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There is always some tidbit of information floating around that you are not aware of. Let us unravel three unknown facts about this iconic musical, Oklahoma!

First of all, it wasn’t named Oklahoma! initially, the first running title was Away We Go!. It opened with its original name, for out of town tryouts, on March 1943 in New Haven’s Shubert Theatre. Many critics called it a flop, but the musical’s writers were confident that it would be successful and only made a few changes: the addition of the musical number Oklahoma! and the decision to rename it after the new number.

Secondly, Oklahoma! was the longest running musical with 2,212 performances. The musical broke records for length of run (five years and 9 months) and box office receipts. By the time the show finally ended, backers saw a 2,500 return on their investment.

Lastly, a musical never had every major number recorded, until Oklahoma! became a huge success. The recording had all of the original cast and orchestra included, thus creating the first original cast album.

Oklahoma! became a cultural phenomenon even though early reviews called it a flop. This is why you never judge a book by its cover.Take a look here to learn more: Report: Oklahoma, Oklahoma State surprised by Pac-12 snub