As Route 66 celebrates its 100th anniversary this fall, the city of Clinton is marking the milestone with a signature event pairing an old-fashioned chuckwagon dinner with an outdoor production of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma! at the historic McLain Rogers Park amphitheater. The nine-performance run opens September 18 and continues on weekends through October 4.
Presented in partnership by Southwest Playhouse, the Clinton Chamber of Commerce, and the City of Clinton, the event will bring Rodgers and Hammerstein’s beloved Broadway classic to the WPA-era amphitheater built in the 1930s and preserved along the Mother Road. Tickets and full event details are now available at OklahomaOn66.com, a new unified website launched this week to make it easy for visitors to plan the full evening in one stop.
“Oklahoma is where this story was born, and Route 66 is how the country came to know it,” said Julie Caldwell, president of the Clinton Chamber of Commerce. “To bring the two together on the same stage, in the same night, in the Centennial year — that’s something special. We want people from Elk City to Tulsa and every roadside stop in between to come see it.”
“This is a once-in-a-generation theatrical event for our community,” said Jasey Burnam, board president of Southwest Playhouse. “Performing Oklahoma! outdoors, under the actual Oklahoma stars, at a historic amphitheater on Route 66, during the Centennial — there may never be a more perfect setting for this show.”
About the evening The chuckwagon dinner is served from 5:00 to 7:00 PM at the baseball field adjacent to McLain Rogers Park and features three meats, two sides, and a drink for $25 per plate; children 12 and under are $15. Golf cart shuttles will carry guests between event parking at The Edge Church, 1005 S 10th St, and the park itself.
Curtain for Oklahoma! is 7:30 PM on all nine performance nights: September 18, 19, and 20; September 25, 26, and 27; and October 2, 3, and 4. Show tickets are $25 plus tax and fees and are available through Southwest Playhouse.
Because the dinner and the show are hosted by two separate organizations, they are sold as two tickets on two ticketing systems. The new OklahomaOn66.com website was built specifically to simplify that process, offering a single online destination where visitors can purchase both tickets, view the full evening timeline, plan their trip, and get answers to common questions.