Hammerstein and rodgers biography books
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What's New on the Rialto
Todd S. Purdum's
"Something Wonderful: Rodgers and Hammerstein's Broadway Revolution"
Book Review by Ken Bloom
Purdum has written on the world of politics for The New York Times as well as Politico and Vanity Fair. Therefore, his writing is reportorial rather than having a distinctive voice. He doesn't insinuate himself into the story. The "juice" comes from the people themselves, their exploits, personalities, and writings.
The Rodgers and Hammerstein catalogue is so entrenched in our lives that we take for granted the artistry and talent behind what were groundbreaking musicals. Even the failures were noble attempts to expand the art form of the musical theatre. And Purdum allows us to see the shows in the context of the times and
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Rodgers and Hammerstein
20th-century American songwriting team
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.[1]
Their popular Broadway productions in the 1940s and 1950s initiated what is considered the "golden age" of musical theater.[2] 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 amate
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‘You’ve Got to Be Carefully Taught’
In the middle of the twentieth century Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II were kings of American culture. Almost two thirds of the country tuned in on March 31, 1957, to watch the live broadcast of their made-for-television musical Cinderella—expanding the dominion they had established over the previous fourteen years on Broadway with Oklahoma!, Carousel, South Pacific, and The King and I. Critically acclaimed, popular, and obscenely lucrative, these shows effected a sea change in American musical theater from musical comedy (songs, jokes, and dance loosely collected around a plot) to the musical play (character-driven songs and sometimes dance integrated into a coherent story) that Rodgers and Hammerstein invented.
But by the time of their final work together—The Sound of Music, which debuted in 1959, the year before Hammerstein died of cancer—a critical backlash had begun. Hammerstein’s plainspoken lyr