Richard Rodgers (review)

Theresa Helburn was initially uncertain about whether to treat Green Grow the Lilacs as a “cowboy play” with songs by the likes of Woody Guthrie and Tex Ritter, as something aspiring to higher artistic status (music by Aaron Copland or Roy Harris), or somewhere in between. Richard Rodgers also needed to deal with his longtime but collapsing partnership with Lorenz Hart. Even after Helburn had fixed on Rodgers and Hammerstein, in summer 1942, there were important decisions to be made about the director (eventually, it was Rouben Mamoulian), choreographer (Agnes de Mille, chosen because of her work on Copland’s Rodeo), and the casting of the show. The Guild approached various Hollywood stars (Deanna Durbin, Groucho Marx, Anthony Quinn, Shirley Temple) but took a different path in the end. No less troublesome was how to generate the large amount of money needed to get a musical onto the stage.

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Richard Rodgers

Choice Reviews Online ◽

10.5860/choice.41-5200 ◽

2004 ◽

Vol 41 (09) ◽

pp. 41-5200-41-5200

Keyword(s):

Richard Rodgers

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The Richard Rodgers Reader

American Music ◽

10.2307/3592998 ◽

2004 ◽

Vol 22 (4) ◽

pp. 598

Author(s):

N. Lee Orr ◽

Geoffrey Block

Keyword(s):

Richard Rodgers

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Richard Rodgers: The Man and His Music

Music Educators Journal ◽

10.2307/3399801 ◽

2002 ◽

Vol 88 (6) ◽

pp. 17

Author(s):

Keith Mason

Keyword(s):

Richard Rodgers

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1935–1936

10.1093/oso/9780190607418.003.0006 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

James Steichen

Keyword(s):

First Year ◽

Orpheus And Eurydice ◽

Metropolitan Opera ◽

Richard Rodgers ◽

Opera Productions

This chapter details the activities of the American Ballet during their first year at the Metropolitan Opera as well as the start of Balanchine’s career as a Broadway choreographer. The American Ballet met with mixed success in opera productions but also had the chance to present their own ballets. At this time Balanchine took on work for the Broadway stage, including dances for the 1936 Ziegfeld Follies. Soon after he signed on as choreographer for Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart’s new musical On Your Toes. For this musical he created several substantial dance numbers that blended ballet and tap dancing. This work was far more popular than the American Ballet’s controversial production of the opera Orpheus and Eurydice, premiered around the same time. A short-lived “Bach Ballet” inspired by On Your Toes reveals the close connections among these projects and was likely an early inspiration for Balanchine’s ballet Concerto Barocco.

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Turning Back the Clock

They Made Us Happy ◽

10.1093/oso/9780190630935.003.0007 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 65-77

Author(s):

Andy Propst

Keyword(s):

New York ◽

Richard Rodgers

Betty Comden and Adolph Green received a summons in May 1949 to California from MGM producer Arthur Freed about a movie he needed them to start writing immediately. The project, which would become Singin’ in the Rain, would contain a host of the songs he had written with Nacio Herb Brown. They balked at the assignment, believing their contract did not require them to pen movies that used songs by other writers (except for a handful, such as Richard Rodgers or Cole Porter). Their agreement with the studio contained no such clause, and so they developed the now iconic scenario about the transition from silent movies to talkies and early movie musicals. After they finished this assignment they returned to New York to write sketches and lyrics for the revue Two on the Aisle, which starred Bert Lahr and Dolores Gray.

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“I Hate Parading My Serenading”

10.5406/illinois/9780252040092.003.0007 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Eric Davis

Keyword(s):

Full Measure ◽

Historical Evidence ◽

Left Behind ◽

Richard Rodgers ◽

Stylistic Elements ◽

Insight Into ◽

Rare Opportunity ◽

Jerome Kern

This chapter analyzes Porter's performing style by drawing on published reports and eyewitness accounts of his abilities. It compares aspects of his performances with those of some of his favorite singers in order to identify shared stylistic elements, as well as ways in which his interpretations were unique. Though it will be impossible to appreciate the full measure of Porter's art from the scant historical evidence that documented his performing, we certainly have more to work with than is the case with Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern, Vincent Youmans, and Richard Rodgers. The recordings not only make it possible to reconcile Porter's reputation as a performer with the evidence he left behind but also give us a rare opportunity to gain some insight into the interpretive qualities Porter was accustomed to and was able to bring out in the performance of his music.

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