"Rodgers and Hammerstein Rodgers and Hammerstein refers to composer Richard Rodgers (1902–1979) and lyricist-dramatist Oscar Hammerstein II (1895–1960), who together were an influential, innovative and successful American musical theatre writing team. They created a string of popular Broadway musicals in the 1940s and 1950s, initiating what is considered the ""golden age"" of musical theatre. 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 that the team produced on Broadway during their lifetimes, ""Flower Drum Song"" was"
"a musical. Dorothy Hammerstein had known Gertrude Lawrence since 1925, when they had both appeared in ""André Charlot's London Revue of 1924"" on Broadway and on tour in North America. Rodgers and Hammerstein had disliked Landon's novel as a basis for a musical when it was published, and their views still held. It consists of vignettes of life at the Siamese court, interspersed with descriptions of historical events unconnected with each other, except that the King creates most of the difficulties in the episodes, and Anna tries to resolve them. Rodgers and Hammerstein could see no coherent story from which"
"a musical could be made until they saw the 1946 film adaptation, starring Irene Dunne and Rex Harrison, and how the screenplay united the episodes in the novel. Rodgers and Hammerstein were also concerned about writing a star vehicle. They had preferred to make stars rather than hire them, and engaging the legendary Gertrude Lawrence would be expensive. Lawrence's voice was also a worry: her limited vocal range was diminishing with the years, while her tendency to sing flat was increasing. Lawrence's temperament was another concern: though she could not sing like one, the star was known to be capable"
"lived to the age of 102. In the early 1940s, composer Richard Rodgers and lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II, each a longtime Broadway veteran, joined forces and began their collaboration by writing two musicals that became massive hits, ""Oklahoma!"" (1943) and ""Carousel"" (1945). An innovation for its time in integrating song, dialogue and dance, ""Oklahoma!"" would serve as ""the model for Broadway shows for decades"". In 1999, ""Time"" magazine named ""Carousel"" the best musical of the century, writing that Rodgers and Hammerstein ""set the standards for the 20th century musical"". Their next effort, ""Allegro"" (1947), was a comparative disappointment, running for"
"and Hammerstein musical written for television. It was originally broadcast live on CBS on March 31, 1957 as a vehicle for Julie Andrews, who played the title role. The broadcast was viewed by more than 100 million people. It was subsequently remade for television twice, in 1965 and 1997. The 1965 version starred Lesley Ann Warren and Stuart Damon, and the 1997 one starred Brandy Norwood in the title role, with Whitney Houston as the fairy godmother. Both remakes add songs from other Richard Rodgers musicals. The musical has been adapted for the stage in a number of versions, including"
"to Rodgers and Hammerstein, ""The General Foods 25th Anniversary Show"", which featured all the then-surviving stars (except Alfred Drake) of all the classic Broadway musicals that the team had written (1943–1954). Clayton and John Raitt, in full makeup and costume, performed ""If I Loved You"" (also known as the Bench Scene) from ""Carousel"". It was the first opportunity for millions of viewers to see a scene from the musical, since none of the film versions of the Rodgers and Hammerstein stage musicals had yet been released. Clayton during this period also played herself in an appearance on Peter Lawford's short-lived"
"issues such as racism, sexism and classism in many of their works. For example, ""Carousel"" concerns domestic violence, while ""South Pacific"" addresses racism. Based on the true story of the von Trapp family, ""The Sound of Music"" explores the views of Austrians to the takeover of Austria by the Third Reich. Rodgers and Hammerstein Rodgers and Hammerstein refers to composer Richard Rodgers (1902–1979) and lyricist-dramatist Oscar Hammerstein II (1895–1960), who together were an influential, innovative and successful American musical theatre writing team. They created a string of popular Broadway musicals in the 1940s and 1950s, initiating what is considered the"
"as well as by a love to which neither can admit. The musical premiered on March 29, 1951, at Broadway's St. James Theatre. It ran for nearly three years, making it the fourth longest-running Broadway musical in history at the time, and has had many tours and revivals. In 1950, theatrical attorney Fanny Holtzmann was looking for a part for her client, veteran leading lady Gertrude Lawrence. Holtzmann realized that Landon's book would provide an ideal vehicle and contacted Rodgers and Hammerstein, who were initially reluctant but agreed to write the musical. The pair initially sought Rex Harrison to play"
"Orchestra performed this musical by Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990) in 2018, his centenary year. Directed by Rachel Kavanaugh and with choreography by Alastair David, this semi-staged production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's musical marked 10 years since John Wilson first performed at the BBC Proms and eight years since the John Wilson Orchestra made their Proms debut. The ""stellar cast"" included Belinda Lang (Aunt Eller) with Nathaniel Hackmann (Curly), Scarlet Strallen (Laurey), Robert Fairchild (Will Parker), David Seadon-Young (Jud), and Lizzy Connolly (Ado Annie), with comedian/actor Marcus Brigstocke (Ali Hakim). A tribute to George and Ira Gershwin. For 12 of the pieces"
