THE SOUND OF MUSIC Cast Will Tribute OKLAHOMA! Before Launching Tour

According to NewsOK, actors from the new national touring production of The Sound of Music will make a special stop in Oklahoma City Thursday morning to perform songs from the musical Oklahoma! at the Oklahoma History Center. The performance will take place in the history center's Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation Gallery, where the exhibit "Rodgers & Hammerstein's 'Oklahoma!': The Birth of Modern Musical Theatre and a New Image for the State" is currently being presented.

The performance will be free and open to the public. The tour of The Sound of Music will then launch in Oklahoma that weekend.

"Rodgers & Hammerstein and the state of Oklahoma have enjoyed a long and prosperous relationship, which continues to this day," said Ted Chapin, president of the Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization, in a statement. "Having both the extraordinary exhibit on the musical that bears the state's name - which includes Oscar Hammerstein's standing desk, at which he wrote all his shows, exhibited for the first time - and the start of the new tour of 'The Sound of Music' just continues the collaboration."

"The musical 'Oklahoma!' put Oklahoma even further on the map as a new state. The musical came out 75 years ago, and our state is just 111 years old. So, it was a pretty big deal," Gov. Mary Fallin told The Oklahoman. "How many states do you know that have a song that (is on) a gold record album that names their state?"

Read more on NewsOK.

The Sound of Music features music by Rodgers, lyrics by Hammerstein II, book by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse, suggested by "The Trapp Family Singers" by Maria Augusta Trapp. It was the last project for Rodgers and Hammerstein, as Hammerstein died of stomach cancer nine months after the 1959 Broadway premiere.

The creative team for this new touring production of "The Sound of Music" includes direction by Matt Lenz, based on the national tour's original direction by three-time Tony Award winner Jack O'Brien ("Hairspray"). Original choreography by Danny Mefford ("Dear Evan Hansen") has been recreated by Jonathan Warren, with music supervision by Andy Einhorn ("Hello, Dolly!").

For more information, visit www.thesoundofmusicontour.com.

Photo Credit: Matthew Murphy