Rodgers and Hammerstein was a theater-writing team of composer Richard Rodgers (1902–1979) and lyricist-dramatist Oscar Hammerstein II (1895–1960), who together created a series of innovative and influential American musicals. Their musical theater writing partnership has been called the greatest of the 20th century.
Their popular Broadway productions in the 1940s and 1950s initiated what is considered the "golden age" of musical theater.Gordon, John Steele. Oklahoma! . Retrieved June 13, 2010 Five of their Broadway shows, Oklahoma!, Carousel, South Pacific, The King and I and The Sound of Music, were outstanding successes, as was the television broadcast of Cinderella (1957). Of the other four shows the pair produced on Broadway during their lifetimes, Flower Drum Song was well-received, and none was a critical or commercial flop. Most of their shows have received frequent revivals around the world, both professional and amateur. Among the many accolades their shows (and film versions of them) garnered were 34 Tony Awards,Rodgers and Hammerstein began writing together before the era of the Tonys. Oklahoma! opened in 1943 and Carousel in 1945, but the first Tonys were not awarded until 1947. fifteen Academy Awards, two Pulitzer Prizes (for Oklahoma!, 1944, and South Pacific, 1950) and two Grammy Awards.
Previous work and partnerships
At Columbia University, Rodgers and Hammerstein collaborated on the 1920 Varsity Show, Fly With Me. The songs for the show were originally written by Rodgers (a freshman) and Lorenz Hart. Hammerstein, who was on the judging committee, added two songs in the revising stage. The three men collaborated again on the 1921 Varsity Show, You'll Never Know, with Hammerstein as "Director of Production". Although Rodgers did not work with Hammerstein again until Oklahoma!, they achieved success independently from each other. Rodgers continued to collaborate for more than two decades with Hart. Among their many Broadway hits were the shows A Connecticut Yankee (1927), Babes in Arms (1937), The Boys from Syracuse (1938), Pal Joey (1940), and By Jupiter (1942), as well as many successful film projects.Rodgers and Hart Biography Guide to Musical Theatre, accessed April 5, 2009
Hammerstein, a co-writer of the popular Rudolf Friml 1924 operetta Rose-Marie, and Sigmund Romberg operettas The Desert Song (1926) and The New Moon (1928), began a successful collaboration with composer Jerome Kern on Sunny (1925), which was a hit. Their 1927 musical Show Boat is considered to be one of the masterpieces of the American musical theater."Show Boat", theatrehistory.com, excerpted from The Complete Book of Light Opera. Lubbock, Mark. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1962. pp. 807–08. Other Hammerstein/Kern collaborations include Sweet Adeline (1929) and Very Warm for May (1939). Although the last of these was panned by critics, it contains one of Kern and Hammerstein's best-loved songs, "All the Things You Are".Wilson, Jeremy. "All the Things You Are (1939)". jazzstandards.com, accessed March 15, 2010
By the early 1940s, Hart had sunk deeper into alcoholism and emotional turmoil, and he became unreliable, prompting Rodgers to approach Hammerstein to ask if he would consider working with him.Layne, Joslyn. [ Lorenz Hart Biography] at Allmusic, accessed September 23, 2009
Early work
Oklahoma!
Independent of each other, Rodgers and Hammerstein had been attracted to making a musical based on Lynn Riggs' stage play Green Grow the Lilacs. When Jerome Kern declined Hammerstein's offer to work on such a project and Hart refused Rodgers' offer to do the same, Rodgers and Hammerstein began their first collaboration. The result, Oklahoma! (1943), marked a revolution in musical drama. Although not the first musical to tell a story of emotional depth and psychological complexity, Oklahoma! introduced a number of new storytelling elements and techniques. These included its use of song and dance to convey and advance both plot and character, rather than act as a diversion from the story, and the firm integration of every song into the plot-line.
Oklahoma! was originally called Away We Go! and opened at the Shubert Theatre in New Haven on March 11, 1943. Only a few changes were made before it opened on Broadway, but three would prove significant: the addition of a show-stopping number, "Oklahoma!"; the deletion of the musical number "Boys and Girls Like You and Me", which was soon replaced with a reprise of "People Will Say We're in Love"; and the decision to re-title the musical after the song.
The original Broadway production opened on March 31, 1943, at the St. James Theatre. Although the typical musical of the time was usually written around the talents of a specific performer, such as Ethel Merman or Fred Astaire, no stars were used in the production. Ultimately the original cast included Alfred Drake (Curly), Joan Roberts (Laurey), Celeste Holm (Ado Annie), Howard Da Silva (Jud Fry), Betty Garde (Aunt Eller), Lee Dixon (Will Parker) and Joseph Bulloff (Ali Hakim). Marc Platt danced the role of "Dream Curly", and Katharine Sergava danced the part of "Dream Laurey". In Oklahoma!, the story and the songs were considered more important than sheer star power. Nevertheless, the production ran for a then-unprecedented 2,212 performances, finally closing on May 29, 1948. Many enduring musical standards come from this show, among them "Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin'", "The Surrey with the Fringe on Top", "I Cain't Say No", the aforementioned "People Will Say We're in Love", and "Oklahoma!". The popularity of these songs prompted Decca Records to have the original cast record the music from the show with the original orchestrations. This became the first musical to have an original cast recording, which is now a standard practice.