"Favorite Things"", ""Climb Ev'ry Mountain"", ""So Long, Farewell"" and ""Sixteen Going on Seventeen"". ""Edelweiss"" was the last song that Rodgers and Hammerstein wrote together. Rodgers and Hammerstein re-worked the musical theatre genre. Early 20th-century musicals, except for the Princess Theatre musicals and a few important examples like Hammerstein and Jerome Kern's ""Show Boat"", were usually whimsical or farcical, and typically built around a star. Because the efforts of Rodgers and Hammerstein were so successful, many musicals that followed contained thought-provoking plots with mature themes, and in which all the aspects of the play, dance, song, and drama, were combined in"
"on an earlier scene when Gretl presents a bouquet of edelweiss flowers to Baroness Elsa Schräder during her visit to the von Trapp household. Rodgers provided a simple, yet haunting and affecting waltz-time melody, to the simple Italian style ritornello lyric that Hammerstein wrote about the appearance of the edelweiss flower. This song turned out to be one of the most beloved songs in the musical, and also one of the best-loved songs of Rodgers and Hammerstein. This song was the last song that Rodgers and Hammerstein wrote together; Hammerstein was suffering from stomach cancer, which would take his life"
"Rodgers and Hart Rodgers and Hart were an American songwriting partnership between composer Richard Rodgers (1902–1979) and the lyricist Lorenz Hart (1895–1943). They worked together on 28 stage musicals and more than 500 songs from 1919 until Hart's death in 1943. Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart were introduced in 1919, when both attended Columbia University, when asked to write an amateur club show. After writing together for several years, they produced their first successful Broadway musical, ""The Garrick Gaieties"", in 1925, which introduced their hit song, ""Manhattan"" and led to a series of successful musicals and films. They quickly became"
"Rodgers and Hammerstein's new show, ""Me and Juliet"", although ""South Pacific"" had to be moved to Boston for five weeks because of schedule conflicts. When it closed on January 16, 1954, after 1,925 performances, it was the second-longest-running musical in Broadway history, after ""Oklahoma!"". At the final performance, Myron McCormick, the only cast member remaining from the opening, led the performers and audience in ""Auld Lang Syne""; the curtain did not fall but remained raised as the audience left the theatre. On a South Pacific island during World War II, two half-Polynesian children, Ngana and Jerome, happily sing as they"
"Gertrude Lawrence Gertrude Lawrence (4 July 1898 – 6 September 1952) was an English actress, singer, dancer and musical comedy performer known for her stage appearances in the West End of London and on Broadway in New York. Lawrence was born Gertrude Alice Dagmar Klasen, Alexandra Dagmar Lawrence-Klasen, Gertrude Alexandra Dagmar Klasen or some variant (sources differ), of English and Danish extraction, in Newington, London. Her father was a basso profundo who performed under the name Arthur Lawrence. His heavy drinking led her mother Alice to leave him soon after Gertrude's birth. In 1904, her stepfather took the family to"
"director of the Rodgers and Hammerstein Organization and a board member of ASCAP. She also served for several years as chairman of the Juilliard School. She died on June 26, 2014, at age 83 of a heart ailment, and was survived by five children, seven grandchildren and step-grandchildren, and her sister. Mary Rodgers Mary Rodgers (January 11, 1931 – June 26, 2014) was an American composer, author and screenwriter. Rodgers was born in New York City. She was a daughter of composer Richard Rodgers and his wife, Dorothy Belle (née Feiner). She had a sister, Mrs. Linda Emory. She attended"
"was adapted as a 1965 film musical starring Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer, which won five Academy Awards. ""The Sound of Music"" was the last musical written by Rodgers and Hammerstein; Oscar Hammerstein died of stomach cancer nine months after the Broadway premiere. After viewing ""The Trapp Family"", a 1956 West German film about the von Trapp family, and its 1958 sequel (""""), stage director Vincent J. Donehue thought that the project would be perfect for his friend Mary Martin; Broadway producers Leland Hayward and Richard Halliday (Martin's husband) agreed. The producers originally envisioned a non-musical play that would be"
"""Dancing on the Ceiling"", ""Lover"", ""Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered"", ""Mimi"", and ""Have You Met Miss Jones?"", Rodgers and Hart Rodgers and Hart were an American songwriting partnership between composer Richard Rodgers (1902–1979) and the lyricist Lorenz Hart (1895–1943). They worked together on 28 stage musicals and more than 500 songs from 1919 until Hart's death in 1943. Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart were introduced in 1919, when both attended Columbia University, when asked to write an amateur club show. After writing together for several years, they produced their first successful Broadway musical, ""The Garrick Gaieties"", in 1925, which introduced their"
