History Theatre / Oklahoma

->''We're only sayin', "You're doin' fine, Oklahoma!''
->''Oklahoma, O.K.!"''

* HeyItsThatGuy: The 1955 film version, which features [[ThePartridgeFamily Mrs. Partridge]], [[Film/InTheHeatOfTheNight Sheriff Gillespie]], [[TheShawshankRedemption Brooks Hatlen]], [[GreenAcres Oliver Wendell Douglas]], and [[AllMyChildren Palmer Cortlandt]].
** The 1998 West End production had Hugh Jackman before he was [[Film/{{X-Men}} Wolverine]] or even [[KateAndLeopold Leopold]].
** The 1979 Broadway revival includes [[Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer The Mayor]] as Will Parker.
** The 2002 revival had Aasif Mandvi as Ali Hakim before ''Series/TheDailyShow'' picked him up as a correspondent.

* ProductionPosse: In the film, just about every dancer in the Dream Ballet had worked with Agnes de Mille on a regular basis.

* WorkingTitle: ''Away We Go'', until R&H decided to re-name the play after its most energetic song.

* HeyItsThatGuy: The 1955 film version, which features [[ThePartridgeFamily Mrs. Partridge]], [[InTheHeatOfTheNight Sheriff Gillespie]], [[TheShawshankRedemption Brooks Hatlen]], [[GreenAcres Oliver Wendell Douglas]], and [[AllMyChildren Palmer Cortlandt]].

* LoveTriangle: Curly, Laurey, and Jud; Will, Annie, and Ali Hakim

** One production implied that Jud [[KickTheDog started a fire that killed an entire family]] before the play even started. Why? Because the daughter in the family rejected him. This implication happened just before Curly started trying to convince Jud to kill himself.

** Of course, then the VillainSong "Lonely Room" happens and Jud starts to enter actual villainous territory.

* CarSong: "The Surrey with the Fringe on Top" could be considered the 1900s equivalent.

'''''Oklahoma!''''' is a 1943 [[TheMusical musical]], possibly the most influential musical in the genre. Based on the play ''Green Grow the Lilacs'' and adapted by {{Rodgers and Hammerstein}}, it tells the story of a young cowboy named Curly, and a farm girl, Laurey. They're obviously in love, but neither of them will admit it. The sinister farmhand, Jud, asks Laurey to a dance. Laurey is afraid of him, but she accepts to spite Curly. The story takes a dark turn as Laurey realizes that Jud is dangerous, and that, if she were to turn him down, he could become violent.

* VillainousCrush: Jud for Laurey, though how much one considers Jud to be a villain is up for debate.

* CutSong: "Boys and Girls Like You and Me." It later turned up in {{Screen To Stage Adaptation}}s of ''Theatre/StateFair'' and ''{{Film/Cinderella}}''.

* CutSong: "Boys and Girls Like You and Me." It later turned up in {{Screen To Stage Adaptation}}s of ''StateFair'' and ''{{Film/Cinderella}}''.

* MissYoYoKnickers: She ''is'' a girl who can't say no, after all.

* DreamBallet: The paradigmatic example of the form.
** TropeCodifier?

* EvilSoundsDeep: Jud Fry is always cast as a bass.
** Not always. The 1979 revival saw Martin Vidnovic play Jud, and "Lonely Room" was transposed up a third (still keeping it in baritone territory, but with a tessitura higher than a bass's song would have.)

* VillainSong: "Lonely Room"
** True, sung by the villain, but not really a villain song nonetheless. The song generates what little sympathy the audience does have for Jud.

** The 2002 revival had Aasif Mandvi as Ali Hakim before ''TheDailyShow'' picked him up as a correspondent.

** The 1998 West End production had Hugh Jackman before he was [[XMen Wolverine]] or even [[KateAndLeopold Leopold]].

* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotHeinous: Laurey is horrified over this, weeps over this, has nightmares over this. Curly would rather see Jud dead than let him go through with this. Curly sells every prized possession he has to stop this from happening. And in the end Jud ''DIES'' over this. The crime? Asking Laurey out on a date, taking her to a party, and bidding on a picnic basket.
** Some stagings of the play add subtext that Jud is going to ''rape'' Laurey if he gets her alone.

* {{Casanova}}: Ali Hakim.

** The 1979 Broadway revival includes [[BuffyTheVampireSlayer The Mayor]] as Will Parker.

* DidNotDoTheResearch: The locations referenced are in eastern Oklahoma, in the Cherokee Nation and in what was then Indian Territory--Laurie suspects Curly rented the surrey in Claremore, and later says "They'll hear you all the way to Catoosie!" (Catoosa), both of which are near Tulsa--but the characters represent the attitudes of the western half, Oklahoma Territory. Indian Territory made a bid for a separate state called Sequoyah, but was turned down. So when Curly speaks in awed tones of the new state: "They're gonna call it... 'Ok-la-ho-ma'!" he not only references a name that had already been in use since 1889 by the western territory, but also a single statehood plan that was hardly received with such enthusiasm in the Indian Territory, even among non-Indians.