Rodgers And Hammerstein Essay, Research Paper

There are many well-known lyricists and composers, but only a few leave such a

mark as Rodgers and Hammerstein. This duo produced nine musical plays during

their partnership and caused a profound change in musical comedy. They set the

standards that are followed to this day in musical history. They created the

modern musical that we all know and love. Before they became Rodgers and

Hammerstein, they were simply Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, both of

New York City. Hammerstein, born in 1895, was brought up in a theatrical family.

His father was an ?operatic impresario?, otherwise known as an opera

director or manager. He built the Harlem Opera House(1888) and the Manhattan

Opera House(1906) and also introduced many new singers to the US. From a very

young age Hammerstein II committed to the theater even though his family

discouraged him. As soon as he was old enough to have a job in his father?s

theatrical business, he devoted himself to his duties and learned as much as he

could about play production and the labors of the theater artist. Oscar

eventually teamed up with author Otto Harbach and composer Vincent Youmans to

produce Wildflower. With help from Harbach, Hammerstein began to create

professional material for Broadway. Through Otto Harbach, Hammerstein was led

into collaboration with Jerome Kern for Sunday. He also worked with Herbert

Stothart and George Gershwin on Song of the Flame, a very unsuccessful show. But

despite the shows failure, it did lead Hammerstein to concentrate on creating

operetta in order to integrate musical comedy with opera. With this in mind, he

was able to achieve new standards for success in his career with his lyrics for

The Wild Rose and The Desert Song. By 1927, after a few more productions,

Hammerstein had achieved the technical skill that allowed him to provide a

composer with a functional book and lyrics. This was best shown in Showboat, the

first modern American musical. Showboat was the first show that indicated

Hammerstein?s great talent. Hammerstein was able to create a believable plot,

situation,and characterization. At the forefront of this show was

Hammerstein?s concern for the southern blacks. This show contributed

commentary on racial prejudice which Hammerstein would continually do. This was

a big step for the 1920s and a huge victory when the show was so widely

appreciated. Despite the promise indicated by Showboat, Hammerstein did not

produce works of comparable success between 1928 and 1940. Some of his forgotten

shows from that time are Free for All, Three Sisters, May Wine and several

others. By 1941 it was apparent that except for Showboat, Hammerstein had not

succeeded in creating a celebrated body of work outside the operetta form.

Richard Rodgers , born in 1902, unlike Hammerstein, was not born into the

theater, but his parents made sure he was cultured in the world of musical

theater at a very early age. One of his earliest childhood memories was of his

parents singing the full vocal scores from the latest musicals1. By age six,

Rodgers had taught himself to play piano and was then given piano lessons by his

proud parents. They also encouraged him to make a career in music. Like

Hammerstein, Rodgers? devotion to the theater began early on in his life.

Rodgers was especially influenced by Jerome Kern?s shows and considered him a

hero. When Rodgers was nine, he began to compose melodies of his own and

eventually learned how to write them too. At fourteen he produced his first two

complete songs, ?Campfire Days? and ?The Auto Show Girl?. While still in

high school, he wrote scores for two amateur shows, One Minute Please and Up

State and Down, after which he was encouraged to find a lyricist and begin a

professional song-producing arrangement. Rodgers found Lorenz Hart. They met in

1918 and immediately hit it off. Both were very pleased with each others

abilities and a creative union was made, as well as a close friendship. Their

first show together was Fly with Me, which was performed for Columbia

University. Broadway man Lew Fields saw the show and informed the duo that he

intended to use some of their songs in his next Broadway musical, Poor Little

Ritz Girl2 . Although only seven of the numbers were used, it brought Rodgers

into the world of Broadway musicals. Rodgers and Hart collaborated from 1918 to

1943 and produced twenty-seven stage musicals and eight motion picture scores.

Almost all their work was successful and their chemistry as a creative team was

paying off. In the late 1930s though, Hart and Rodgers grew apart because of

emotional problems Hart was having. Eventually Hart walked out on Rodgers and

died in 1943. Rodgers and Hammerstein finally met in the early 1940s. Their

first show was Oklahoma! which debut a success and began the series of smash

hits for Rodgers and Hammerstein. Their other shows were Carousel (1945),

Allegro (1947), South Pacific (1949), The King and I (1951), Me and Juliet

(1953), Pipe Dream (1955), Flower Drum Song (1958), and The Sound of Music

(1959). They also did the film, State Fair (1945), and the television musical,

Cinderella (1957). The main reason Rodgers and Hammerstein were so successful

and made such an impact on musical theater was that ?…they formulated and

demonstrated principles about their craft that elevated the popular musical

stage from entertainment to art…?3 . In other words, they raised the

standards and expectations of the musical to more than just entertainment for

the audience to enjoy, and made being a musical theater actor a skill and an

art. The principles they created were as follows. First, they both agreed that

the song served the play rather than vice-versa. This concept is what helps make

a musical more believable. Second, Rodgers and Hammerstein shows were very

sincere and honest. Both Rodgers and Hammerstein were romantics and saw nothing

wrong with sweetness and simplicity. Joseph Fields, a collaborator on Flower

Drum Song, said that ?Oscar really believed that love conquers all, that

virtue triumphs, that dreams come true.?4 . Rodgers felt similarly. ?Whats

wrong with sweetness and light? Its been around for quite awhile. Even a cliche

you know has a right to be true?5 This concept keeps people going back to see

musicals, because no matter how tragic things are you can always find a ray of

hope in a musical. For example, in The Sound of Music, the country is about to

enter war, people are being arrested and there is tragedy everywhere, but the

VanTrappes escape, which occurs to show that there is hope. Finally, Rodgers and

Hammerstein were sure to maintain a professional union between all members of a

production team: producer, writer, composer, director, choreographer, actor,

scenery etc. They proved that a takes team work to produce a show and that means

collaboration from all sides at all times of a production. Hammerstein and

Rodgers set the mold for the ?sensitive relationship? between any group of

collaborators through the way they worked together. Rodgers and Hammerstein

revolutionized musical theater. They forged new levels of performance and also

of production, that are now the standards for musicals in America. Their success

is rooted in their devotion to the theater, their ability to draw audiences in

to their shows by making their shows believable yet sentimental and their

ability to collaborate so well together. This is why their shows are still being

performed in theaters all over the world. They are true fore fathers in American

musical theater.

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1) The Concise Columbia Encyclopedia, third ed. New York: Columbia University

Press, 1994. 2) Fordin, Hugh. Getting to know him: A Biography of Oscar

Hammerstein II. New York: Ungar Pub. Co., 1977. 3) Green, Stanley. Rodgers and

Hammerstein Fact Book: a record of their works together and with other

collaborators. New York: Lynn Farnol Group, 1980 4) Hyland, William. Richard

Rodgers. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998 5) Kislan, Richard. The Musical.

New Jersey: Prentice-Hall Inc., 1980. 6) Nolan, Frederick N. The Sound of their

Music: the story of Rodgers and Hammerstein. New York: Walker, 1978