Oklahoma! (Musical)
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50 free Oklahoma! (Musical) trivia questions with answers — music quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
When Oklahoma! opened on Broadway in 1943, nobody expected much from a cowboy romance with no stars in it. It went on to run for more than five years and changed what audiences expected a musical to be, with numbers and dances that push the plot forward instead of pausing it. This quiz covers the whole story: Curly, Laurey and the box social, the writers and performers behind the first production, the widescreen 1955 movie, and the revivals that keep reinventing the piece in London and New York. It suits Broadway fans, school and community players rehearsing their own production, and anyone who knows the tunes by heart. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so you will pick up a few stories worth retelling.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which young screen idol made a much-praised screen test for Curly in the 1955 film Oklahoma! but lost the part?
James Dean
James Dean impressed in his screen test, but his singing voice was judged too weak, and the part went to a trained baritone. Paul Newman tried out for Curly too.
Q 02The 1955 film Oklahoma! was shot mostly in which other state, reportedly because oil wells cluttered the real landscape?
Arizona
Arizona stood in for the title state, with the opening cornfield filmed at the historic Canoa Ranch. Studio scenes were shot on the MGM lot in Culver City, California.
Q 03Which Australian actor played Curly in the National Theatre's 1998 London revival of Oklahoma! before Hollywood fame?
Hugh Jackman
Hugh Jackman earned an Olivier nomination as Curly shortly before X-Men made him Wolverine. Actors' Equity then blocked plans to bring the London cast to Broadway, insisting on American actors.
Q 04In Oklahoma!, Curly tempts Laurey to the box social by describing what kind of fringe-topped horse-drawn carriage?
A surrey
A surrey is a four-wheeled carriage that was popular in America around 1900. Curly claims he invented the whole thing once Laurey teases him, though he really has rented one.
Q 05What food did the 2019 Broadway revival of Oklahoma!, set in a community hall, serve its audience at intermission?
Chili and cornbread
Chili and cornbread were handed out at intermission, part of an immersive staging that sat the audience around the action. The production won the 2019 Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical.
Q 06Which singer under personal contract to Rodgers and Hammerstein made her film debut as Laurey in 1955's Oklahoma!?
Shirley Jones
Shirley Jones was the only singer the songwriters ever put under personal contract. She later won an Oscar for Elmer Gantry and played the mother in TV's The Partridge Family.
Q 07In 1953 Oklahoma's legislature gave the title number of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma! which official status?
State song
State song honours went to the show tune in place of the obscure "Oklahoma - A Toast", adopted in 1935. No other US state has taken its anthem from a Broadway show.
Q 08In which 1980s romantic comedy do the two leads sing a karaoke version of a Curly number from Oklahoma!?
When Harry Met Sally
When Harry Met Sally has Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan croon Curly's carriage tune into a karaoke machine. The 1989 film arrived 46 years after the number was first heard on Broadway.
Q 09How does the farmhand Jud Fry die after attacking Curly at the wedding in the stage musical Oklahoma!?
Falls on his knife
Jud falls on his knife when Curly dodges his lunge, and a hasty trial on the spot clears the groom. The 2019 Broadway revival restaged the moment so that Curly kills him on purpose.
Q 10From which booming Midwestern town does Ado Annie's cowboy sweetheart return with souvenirs in Oklahoma!?
Kansas City
Kansas City gets a whole number about its modern marvels from the returning cowboy. The 1955 film moved it to a railway station, where he steps off the train to a waiting crowd.
Q 11At the box social in Oklahoma!, what do the local women prepare for the men to bid on at auction?
Lunch baskets
Lunch baskets go to the highest bidder, who wins the company of the woman who packed it. Curly and Jud turn the sale of Laurey's into a ferocious bidding war.
Q 12The box social auction in Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma! raises money to build what for the community?
A schoolhouse
A schoolhouse is the cause, so every bid doubles as a donation. Real box socials raised money the same way for churches and civic projects across rural America.
Q 13Which two feuding groups are told to get along in the square dance that opens Act II of Oklahoma!?
Farmers and cowmen
Q 21Which future Hollywood villain earned an Olivier newcomer nomination as Jud Fry in London's 1980 revival of Oklahoma!?
Alfred Molina
Alfred Molina went from the menacing farmhand to Doctor Octopus in Spider-Man 2 and the treacherous guide in Raiders of the Lost Ark. The same staging gave Maria Friedman her West End debut.
Q 22Which future star of The Conjuring films earned a Tony nomination as Curly in Broadway's 2002 revival of Oklahoma!?
