been wrong; the show opened on Broadway to raves from the critics, sold out, and won a [[Pulitzer Prize Special Citations and Awards|special Pulitzer Prize]].<ref>[https://www.pulitzer.org/winners/richard-rodgers-and-oscar-hammerstein-ii "Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II for ''Oklahoma!''"], Pulitzer.org, 1944, accessed November 16, 2019</ref> [[Brooks Atkinson]] wrote in ''[[The New York Times]]'' that the show's opening number, "[[Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin']]" changed the history of musical theater: "After a verse like that, sung to a buoyant melody, the banalities of the old musical stage became intolerable."<ref name=Heritage>[[John Steele Gordon|Gordon, John Steele]]. [https://www.americanheritage.com/oklahoma-0 "''Oklahoma!''"] ''American Heritage'', February/March 1993, accessed December 31, 2022</ref> The ''[[New York Post]]'' was the only major paper to give ''Oklahoma!'' a mixed review.  Its critic felt that while the songs were pleasant enough, they sounded much alike.<ref>Lewis, David H., ''Broadway musicals: A Hundred Year History'', 2002, McFarland & Company, p. 35</ref>  The show's creativity stimulated Rodgers and Hammerstein's contemporaries and ushered in the "Golden Age" of American musical theatre.<ref name=Heritage/>