In my recent drives of the Midwest through Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma and Arkansas, I have been inspired by the landscape. These drives Americans will most likely never do because it is not Interstate driving from Point A to Point B. These roads are not the typical “road trip” roads. The roads are tighter, two-lane, curvy, and a bit rough. The roads carve their way through the rolling farmland of the Midwest with barns and homes set far apart from each other. There is space here. My childhood memories have scattered photographs of staring out the window wondering what life was like on a farm. Though my mother’s family was raised in southern Missouri, my suburban life was quite a contrast from the agrarian lifestyle. My childhood memories are full of tension between city dreams, or a farm in the backyard, and my queer identity pulling down on all those visions. It was always hard to reconcile as a child and still challenging as an adult. Far away from these rolling hills and space is another dreamland of mine, Broadway, a theatrical corridor like no other, known as The Great White Way (electrical signage dazzled visitors and the street soon became known throughout the world). Both spaces are vital parts of my American identity, as we continue to piece together our identities as what it means to be American, who we are collectively, and who do we want to be in the future. I recently was asked by a friend, “What musical movie would you start with if the person has never seen a musical?” What a question! I sped through my knowledge of what I films were available on streaming services, classics (West Side Story), Oscar winners (Chicago), and more eccentric choices (Sweeney Todd). All are great introductions to the American art form of musical theater (alas nothing like the stage, though). I ultimately landed on Rogers and Hammerstein’s first hit, Oklahoma! Not only is it great music, but the story is not what it seems. I re-visited the film version recently and the underlying tension of toxic masculinity in the character of Jud Fry is worth a re-watch alone.
This film recommendation brought me to the original set design of Oklahoma! in 1943 at the St. James Theatre. There was much doubt that this musical about the middle of America would be a remote success - still much the attitude held today I am sure. Despite the doubt, the reviews raved and the original Broadway production of Oklahoma! went on to play a staggering 2,212 performances, running almost five years, holding the record for the longest-running Broadway musical for 15 years. In its first year, Oklahoma! received a special Pulitzer Prize, and the original production launched an international tour that stopped in 361 cities around the world for nearly ten years. It was also the first time there was a recording of the original Broadway cast giving birth to the “Broadway cast recording.” Oklahoma! was a hit. There was a revival in 2019 that was also lauded. My own recommendation made me wondered what that original scenic design looked like? I have seen two productions of the stage musical but don’t really remember anything striking other than the expansive stage for the dream scene. I was unsure how I was going to view a set for a live production in 1943, but there are some archives. In my research, I came across some of the original set designed by Lemuel Ayers and the set design is striking. Born in New York City, Ayers earned a degree in drama from the University of Iowa and a degree in architecture from Princeton University. Oklahoma! was within his first ten sets he had designed for Broadway. In the back upper left, a farm house is set back with the windmill and the golden landscape of wheat/corn contrasting with the hopeful blue sky. Subtle hints at landscape changes of geological formations reminiscent of Kansas’ Badlands, representative of the dry terrain where softer sedimentary rocks and clay-rich soils have been extensively eroded, and as the song goes, “There's a bright golden haze on the meadow…” Simple, elegant, and expansive. In his short career, Ayers designed sets for a total of 30 Broadway plays and musicals during his career, dying of cancer at the age of 40.
