Green Grow the Lilacs is a 1930 play by Lynn Riggs

Lynn Riggs

Rollie Lynn Riggs was an author, poet and playwright born on a farm near Claremore, Oklahoma. His mother was 1/8 Cherokee, and when he was two years old, his mother secured his Cherokee allotment for him. He was able to draw on his allotment to help support his writing...

 named for the popular folk song of the same name

Green Grow the Lilacs

Green Grow the Lilacs is a folk song of Irish origin that was popular in the United States during the mid-19th century.The song title is familiar as the source of a false etymology for the word gringo: the myth states that the Mexicans misheard U.S. troops singing "green grow" during the...

. It was performed 64 times on Broadway

Broadway theatre

Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...

, opening on January 26, 1931 and closing March 21, 1931. It also played January 19, 1931 through January 24, 1931 at the National Theatre

National Theatre (Washington, D.C.)

The National Theatre is located in Washington, D.C., and is a venue for a variety of live stage productions with seating for 1,676.Despite its name, it is not a governmentally funded national theatre, but operated by a private, non-profit organization....

 in Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....

 It was produced by the Theatre Guild

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 Washington Square Players.Its original purpose was to...

 and directed by Herbert J. Biberman. Rather startlingly, the debonair, ultrasophisticated actor Franchot Tone

Franchot Tone

Franchot Tone was an American stage, film, and television actor, star of Mutiny on the Bounty and many other films through the 1960s...

 portrayed cowboy Curly. June Walker

June Walker

June Walker was an American stage and film actress. She appeared on Broadway in such plays as Green Grow the Lilacs, The Farmer Takes a Wife, and Twelfth Night...

 was seen as his sweetheart Laurey. Tex Ritter

Tex Ritter

Woodward Maurice Ritter , better known as Tex Ritter, was an American country music singer and movie actor popular from the mid-1930s into the 1960s, and the patriarch of the Ritter family in acting...

 sang four songs in the role of Cord Elam and was 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

Helen Westley was an American character actress.-Career:Born as Henrietta Remsen Meserole Manney, Helen Westley was a member of the original board of the Theatre Guild, and appeared in many of their productions, among them Peer Gynt, and some of their productions of plays by George Bernard...

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

Ferenc Molnár

LanguageFerenc Molnár was a Hungarian dramatist and novelist. His Americanized name was Franz Molnar...

's Liliom

Liliom

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

, played Aunt Eller. Lee Strasberg

Lee Strasberg

Lee Strasberg was an American actor, director and acting teacher. He cofounded, with directors Harold Clurman and Cheryl Crawford, the Group Theatre in 1931, which was hailed as "America's first true theatrical collective"...

, later to become a renowned teacher of method acting

Method acting

Method acting is a phrase that loosely refers to a family of techniques used by actors to create in themselves the thoughts and emotions of their characters, so as to develop lifelike performances...

, played the part of the Persian peddler.
The play also toured the Midwest, and was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize

Pulitzer Prize

The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...

.
It appeared at the Dallas Little Theatre during the week of March 7, 1932, and again in Dallas at the Festival of Southwestern Plays, on May 10, 1935. Although the 1943 Rodgers and Hammerstein

Rodgers and Hammerstein

Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II were a well-known American songwriting duo, usually referred to as Rodgers and Hammerstein. They created a string of popular Broadway musicals in the 1940s and 1950s during what is considered the golden age of the medium...

 musical play Oklahoma!

Oklahoma!

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...

, which is based on the Riggs play, used a new score rather than the old folk songs in Riggs' work, the plot of Green Grow The Lilacs is almost identical, except for the ending, which unlike that of the musical, is left rather undecided as to Curly's trial for accidentally killing farmhand Jeeter (renamed Jud Fry in the musical). In addition, the cowboy Will Parker is only referred to in the original Riggs play; he does not actually appear in it. Therefore, 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 largely forgotten in its original form, while Oklahoma! remains one of the most acclaimed and popular American musicals ever written.

Characters

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

Setting

Indian Territory, 1900s.
Scene 1
The front 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.

External links

• Green Grow The Lilacs production credits, Internet Broadway Database
  Internet Broadway Database
  The Internet Broadway Database is an online database of Broadway theatre productions and their personnel. It is operated by the Research Department of The Broadway League, a trade association for the North American commercial theatre community....