“I enjoy being a girl”: Women in the plays of Rodgers and Hammerstein

1989 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard M. Goldstein
Keyword(s):  
Rodgers And Hammerstein

Oklahoma!

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tim Carter
Keyword(s):  
Musical Theater ◽  
Final Shape ◽  
Broadway Musical ◽  
History Of ◽  
Rodgers And Hammerstein ◽  
Theatre Guild

Oklahoma! premiered on Broadway on 31 March 1943 under the auspices of the Theatre Guild, and today it is performed more frequently than any other Rodgers and Hammerstein musical. When this book was first published in 2007, it offered the first fully documented history of the making of the show based on archival materials, manuscripts, journalism, and other sources. The present revised edition draws still further on newly uncovered sources to provide an even clearer account of a work that many have claimed fundamentally changed Broadway musical theater. It is filled with rich and fascinating details about the play on which Oklahoma! was based (Lynn Riggs’s Green Grow the Lilacs); on what encouraged Theresa Helburn and Lawrence Langner of the Guild to bring Rodgers and Hammerstein together for their first collaboration; on how Rouben Mamoulian and Agnes de Mille became the director and choreographer; on the drafts and revisions that led the show toward its final shape; and on the rehearsals and tryouts that brought it to fruition. It also examines the lofty aspirations and the mythmaking that surrounded Oklahoma! from its very inception, and demonstrates just what made it part of its times.

Conclusion

2021 ◽  
pp. 270-276
Author(s):  
Naomi Graber
Keyword(s):  
Musical Theatre ◽  
The World ◽  
Rodgers And Hammerstein

Throughout his career, Weill remained optimistic that musical theatre could change the world for the better, all while reaching the broadest possible audience. He strove to write music that spoke to its time and place, but also endeavored to write music that possessed lasting impact and beauty. Although Rodgers and Hammerstein and their influence overshadowed Weill’s influence in his own lifetime and soon after, later Broadway figures like Hal Prince, John Kander, and Fred Ebb professed great admiration for Weill, and incorporated some of his innovations into their work. Weill’s legacy thus remains a part of Broadway to this day.

Rodgers and Hammerstein

2017 ◽  
pp. 251-260
Author(s):  
Alyson McLamore
Keyword(s):  
Rodgers And Hammerstein

Small-Screen Singalongs

2020 ◽  
pp. 13-44
Author(s):  
Kelly Kessler
Keyword(s):  
Recording Industry ◽  
Leonard Bernstein ◽  
Television Industry ◽  
Ticket Sales ◽  
Tin Pan Alley ◽  
Musical Genre ◽  
Cultural Image ◽  
Cultural Legitimacy ◽  
Rodgers And Hammerstein ◽  
Small Screen

As the television industry struggled to establish its identity in the late 1940s, it looked across town to Broadway and Tin Pan Alley and embraced the deep-rooted, highly lucrative, popular musical and its music as sources of inspiration. It turned to the familiar sounds of Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, Rodgers and Hammerstein, and Leonard Bernstein—music which fueled Broadway ticket sales and the recording industry. Focusing specifically on commercial television’s first decade, 1944–1955, this chapter explores how network programming sought to absorb both the sweeping popularity and cultural legitimacy of the musical genre and Broadway stage in pursuit of much-needed viewers and a more established cultural image or cachet. Further, it explores how visuals were transported from Broadway houses to small screens and how the first glimpses of Broadway on television would emerge as the medium set the stage for decades of small-screen singalongs.

Heading for Broadway

Oklahoma! ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 135-170
Author(s):  
Tim Carter
Keyword(s):  
New Haven ◽  
Rodgers And Hammerstein

Although there was a complete libretto for what became Oklahoma! when the typical five weeks of rehearsals began on 8 February 1943, plus a number of the songs, there was still much work to do. The principal cast was fixed, including Alfred Drake (Curly), Joan Roberts (Laurey), Celeste Holm (Ado Annie), and Joseph Buloff (Ali Hakim), but others still needed to be recruited (Howard da Silva as Jud Fry). Some roles were expanded (Gertie Cummings) and others dropped (Lotta Gonzales, who was to have ended up marrying Ali Hakim). Act 1 was fixed early on, but act 2 was subject to constant revision even during the tryouts in New Haven and Boston (when the show was titled Away We Go!). In part this was due to problems of staging, but Rodgers and Hammerstein also remained unclear on the musical contents until the week before the Broadway opening, on 31 March 1943.

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