“'Walk on, walk on, with hope in your hearts!' That’s as much to the people sitting in the audience as it is in the context in the play. They’re sending out those messages to serve hope, to say 'hold on', and 'we’re going to get through this.'” —Megan Sanborn Jones
"In terms of musical theatre history, scholars draw a fairly strong connection between the golden age of musicals and the depression." —Megan Sanborn Jones
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When Rodgers and Hammerstein were making their musicals, other things were happening in the world.
Rodgers and Hammerstein's first musical together was Oklahoma!, which opened in 1943. The Great Depression was still affecting people, and World War II was underway. Food was rationed and people didn't have much money. Going to movies cost more than seeing plays, so most people chose the theatre for entertainment. Rodgers and Hammerstein's new musical comedy Oklahoma! was what they went to see. |
World War II had a huge impact on the world by separating loved ones. People all over America went to theatres to suspend worries about loved ones serving in the war. On Oklahoma!'s opening night, the theatre wasn't full. However, it quickly became a big success. World conditions had made people desperate for comic relief—theatre. Oklahoma!, and every succeeding Rodgers and Hammerstein show, provided this relief.
"The Hollywood musical provided a way of looking at America that is other than the way America currently is." —Megan Sanborn Jones |
"Then there was the fact that we were in the midst of a devastating war. People could come to see Oklahoma! and derive not only pleasure but a measure of optimism. It dealt with pioneers in the Southwest, it showed their spirit and the kinds of problems they had to overcome in carving out a new state, and it gave citizens an appreciation of the hardy stock from which they'd sprung. People said to themselves, in effect, 'If this is what our country looked and sounded like at the turn of the century, perhaps once the war is over we can again return to this kind of buoyant, optimistic life'" —Richard Rodgers