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several songs, including one from my all time favorite musical play and film, Oklahoma!
This reminded me of a story about the great Agnes De Mille, She was an extraordinary choreographer. She was also funny and full of herself.
For the play and later the movie, Oklahoma!, she choreographed the Dream Ballet that appeared in the middle of the story. The first half of Oklahoma is a lighthearted story of a girl trying to decide which boy to invite to a picnic. The second half is dark and scary.
The Dream Ballet seamlessly accomplished the transition. De Mille did this for many famous musicals of that era.
The play, Oklahoma! first appeared on Broadway in the early1940s. It was the quintessential story of America at the turn of the century. In an interview with her friend, Sylvia Fine, De Mille said that service men, on their way to Europe during World War II, sat in the back rows, many of them with tears streaming down their faces. Oklahoma symbolized "home."
But the most amazing thing De Mille said in the interview was this: London, beginning in the late 1930s, was blitzed by the Nazis. The theater district, along with many other areas, was totally destroyed.
In 1947, after the war ended and great Theatre Royal Drury Lane was repaired, Oklahoma! was the first of post-war wave of Broadway musicals to reach London's West End. It received rave reviews and sellout houses, running for 1,543 performances.
But the first night, when audience members were dressed to the gills, to watch this quintessential American play, they chose to thank America. After the performance the entire audience linked arms and sang the entire score back to the cast.
We know we belong to the land, and the land we belong to is grand.
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