frightened by Jud all over again, at the box social itself in act 2,
and she makes up her mind there, too. In an act 2 scene that is
strictly book time (and is taken over from the source play,
Green Grow the Lilacs), she summons the courage to fire Jud
from his job on her farm. Then, in an outburst of fear over
what Jud will do, she realizes how much she needs Curly.
Within the same scene, Curly proposes and she accepts. Should
the ballet be removed from the show, Laurey will still make up
her mind for Curly, will still summon the courage to fire Jud,
and will still fear for her life at Jud’s hands. The plot would be
intact without the ballet, although Oklahoma!would be a good
deal less interesting.
For there is no denying the boldness of the ballet interlude.
De Mille was following the lead of George Balanchine, who
had brought ballet into the musical in several Rodgers and
Hart shows of the later 1930s, but Balanchine was intent on
broadening the musical to include ballet, while De Mille, in-
tent on that too, was also intent on representing the mind of
the heroine under pressure. Heroines had not often had minds
in musicals before Oklahoma!This heroine even dreams about
sex, especially the connection between sexuality and her fear of
violence in Jud. To suppose that Oklahoma!is about nothing
more important than who will take Laurey to the box social, a
frequent complaint of critics who look back from the perspec-
tive of later and more sophisticated musicals, is to miss the
point. Jud is capable of rape if Laurey does go out with him,
capable of arson if she doesn’t.^11 Critics who think this trivial
have perhaps not faced these situations.
The dream-ballet dances out the sexual threat, a nervy episode
for a musical of 1943. But it depends for its effectiveness on
the difference between number and book, and the exact defi-
nition of that difference at the end of the ballet can draw a
gasp from the audience. The ballet number ends with Laurey
about to be raped by Jud, then book time intrudes with Jud re-
ally standing there and saying to the awakening girl: “Wake up,
THE BOOK AND THE NUMBERS 51
(^11) See Miller, Rebels with Applause: Broadway’s Groundbreaking Musicals, p. 46,
for an accurate view of this scene.