''Green Grow the Lilacs'' is a 1930 play by

Lynn Riggs Rollie Lynn Riggs (August 31, 1899 – June 30, 1954) was an American author, poet, playwright and screenwriter. His 1931 play ''Green Grow The Lilacs'' was adapted into the landmark 1943 musical ''Oklahoma!''. Early life Riggs was born on a ...

named for the popular folk song of the same name.''Green Grow The Lilacs: A Play''

Samuel French Inc. Samuel French, Inc. is an American company, founded by Samuel French and Thomas Hailes Lacy, who formed a partnership to combine their existing interests in London and New York City. It publishes Play (theatre), plays, represents authors, and se ...

, 1931 . It was performed 64 times on

Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street **Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...

, opening at the Guild Theatre on January 26, 1931, and closing March 21, 1931. It had had an out-of-town tryout, running January 19–24, 1931, at the National Theatre in

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

It is the basis of the 1943 musical ''

Oklahoma! ''Oklahoma!'' is the first musical theater, musical written by the duo of Rodgers and Hammerstein. The musical is based on Lynn Riggs' 1931 play, ''Green Grow the Lilacs (play), Green Grow the Lilacs''. Set in farm country outside the town of ...

'', which had a 1955

film adaptation A film adaptation is the transfer of a work or story, in whole or in part, to a feature film. Although often considered a type of derivative work, film adaptation has been conceptualized recently by academic scholars such as Robert Stam as a dial ...

Production

The play was produced by the

Theatre Guild The Theatre Guild is a theatrical society founded in New York City in 1918 by Lawrence Langner, Philip Moeller, Helen Westley and Theresa Helburn. Langner's wife, Armina Marshall, then served as a co-director. It evolved out of the work of the W ...

and directed by Herbert J. Biberman.

Franchot Tone Stanislaus Pascal Franchot Tone (February 27, 1905 – September 18, 1968) was an American actor, producer, and director of stage, film and television. He was a leading man in the 1930s and early 1940s, and at the height of his career was known ...

portrayed cowboy Curly;

June Walker : ''For the American activist and former Hadassah leader, see June Walker (Hadassah)'' June Walker (June 14, 1900 – February 3, 1966) was an American stage and film actress. Early years Walker was born in New York City on June 14, 1900, an ...

was seen as his sweetheart Laurey.

Tex Ritter Woodward Maurice Ritter (January 12, 1905 – January 2, 1974) was a pioneer of American country music, a popular singer and actor from the mid-1930s into the 1960s, and the patriarch of the Ritter acting family (son John, grandsons Jason and ...

sang four songs in the role of Cord Elam and was the understudy for the lead part as Curly, though he never had occasion to perform in that role. Theatre Guild board member

Helen Westley Helen Westley (born Henrietta Remsen Meserole Manney; March 28, 1875 – December 12, 1942) was an American character actress of stage and screen Early years Westley was born Henrietta Remsen Meserole Manney in Brooklyn, New York on March 28, ...

, who had appeared as Mrs. Muskat in the original Broadway production of

Ferenc Molnár Ferenc Molnár ( , ; born Ferenc Neumann; 12 January 18781 April 1952), often anglicized as Franz Molnar, was a Hungarian-born author, stage-director, dramatist, and poet, widely regarded as Hungary’s most celebrated and controversial playw ...

's ''

Liliom ''Liliom'' is a 1909 play by the Hungarian playwright Ferenc Molnár. It was well known in its own right during the early to mid-20th century, but is best known today as the basis for the Rodgers and Hammerstein 1945 musical ''Carousel''. P ...

'', played Aunt Eller.

Lee Strasberg Lee Strasberg (born Israel Strassberg; November 17, 1901 – February 17, 1982) was an American theatre director, actor and acting teacher. He co-founded, with theatre directors Harold Clurman and Cheryl Crawford, the Group Theatre in 1931 ...

, later to become a teacher of

method acting Method acting, informally known as The Method, is a range of training and rehearsal techniques, as formulated by a number of different theatre practitioners, that seeks to encourage sincere and expressive performances through identifying with, u ...

, played the part of the Syrian peddler. The play also toured the

Midwest The Midwestern United States, also referred to as the Midwest or the American Midwest, is one of four Census Bureau Region, census regions of the United States Census Bureau (also known as "Region 2"). It occupies the northern central part of ...

, and appeared at the Dallas Little Theatre during the week of March 7, 1932, and again in

Dallas Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...

at the Festival of Southwestern Plays, on May 10, 1935.''Lynn Riggs''
, Mary Hays Marable and Elaine Boylan, pages 93-96 of ''A Handbook of Oklahoma Writers'',

University of Oklahoma Press The University of Oklahoma Press (OU Press) is the publishing arm of the University of Oklahoma. Founded in 1929 by the fifth president of the University of Oklahoma, William Bennett Bizzell, it was the first university press to be established i ...

Norman, Oklahoma Norman () is the third-largest city in the U.S. state of Oklahoma, with a population of 128,097 as of 2021. It is the largest city and the county seat of Cleveland County, Oklahoma, Cleveland County, and the second-largest city in the Oklahoma C ...

, 1939, ASIN B0006AONUW. The 1943

Rodgers and Hammerstein Rodgers and Hammerstein was a theater-writing team of composer Richard Rodgers (1902–1979) and lyricist-dramatist Oscar Hammerstein II (1895–1960), who together created a series of innovative and influential American musicals. Their popu ...

musical play ''

'' was based on the Riggs play. It uses newly composed songs in place of the traditional folk songs in Riggs' work, but the plot is largely similar, though the endings are different: unlike the musical, the end of ''Green Grow The Lilacs'' is left rather undecided as to Curly's trial for accidentally killing farmhand Jeeter (renamed Jud Fry in the musical).''Lynn Riggs: An Oklahoma Treasure''

In addition, the cowboy Will Parker is only referred to in the Riggs play and does not actually appear in it; the entire comic subplot involving the fifty dollars that Will must obtain in order to be able to marry Ado Annie is an invention of Hammerstein's. ''Green Grow the Lilacs'' is today rarely performed, while ''Oklahoma!'' is a widely acclaimed and popular American musical.

Characters

* Curly McClain * Aunt Eller Murphy * Laurey Williams * Jeeter Fry * Ado Annie Carnes * A Syrian Peddler * Cord Elam * Old Man Peck

Setting

Indian Territory The Indian Territory and the Indian Territories are terms that generally described an evolving land area set aside by the Federal government of the United States, United States Government for the relocation of Native Americans in the United St ...

, 1900 * Scene 1 — The "front" or living room of the Williams farmhouse, a June morning * Scene 2 — Laurey's bedroom * Scene 3 — The smoke house * Scene 4 — The porch of Old Man Peck's house, that night * Scene 5 — The hayfield, a month later * Scene 6 — The "front" room, three nights later

References

External links

''Green Grow The Lilacs''
production credits,

Internet Broadway Database The Internet Broadway Database (IBDB) is an online database of Broadway theatre productions and their personnel. It was conceived and created by Karen Hauser in 1996 and is operated by the Research Department of The Broadway League, a trade assoc ...

"Green Grow the Lilacs" at NMAI * https://blog.nmai.si.edu/main/2010/12/green-grow-the-lilacs-at-nmai.html BROADWAY’S FORGOTTEN MAN by Charles Morrow * http://thislandpress.com/2014/04/30/broadways-forgotten-man/ {{Oklahoma! 1931 plays American plays Western (genre) plays Oklahoma! Plays set in Oklahoma Fiction set in 1900 Plays set in the 1900s