(GK: Garrison Keillor; SS: Sue Scott; TR: Tim Russell; FN: Fred Newman; KC: Kristin Chenoweth)
GK: Our show coming from Town Hall on West 43rd Street, and right through that back wall is the Lamb's Club, where Rodgers and Hammerstein sat in a little room off the library and wrote "Oklahoma" back in 1942. Kristin Chenoweth is from Oklahoma, and doggone it----
KC: Doggone it---
GK: Isn't it one of your all-time greatest songs---
KC: I love it. It's one of those songs that never fails to make you feel better.
GK: Absolutely.
KC: SINGS HALF OF OKLAHOMA-----
GK: It was a huge innovation in the American musical theater back in 1943. Oklahoma. Before then, musicals were pretty thin stories, just a series of jokes in between songs, and Oklahoma was a real story, and it was a huge innovation to have it be set in the west and not in New York. I think about it every time I walk down----------
Foooooooooooooooooooooooooooorty-fourth Street
Where the wind comes sweeping from the west
Let's go in
The Algonquin
And pretend that we're a guest.
Fooooooooooooooooooooooooooooorty-fourth street,
Every night I and my honey lamb
Go to the gym and I show him
Just how powerful I am.
We know we belong to New York
Cause we like extra hot moo shu pork
And when we say-----------------
WATCH YOUR BACK --- OUT OF MY WAY
We're only saying,
We're getting fat in Manhattan
In Manhattan today--- You know, L.A. is not so great, I'd say
Manhattan!
WHOOP!
Fooooooooooooooooooooooorrrty-fourth Street
Where the smells of city life are borne.
Where the hot dog meets a
Sausage pizza
Chestnuts, pretzels, and popcorn.
Foooooooooooooooooooooooooooorty-fourth street, where my
Handsome gentleman and moi
Eat late at night and love to fight
About the show that we just saw.
We see famous folks all the time.
Once we saw Stephen Sondheim,
And I said, Steve------- WHOOP
Aye yip aye yodel adi hoo
I'm only saying
I loved A Little Night Music
Stephen Sondheim, thank you!
KC: Folks, this song is too good for one person to sing alone---- you've got to sing it with me. Remember---- every day ---- if you feel down----- if things aren't going right ----- you can always make yourself feel better if you just sing----
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO --- a whole chorus.
© Garrison Keillor 2002