Between the Covers

Softcover. Screenplay. Quarto. 41, 32pp. Bradbound burlap textured paper wrappers with "Rialto Mimeograph and Typing Service Bureau" sticker on the front wrap and pencil name at one corner. Much of the spine perished, wear on the yapped edges including nicks, tears, and creases, else very good with the internal pages fine. An early draft of *Oklahoma!* widely considered one of the most important American musicals of the 20th Century. This draft was likely produced in haste at the end of its tryout in Boston, when the show's name was being changed from its original title, *Away We Go!* to *Oklahoma!*, but before the exclamation point in the title had become standardized. The front wrap also bears the 245 West 52nd Street address of The Theatre Guild which lost its lease to WOR-Radio in 1943 shortly before the show's opening. The title page has a penciled series of page numbers and a control number ("4.") in the upper right corner. Twenty pages contain annotations and additions to the script, most of them for the character of Aunt Eller, who begins the show on stage churning butter during the opening song, "Oh, What a Beautiful Morning!" A search of *OCLC* located a single early copy of a musical version from 1942 with the same "Rialto Mimeographing and Typing Service" sticker, as well as two copies with titles that included "Presented by The Theatre Guild..." and "Presented by Rodgers & Hammerstein... ." We could find no other version matching this exclamation-less copy and bearing The Theatre Guild's original address. A rare transition playscript from this landmark production produced shortly before its Broadway debut.

Item #419870