"the early Broadway appearances of actress Glenn Close, her first in a musical. Until the Canadian premiere of ""Rex"" in 2010, this show was the only Richard Rodgers work since the 1940s not available for performance from the Rodgers and Hammerstein Organization. Clive Barnes, reviewing for ""The New York Times"", wrote that it was ""one of the most interminable musicals in years."" Andrew Lloyd Webber persuaded his then-wife, Sarah Brightman to record the ballad ""Away From You"", the only song from the musical that has been separately released. Years after the show closed, and after Rodgers's death, Sheldon Harnick and"
"he had co-produced with Oscar Hammerstein II in 1944, into a musical, also named ""I Remember Mama"". It would be Rogers' last work prior to his death in December of that year. The play was produced at the Majestic Theatre, where it previewed on April 26, 1979, and officially opened on May 31. The production ran for 108 performances, closing on September 2, and starred Liv Ullmann, George Hearn, and George S. Irving. Rodgers wrote the music, with lyrics by Martin Charnin, and book by Thomas Meehan. ""Mama"", a CBS Television series starring Peggy Wood, ran from 1949 until 1957."
"for another week, and her husband Richard Aldrich asked Rodgers and Hammerstein if they would consider closing the show for Easter week to give her a chance to recover fully. They denied his request, but agreed to replace her with the original Ado Annie from ""Oklahoma!"", Celeste Holm, for six weeks during the summer. Meanwhile, Lawrence's performances were deteriorating, prompting audiences to become audibly restive. Rodgers and Hammerstein prepared a letter, never delivered, advising her that ""eight times a week you are losing the respect of 1,500 people"". In late August, Lawrence fainted following a matinee and was admitted to"
"the supporting part of the King, a role he had played in the 1946 film made from Landon's book, but he was unavailable. They settled on the young actor and television director Yul Brynner. The musical was an immediate hit, winning Tony Awards for Best Musical, Best Actress (for Lawrence) and Best Featured Actor (for Brynner). Lawrence died unexpectedly of cancer a year and a half after the opening, and the role of Anna was played by several actresses during the remainder of the Broadway run of 1,246 performances. A hit London run and U.S. national tour followed, together with"
"already well established. Rodgers and Hammerstein had already between them nearly six glory-filled decades of Broadway triumph and in their first collaboration, ""Oklahoma!"", created an enormous hit (even at that moment in the midst of a stunning performance run of 2,212 shows) that was to become a staple of the American musical theater stage. Rodgers and Hammerstein's producing partners for ""Allegro"", Lawrence Langer and Theresa Helburn of the Theatre Guild, were equally distinguished. The Guild's producing credits stretched back to 1919 and included original Broadway productions of works by Eugene O'Neill, Ferenc Molnár, George Bernard Shaw, and George Gershwin. Langer"
"that later historians writing about important moments in twentieth-century theatre would begin to identify eras according to their relationship to ""Oklahoma!"""" ""After ""Oklahoma!"", Rodgers and Hammerstein were the most important contributors to the musical-play form... The examples they set in creating vital plays, often rich with social thought, provided the necessary encouragement for other gifted writers to create musical plays of their own"". The two collaborators created an extraordinary collection of some of musical theatre's best loved and most enduring classics, including ""Carousel"" (1945), ""South Pacific"" (1949), ""The King and I"" (1951) and ""The Sound of Music"" (1959). Some of"
"to July 28, 2019 as part of its 2018/19 season. Due to the death of the director the production has been postponed with no announced date. Bedknobs and Broomsticks (musical) Bedknobs and Broomsticks is an upcoming stage musical based on the 1971 Walt Disney film and the stories by Mary Norton. It features the original songs by Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman, new songs and additional music and lyrics by Neil Bartram and book by Brian Hill. The musical was to have been directed and choreographed by Rachel Rockwell before her death on May 26, 2018. Her replacement"
"worldwide by Rodgers and Hammerstein Theatricals, with the Spanish language premiere taking place in Mexico City in October 2015. In December 2013, ""The Snow Gorilla"" – featuring the voice of Brian Blessed – opened for a five-week run at the Rose Theatre, Kingston, for which they wrote music and lyrics. Their new stage musical adaptation of Sue Townsend's ""The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13¾"" opened at Leicester's Curve Theatre in March 2015. Their original new musical ""Prodigy"", commissioned by National Youth Music Theatre, ran at the St James Theatre in August 2015. The original cast recording of ""Prodigy"""
"expression of romantic feelings between the King and Anna would be inappropriate in view of both parties' upbringing and prevailing social mores, Hammerstein wrote love scenes for a secondary couple, Tuptim, a junior wife of the King, and Lun Tha, a scholar. In the Landon work, the relationship is between Tuptim and a priest, and is not romantic. The musical's most radical change from the novel was to have the King die at the end of the musical. Also, since Lawrence was not primarily a singer, the secondary couple gave Rodgers a chance to write his usual ""soaring"" romantic melodies."
