Oklahoma ! Musical Analysis

Integration dominates musicals, with Richard Rogers and Oscar Hammerstein II credited as the most consistent writers of integrated shows. One of the first musicals they wrote together was an example cited most regularly as highlighting integration and that was Oklahoma! It was to be considered in the early 1960’s that within this period it was mostly associated with integration. Within Oklahoma! music, song, instrumental underscore, orchestra and ballet accompaniment magnifies the dramatic narrative and also advances it in the musical; the texture of it clearly defines the characters and fleshes them out. This makes it one of the reasons why it has been said that Oklahoma! Is seen as the first ‘integrated musical’. However there are different

plot, song, character, dance and setting, these elements should all blend together into a seamless whole, with no stops in between and should run smoothly. From reading ‘Musical Theatre: A History’ John Kendrick states a different opinion on Oklahoma! and whether or not it is fully integrated. “Oklahoma! Was most certainly not the first integrated musical, but it was the first organic musical play, in which every element serves as a crucial, meaningful piece of the whole’ (Kendrick, J. (2010) Musical Theatre: A History) Oklahoma! is considered as the first integrated show because of all the key element’s used within a musical, and that they work together as a whole, the musical really did mark a shift in how musicals are done and what goes on in

has been hailed for many reasons. It has been called the first integrated musical, the first American folk musical; Show Boat got there on both counts. It has been called the first integrated musical, but The Lady of the Slipper, Gay Divorce, Jubilee, On Your Toes, I Married an Angel and Cabin in the Sky hold seniority. But Oklahoma! was the first American musical with an ethnic sound, words and music entirely in the folk idiom”. (Mordden, E. (1983) Broadway Babies) Show Boat is considered to be the first integrated musical; however, although the songs in Show Boat have some plot purposes, many are still not terribly well derived from the action of the plot or