Rodgers’ score is character-driven, rather than geared toward the hit parade, with song titles like “One Foot, Other Foot,” “Poor Joe,” “What a Lovely Day for a Wedding,” “A Darn Nice Campus" and the most famous song, “The Gentleman is a Dope.” (The remarkable Barbara Cook delivers a terrific rendition of this latter song on her album Oscar Winners, devoted entirely to the lyrics of Oscar Hammerstein II).Īllegro barely ran the season on Broadway, followed by a short-lived national tour. Without realizing the Frankenstein monster they were creating, the team tried to break some of the rules they’d invented, but de Mille’s production, with its singing Greek Chorus and dancing ensembles (numbering over 100 performers), was overwhelming and didn’t match the material. He spent a year working on the first act, but rushed through the second act, finishing only a week before rehearsals began. Hammerstein’s libretto was based on his own childhood experiences. Influenced by the simple theatricality of Thornton Wilder’s Our Town, the story explores the life of an everyman, Joseph Taylor, Jr., a small town doctor for whom big-city fame and fortune are a temptation, but home and family help him to avert a mid-life crisis.Īgnes de Mille, whose innovative choreography for both Oklahoma and Carousel as well as Lerner and Loewe’s 1947 musical Brigadoon, was hired to direct as well as choreograph (another first), attracted to the concept of a stage constantly alive with movement. Produced in 1947, Allegro is, essentially, the first concept musical.
Still, there are three Rodgers and Hammerstein shows that weren’t great successes, but, because times have changed, demand further attention and possible production.
Their film musical, State Fair, was also adapted for the stage and has been infrequently produced. All three versions are available on DVD, and, with a new script by Douglas Carter Beane, a stage version recently ended a two-year Broadway engagement. Their adaptation of Cinderella has been filmed for television three times: in 1957 starring Julie Andrews in 1965 with Lesley Ann Warren and in 1997 starring Brandy Norwood.
Their five major successes: Oklahoma, Carousel, The King and I, South Pacific and The Sound of Music are constantly presented worldwide, and Robert Wise’s film of The Sound of Music is one of the best-loved movie musicals ever made. Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II created the rules for modern musical theater.
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