Patrick Wilson
Patrick Wilson took over Curly when the London staging crossed the Atlantic with a mostly American cast. It was his second Tony nomination, following one for The Full Monty.
Q 23Which honour did Oklahoma! receive in 1944, at a time when the Tony Awards had not yet been created?
Farmers and cowmen are at odds over fences and water rights, and the dance meant to unite them breaks into a brawl. Aunt Eller has to silence the whole crowd before it can go on.
Q 14After selling his saddle and horse, what last possession does Curly give up to outbid Jud Fry in Oklahoma!?
His gun
His gun is the last thing to go, so the cowboy wins the auction with nothing left of his old trade. Curly soon accepts that marrying Laurey means settling down to work the land.
Q 15Which 1945 musical set on the Maine coast did Rodgers and Hammerstein write as their follow-up to Oklahoma!?
Carousel
Carousel reunited much of the creative team behind Oklahoma!, and Rodgers later called it his favourite of all his musicals. It moved a Hungarian play from Budapest to New England.
Q 16The 1943 Decca release of Oklahoma!, a million-seller, set the precedent for which lasting Broadway tradition?
Original cast albums
Original cast albums became standard after Decca recorded the stage performers with their full orchestra. Until then, show tunes were usually cut by pop singers with smaller bands.
Q 17Reversing the usual Broadway practice of the day, which part of each Oklahoma! number did its creators finish first?
The lyrics
The lyrics came first because Hammerstein liked to finish his words before any music existed, and Rodgers was happy to set them. It let each number arise from the story instead of stopping it.
Q 18Which film comedian did a producer want as the peddler in the original Oklahoma!, which opened with no stars?
Groucho Marx
Groucho Marx was the suggestion of producer Theresa Helburn, but the writers held out for performers who suited the roles. Casting singers who could act, not actors who could sing, was unusual then.
Q 19Which HBO series set in Tulsa threads songs and character names from Oklahoma! through its story?
Watchmen
Watchmen goes as far as a fully staged performance of the title number, and its Tulsa police chief is called Judd. Several tunes from the show also run through the 2019 superhero drama's score.
Q 20Which later musical was the first to outlast the five-year Broadway run of Oklahoma!, a record for musicals?
My Fair Lady
My Fair Lady took the long-run crown after opening in 1956. Oklahoma! had kept it through every hit of the years between, having closed in 1948 after 2,212 performances.
A special Pulitzer Prize
A special Pulitzer Prize went to Rodgers and Hammerstein in 1944. The Tonys caught up half a century later, giving the show a special award for its 50th anniversary in 1993.
Q 24Which future star of TV's Green Acres played the travelling peddler in the 1955 film version of Oklahoma!?
Eddie Albert
Eddie Albert played the womanizing salesman a decade before Green Acres made him a sitcom star. His character's big stage number was one of only two songs the film left out.
Q 25Under what title did Oklahoma! begin its out-of-town tryouts in March 1943, before a hit number renamed it?
Away We Go
Away We Go was the name on the posters until the restaged title number proved a show-stopper and gave the musical its new name. Expectations were low, since the show had no stars at all.
Q 26Which 1931 play by Oklahoma-born playwright Lynn Riggs did Rodgers and Hammerstein adapt into Oklahoma!?
Green Grow the Lilacs
Green Grow the Lilacs lasted only 64 performances on Broadway in 1931. Its Curly was Franchot Tone, and its peddler was Lee Strasberg, later famous as a teacher of method acting.
Q 27Which choreographer was hired for the original Oklahoma! on the strength of her 1942 cowboy ballet Rodeo?
Agnes de Mille
Agnes de Mille built a long dream ballet in which dancers stood in for the leads, letting movement carry the plot, a device many later musicals borrowed.
Q 28Which longtime partner of Richard Rodgers passed on the project that became Oklahoma!, finding its cowhands corny?
Lorenz Hart
Lorenz Hart preferred urbane, witty shows and left for Mexico, telling Rodgers to try Hammerstein. On opening night he applauded from Row B and hugged his old partner at the party afterwards.
Q 29Which showman walked out of an Oklahoma! tryout predicting failure, then backed the widescreen process used to film it?
Mike Todd
Mike Todd left after the first act, sure that a show without chorus girls or gags was doomed. His Todd-AO 70 mm process made its debut twelve years later with the screen version.
Q 30Which Austrian-American director made the only musical of his career with the 1955 film version of Oklahoma!?
Fred Zinnemann
Fred Zinnemann was known for tense dramas such as High Noon and From Here to Eternity. He shot most scenes twice, once for each of two widescreen systems, so two versions with different takes exist.