Kiwanis to bring Oklahoma! to PAC stage this summer Friday and Saturday, June 12-13, 7:30 p.m. Saturday, June 20, 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, June 21, 2 p.m. Matinee

“The Club is hoping that the popularity of this musical will get everyone in the community excited about participating in, attending and sponsoring our efforts,” said Kiwanis Club President Kristi Shewell, who will also serve as the musical’s Executive Producer. Rogers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma! created box-office history in the early 1940’s when it ran on Broadway for five years and nine months (2,248 performances), breaking all of the then- existing records both for length of run and for box-office receipts. After its Broadway close, a national company toured the United States for ten years, performing in about 250 cities before an audience exceeding ten million. Its popularity hasn’t waned since, with thousands of performances throughout the world by both professional and amateur theatre companies.

Oklahoma! is the first musical written by composer Richard Rodgers and librettist Oscar Hammerstein II. The musical is based on Lynn Riggs' 1931 play, Green Grow the Lilacs. Set in Oklahoma Territory outside the town of Claremore in 1906, it tells the story of cowboy Curly McLain and his romance with farm girl Laurey Williams. A secondary romance concerns flirtatious Ado Annie and her long-suffering fiancé Will Parker.

The original Broadway production opened on March 31, 1943. It was a box-office smash and ran for an unprecedented 2,212 performances, later enjoying award-winning revivals, national tours, foreign productions and an Academy Award-winning 1955 film adaptation.

This musical, building on the innovations of the earlier Show Boat, epitomized the development of the "book musical", a musical play where the songs and dances are fully integrated into a well-made story, with serious dramatic goals, that is able to evoke genuine emotions other than laughter. In addition, Oklahoma! features musical themes, or motifs, that recur throughout the work to connect the music and story more closely than any musical ever had before. A special Pulitzer Prize was awarded to Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II for Oklahoma! in the category of "Special Awards And Citations - Letters" in 1944.

The production date will be Friday and Saturday, June 12-13, and Saturday and Sunday, June 20-21 at the Performing Arts Center, Excelsior Springs High School, on Tiger Drive.