Musical Example 31 - Oklahoma! - Richard Rodgers / Oscar Hammerstein II, 1943 - “Pore Jud is Daid”
Online Plot Summary 25: Oklahoma!
Even though there had been occasional shows that bucked tradition, when the opening curtain began to rise at a musical, most audiences would expect to see a large-scale production number featuring the entire cast (and especially leggy chorus girls). Therefore, the opening of Oklahoma! must have come as quite a surprise: Aunt Eller stands alone on stage, quietly churning butter. Then, offstage, “Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’” begins, and it’s a solo song rather than an ensemble number for the chorus.
The singer is the cowboy Curly, who has come to Aunt Eller’s farmhouse in the Oklahoma territory to ask Laurey, Eller’s niece, to go with him to the box social that evening. (Besides dancing, box socials feature an auction that is a type of dating ritual. The women of the community prepare box dinners, and when a man is the highest bidder for a particular picnic basket, he can share the meal with the woman who prepared it.) Laurey has no interest in riding on the back of Curly’s horse, but Curly enchants her with a description of “The Surrey with the Fringe on Top.” Therefore, Laurey is outraged to hear Curly say that he invented the whole thing, so to spite Curly, she agrees to go to the social with the farmhand Jud Fry. Since Curly actually had hired a comfortable surrey, he invites Aunt Eller to come with him.
It seems that things are looking better for the lovelife of another cowhand, Will Parker. He won $50 in a steer-roping contest, so now he intends to propose to Ado Annie Carnes, since her father had said Will could marry her if he ever scraped together $50. Unfortunately, Will spent the entire $50 on gifts for his friends back home, so his matrimonial prospects are dim all over again. To make matters worse, while Will was gone, Ado Annie had been flirting with the peddler Ali Hakim. Eventually, her father—catching them at it—insists that Ali marry Ado Annie (with Mr. Carnes’s shotgun reinforcing his argument).
Aunt Eller’s farmhouse is a convenient stop for freshening up before journeying on to the box social at the Skidmore ranch, so Laurey has to watch her neighbor Gertie Cummings flirt with Curly. Laurey finds herself alone with him, but neither of them is willing to admit his or her attraction to the other. Nevertheless, Curly makes a trip over to the smokehouse, which Jud uses as his lodging. Curly tries to convince Jud in “Pore Jud is Daid” (Musical Example 31) that if Jud were to commit suicide, all the people of the neighborhood would weep and wail and regret treating Jud badly. Although Jud is temporarily mesmerized by this vision, he comes to his senses before actually hanging himself, and the two men proceed to quarrel over Laurey.
Ali shows his wares to Jud, but Jud wants a “little wonder”—a vicious trick viewing device with a knife in it, and Ali doesn’t sell that sort of thing. Ali does sell a bottle of smelling salts to Laurey. She sniffs the salts and begins to dream. She sees what her subconscious mind is fearing: Jud attacks and vanquishes Curly, and then carries her off. When she awakens, both men are waiting for her, but Jud grabs her arm. Fearful that he might hurt Curly, she does not resist, and Jud leads her away.
The second act opens with a rousing square dance at the box social. Meanwhile, Ali has an idea; he starts to buy Will’s presents so that Will can once again have the $50 he needs to woo his bride. One of Will’s purchases was a “little wonder.” Ali doesn’t want the dangerous device, but Jud buys it. Will once again has the cash he needs to satisfy Ado Annie’s father. But, when Ado Annie’s basket comes up for auction, Will bids excitedly; after all, he has $50 to spend. Ali reluctantly bids $51, unable to think of any other way for the cowboy to keep his “bridal stake.” Will eventually does claim his bride, but Ali finds himself married to Gertie Cummings before the show is over.
During another round of bidding, it looks as if Jud will win Laurey’s basket, but Curly throws in his saddle, then his horse, and finally his gun, and wins the auction. Jud then tries to get Curly to examine the “little wonder,” but the unsuspecting Curly is saved when Aunt Eller wants to dance. Jud later gets Laurey alone, but she struggles free and tells him he’s fired from his job as their farmhand. Curly comes looking for her, and Laurey is at last ready to accept his proposal of marriage.
But Jud’s not defeated yet. After the wedding, when friends of the newlyweds have come to interrupt their wedding night with a noisy serenade (sometimes known as a shivaree), Jud attacks Curly. In the ensuing struggle, Jud is killed by his own knife. The assembled friends serve as jurors at a remarkably speedy trial, determining that the death was caused in self-defense. Curly and Laurey celebrate their union while the territory residents also rejoice in the admission of the new state of Oklahoma into a larger union.