This may seem like splitting hairs, but under the circumstances, it's not.
The Oklahoma! was not a City Center revival. It was a commercial production, produced by Rodgers and Hammerstein, that booked City Center as its venue, as a bunch of commercial productions had done over the years of City Center's existence. It was the new company of the national tour (which by this time was produced by R and H, not the Theatre Guild), about to go out for one more tour of the country. It played City Center, but it was not produced by City Center, unlike the revivals produced by the City Center Light Opera Company between 1954 and 1968.
August 31 through September 6 was officially designated by the city as "Rodgers and Hammerstein Week," in honor of the team's achievements. It was said in the press that Rodgers and Hammerstein had four shows running on Broadway. No one questioned that the Oklahoma! run counted as Broadway.
So, yea, ALW was absolutely not the first composer to have four shows running on Broadway at the same time. |
