Oklahoma!: stage vs screen

Fred Zinnemann's 1955 film of Oklahoma! stars Gordon MacRae as Curly and Shirley Jones, in her film debut, as Laurey. It adapts the 1943 Broadway musical by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, which was itself based on Lynn Riggs's 1931 play Green Grow the Lilacs. It was Zinnemann's only musical and the first feature shot in Todd-AO. It follows the stage show closely but moves and trims some key moments. These are the main differences.

Stage

Broadway musical (1943)

Screen

Oklahoma! (1955), directed by Fred Zinnemann

1. It stays close to the stage show

Rodgers and Hammerstein oversaw the adaptation themselves, partly to stop the studio from making the usual changes, such as adding new songs by other composers. The film keeps the original score and characters, with Agnes de Mille re-choreographing her dances for the screen. It follows the stage show more closely than the team's other film adaptations, so most differences come from opening the story up to real settings.

2. The long opening scene is split up

The stage show's first scene is a long one. The film breaks it into shorter scenes and moves songs to new places: "Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin'" is sung as Curly rides toward the farm rather than from offstage, "Kansas City" is staged at a train station, "I Cain't Say No" is sung at a lakeside, and "Many a New Day" is sung in Laurey's bedroom as the women dress for the box social.

3. Two songs are cut: "Lonely Room" and "It's a Scandal!"

Jud's brooding solo "Lonely Room," in which he vows to make Laurey his bride, and the peddler Ali Hakim's comic number "It's a Scandal! It's a Outrage!" are missing from the film, along with one verse of "Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin'." Without "Lonely Room," Rod Steiger's Jud is left with only "Pore Jud Is Daid," which he shares with Curly. Some "Kansas City" lyrics were also changed for the film censors.

4. Jud dies in a haystack fire

On stage, Jud attacks Curly with a knife at the wedding and dies after falling on his own blade. The film changes the scene as a nod to Green Grow the Lilacs: Jud sets fire to a haystack under the newlyweds. Curly and Laurey jump down, Curly lands on Jud, and Jud falls on his own knife.

5. The trial moves to Aunt Eller's kitchen

Both versions end with an improvised trial that clears Curly. On stage, the wedding guests hold a mock trial with Ado Annie's father, Andrew Carnes, as judge, and he declares Curly not guilty. In the film the townspeople hold the trial in Aunt Eller's kitchen after the wedding, and Curly is again found not guilty.

6. The dream ballet stays, with new dancers

Agnes de Mille's dream ballet, which follows "Out of My Dreams" and plays out Laurey's fears about Curly and Jud, is still in the film. On Broadway, Katharine Sergava danced Dream Laurey opposite Marc Platt. In the film the roles are danced by Bambi Linn and James Mitchell.

7. Shot in Arizona, and shot twice

Despite the title, the film was shot mainly around Nogales, Arizona, because the producers thought Oklahoma's oil wells would be a distraction. It was filmed in two formats at once, 70mm Todd-AO and 35mm CinemaScope, because 35mm prints could not be made from the Todd-AO negative. The two versions use different takes and run about 148 and 140 minutes.

8. Hollywood casting, and a James Dean test

Alfred Drake, Joan Roberts, and Celeste Holm originated Curly, Laurey, and Ado Annie on Broadway. The film cast Gordon MacRae, Shirley Jones, and Gloria Grahame, with Rod Steiger as Jud and Eddie Albert as Ali Hakim. James Dean made a screen test for Curly opposite Steiger, but his voice was judged not strong enough, and Paul Newman also tried out.

Oklahoma! movie vs musical: FAQs