A state, a song, an award-winning musical, a movie: Oklahoma! This landmark musical has had an evolving impact on theater for more than 60 years and launched the beginning of one of the most successful song writing partnerships in Broadway history.

Oklahoma! is set in the Oklahoma Territory of the early 1900s, where the handsome cowboy Curly and young farm girl Laurey are enveloped in a classic love story while a high-spirited rivalry between local farmers and cowboys ensues.

This production, based on the 2002 Broadway revival, is coming to Ames on Wednesday. It is produced by Cameron Mackintosh, who has produced “Phantom of the Opera,” “CATS” and “Les Miserables,” and is choreographed by Susan Stroman, a Broadway talent and director/choreographer of “The Producers.”

“I really love this show,” said Patricia Cotter, performing arts programming manager for Stephens Auditorium. “It has such great melodies and lively characters. This will be a top-notch production.”

In 1942, Richard Rodgers, known for his work in musical comedies, and Oscar Hammerstein II, known for his ground-breaking operettas during the ’20s, were independently attracted to Lynn Riggs’ folk play entitled “Green Grow the Lilacs.”

Combining their talents, it was inevitable that the resulting musical work, “Oklahoma!,” would be the first of many by the successful team.

Together the duo went on to create such works as “State Fair,” “The King and I” and “The Sound of Music.”

Oklahoma! was ground-breaking in a new genre of the musical play, seamlessly integrating Rodgers’ musical comedy and Hammerstein’s operetta. The play was innovative for its use of song and dance to advance the narrative story of the show. Cotter said Rodgers and Hammerstein influenced the path of the modern American musical like no one who preceded them.

Oklahoma! made its initial premiere under the title of “Away We Go” in March of 1943. According to the Rodgers and Hammerstein Web site, a musical number about the territory was changed – after the initial performance – from a duet for Laurey and Curley to a boisterous chorale named after the land.

Because this number was so successful at the pre-Broadway performance in Boston, the name of the musical was changed and an exclamation point was added for emphasis.

Oklahoma! opened at the St. James Theatre on Broadway on March 31, 1943, and ran for five years and 2,212 performances. It surpassed the then-existing record by more than two years. The national tour went on to travel for an unprecedented 10-and-a-half years, during which it visited every state and played before a combined audience of more than 10 million people, according to the official Oklahoma! Web site.

In 1953, the Oklahoma State Legislature named “Oklahoma” as the official state song, and in 1955, the motion picture was released and won two academy awards.

Additionally, Oklahoma! received a special Pulitzer Prize in 1944. Oklahoma! was also inducted into the Grammy Awards Hall of Fame in 1976 and received a special Tony Award in 1993.

“It is really the whole package: A fun boy-meets-girl story, a bit of history of the optimism felt among the settlers of the western frontier of our country when it was young and amazing songs ‘People Will Say We’re in Love,’ ‘Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’ and the title song,” Cotter said.

“I promise you’ll be humming at least one of them after seeing this show.”