 Following the spectacular success of the first Rodgers and Hammerstein musical , Oklahoma ! ( 1943 ) , the pair sought to collaborate on another piece , knowing that any resulting work would be compared with Oklahoma ! , most likely unfavorably . They were initially reluctant to seek the rights to Liliom ; Molnár had refused permission for the work to be adapted in the past , and the original ending was considered too depressing for the musical theatre . After acquiring the rights , the team created a work with lengthy sequences of music and made the ending more hopeful . 