"tale of the same title, it is the only Rodgers and Hammerstein musical ever to have been written for television. It was originally broadcast live in color on CBS on March 31, 1957 as a vehicle for Julie Andrews, who played the title role; that broadcast was seen by over 100 million people. It was subsequently remade by CBS in 1965, with Lesley Ann Warren, Stuart Damon, Ginger Rogers and Walter Pidgeon among its stars; the remake also included a new song, ""Loneliness of Evening"", which was originally composed in 1949 for ""South Pacific"", but was not performed in that"
"also nominated for two Drama League Awards but did not win either, and for eight Outer Critics Circle Awards, winning one for costume design. Cinderella (2013 Broadway production) Rodgers + Hammerstein's Cinderella is a musical in two acts with music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II and a book by Douglas Carter Beane based partly on Hammerstein's 1957 book. The story is based upon the fairy tale ""Cinderella"", particularly the French version ""Cendrillon, ou la Petite Pantoufle de Verre"", by Charles Perrault. The story concerns a young woman forced into a life of servitude by her cruel stepmother,"
"written by Richard Rodgers. In this version, Wayne aims to compete in an automobile race at the fair and get revenge on a competitor who previously bested and insulted him. Wayne gets engaged to Emily Porter, a showgirl at the fair, but after Emily overhears Melissa referring to her as ""trash"", she tearfully breaks up with Wayne, claiming that her career is more important. As in the earlier versions, Margy and her love interest, Jerry, reunite after the fair. The Rodgers and Hammerstein film version set in Iowa was later produced as a stage musical with some additional songs, mostly"
"Laurents and Mary Rodgers, Richard Rodgers' daughter, to write the lyrics. Even so, Rodgers felt that the original play did not lend itself to musicalization; Sondheim agreed. According to Peter Filichia, ""Sondheim didn’t want to do the musical in the first place, but given that Laurents sought him – and had recommended him for 'West Side Story' when he was a novice — he accepted. Also a factor was that his now-deceased mentor Oscar Hammerstein had recommended that he succeed him as Rodgers’ lyricist."" Rodgers, who was producing the Broadway production, rejected Martin as too old for Leona. Franco Zeffirelli"
"to depression and alcohol abuse, and was at one time hospitalized. He was also well known as a serial womanizer. Richard Rodgers Richard Charles Rodgers (June 28, 1902 – December 30, 1979) was an American composer of music, with over 900 songs and 43 Broadway musicals, leaving a legacy as one of the most significant composers of 20th century American music. He is best known for his songwriting partnerships with the lyricists Lorenz Hart and Oscar Hammerstein II. His compositions have had a significant impact on popular music. Rodgers was the first person to win what are considered the top"
"<nowiki>[</nowiki>""<nowiki>Me and</nowiki>""<nowiki>]</nowiki> ""Juliet"" ever finding an audience ... so these songs are up for grabs."" Composer and author Ethan Mordden, in his book on the duo's works, wrote of the conceptual difficulties which Rodgers and Hammerstein had with the musical: Principal characters: Characters in ""Me and Juliet"" (play-within-the-play): Books Articles and webpages Me and Juliet Me and Juliet is a musical comedy by Richard Rodgers (music) and Oscar Hammerstein II (lyrics and book) and their sixth stage collaboration. The work tells a story of romance backstage at a long-running musical: assistant stage manager Larry woos chorus girl Jeanie behind the"
"do the singing"". In 1955, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer released the film version, ""Interrupted Melody"", starring Eleanor Parker as Lawrence; Parker loved opera and learned to sing all of the arias, although her singing was later dubbed in by soprano Eileen Farrell. Lawrence criticised the film as being untrue to her life. Lawrence died, aged 71, of heart failure on 13 January 1979 at St Vincent's Hospital, Little Rock, Arkansas, and was buried in Greenwood Cemetery in Hot Springs, where she had made her home for many years. In 1946 she was awarded the cross of the Légion d'honneur for her work in"