In 1955, it was made into an Academy Award-winning musical film, the first feature shot with the Todd-AO 70 mm widescreen process. The film starred Gordon MacRae and Shirley Jones, and its soundtrack was No. 1 on the 1956 album charts.The film was shot in two versions, the Todd-AO one, distributed by Mike Todd's Magna productions, and a Cinemascope version for theatres that were not, at that time, able to handle Todd-AO. The Cinemascope version was released by RKO a year after the Todd-AO version and is the one that most audiences have seen.
After their initial success with Oklahoma!, the pair took a break from working together and Hammerstein concentrated on the musical Carmen Jones, a stage version of Bizet's Carmen with the characters changed to African Americans in the contemporary South, for which he wrote the book and lyrics. The musical was adapted to the screen in 1954, and scored a Best Actress Oscar nomination for leading lady Dorothy Dandridge. Rodgers and Hammerstein also received a special Pulitzer Prize in 1944 for Oklahoma!."Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II for Oklahoma!", Pulitzer.org, 1944, accessed November 16, 2019
Carousel
The original production of Carousel was directed by Rouben Mamoulian and opened at Broadway's Majestic Theatre on April 19, 1945, running for 890 performances and closing on May 24, 1947. The cast included John Raitt, Jan Clayton, Jean Darling, Christine Johnson and Bambi Linn. From this show came the hit musical numbers "The Carousel Waltz" (an instrumental), "If I Loved You", "June Is Bustin' Out All Over", and "You'll Never Walk Alone".
Carousel was also revolutionary for its time – adapted from Ferenc Molnár's play Liliom, it was one of the first musicals to contain a tragic plot about an antihero;Hyland, p. 158 it also contained an extended ballet that was crucial to the plot, and several extended musical scenes containing both sung and spoken material, as well as dance. The 1956 film version of Carousel, made in CinemaScope 55, again starred Gordon MacRae and Shirley Jones, the same leads as the film version of Oklahoma!
Carousel is also unique among the Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals for not having an overture; both the stage and film versions began with the familiar Carousel Waltz. This music was included in John Mauceri's Philips Records CD of the complete overtures of Rodgers and Hammerstein with the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra. It was also included in Rodgers' rare 1954 album for Columbia Records with the composer conducting the New York Philharmonic Orchestra."Richard Rodgers Conducts Richard Rodgers, Columbia Odyssey, accessed December 20, 2012
State Fair
In 1945, a Technicolor musical film version of Phil Stong's novel State Fair, with songs and script by Rodgers and Hammerstein, was released. The film, a remake of a 1933 non-musical Will Rogers film of the same name, starred Jeanne Crain, Dana Andrews, Dick Haymes, and Vivian Blaine. This was the only time the pair ever wrote a score directly for film. It was a great success, winning Rodgers and Hammerstein their lone Oscar together, for the song "It Might as Well Be Spring","Oscar Hammerstein II", Search Results – Academy Awards Database, accessed April 29, 2019 but it was also unadventurous material for them, compared with several of their Broadway shows. In 1962, an unsuccessful remake of the musical film was released.
In 1969, the St. Louis Municipal Opera presented the world stage premiere of State Fair starring Ozzie and Harriet Nelson."Dorothy Manners" Toledo Blade, June 5, 1969 The production was directed by James Hammerstein, supervised by Richard Rodgers and choreographed by Tommy Tune. State Fair finally arrived on Broadway on March 27, 1996, with Donna McKechnie and Andrea McArdle, produced by David Merrick, and received five Tony Award nominations.
South Pacific and important subsequent works
South Pacific
South Pacific opened on Broadway on April 7, 1949, and ran for over five years. Its songs "Bali Ha'i", "Younger Than Springtime", and "Some Enchanted Evening" have become standards. The play is based upon two short stories by James A. Michener from his book Tales of the South Pacific, which itself was the winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1948. For their adaptation, Rodgers and Hammerstein, along with co-writer Joshua Logan, won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1950. The song "You've Got to Be Carefully Taught" was controversial due to its support of interracial marriage. Rodgers and Hammerstein refused to remove it from the show, even if it meant the show failing. When the show was touring in Atlanta, Georgia, it offended some Georgian lawmakers, who proposed a bill to outlaw any entertainment they deemed to be inspired by Moscow.
In the original production, Mary Martin starred as the heroine Nellie Forbush, and opera star Ezio Pinza starred as Emile de Becque, the French plantation owner. Also in the cast were Juanita Hall, Myron McCormick and Betta St. John. The 1958 film version, also directed by Logan, starred Mitzi Gaynor, Rossano Brazzi, John Kerr, Ray Walston, and Juanita Hall. Brazzi, Kerr, and Hall had their singing dubbed by others.
The King and I
Based on Margaret Landon's Anna and the King of Siam—the story of Anna Leonowens, governess to the children of King Mongkut of Siam in the early 1860s—Rodgers and Hammerstein's musical The King and I opened at the St. James Theatre on Broadway on March 29, 1951, starring Gertrude Lawrence as Anna and the mostly unknown Yul Brynner as the king. This musical featured the hit songs "I Whistle a Happy Tune", "Hello, Young Lovers", "Getting to Know You", "We Kiss in a Shadow", "Something Wonderful", "I Have Dreamed", and "Shall We Dance?"
The King and I was followed by Me and Juliet, which opened at the Majestic Theatre on May 28, 1953. When Oklahoma! returned to Broadway on August 31, 1953, with The King and I, Me and Juliet and South Pacific all still playing, Rodgers and Hammerstein had four shows appearing on Broadway at once.