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The music and lyrics of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II quite literally changed the face of American musical theater.
A golden period followed for Rodgers & Hart as they created: On Your Toes (1936), Babes In Arms (1937), I'd Rather Be Right (1937), I Married An Angel (1938), The Boys From Syracuse (1938), Too Many Girls (1939), Higher and Higher (1940), Pal Joey (1940) and By Jupiter (1942). The Rodgers & Hart partnership came to an end with the death of Lorenz Hart in 1943, at the age of 48. Oscar Hammerstein II was born on July 12, 1895 into a theatrical dynasty. His grandfather, Oscar Hammerstein I, was an opera impresario, and his uncle was a successful Broadway producer. While a college student, the younger Hammerstein wrote and performed in several varsity shows at Columbia University. His first musical, Always You, for which he wrote the book and lyrics, opened on Broadway in 1921. He was co-writer of the popular Rudolf Friml operetta Rose-Marie, and then began a successful collaboration with composer Jerome Kern on Sunny, which was a great hit. Their most successful collaboration, though, was the 1927 musical Show Boat, which is considered to be one of the masterpieces of the American musical theater. Hammerstein continued to work with Kern and operetta composer Sigmund Romberg, among others, over the next several years on shows such as Sweet Adeline, Music in the Air and Very Warm for May, a critical failure which nevertheless contained one of Kern and Hammerstein's loveliest songs, "All the Things You Are." Rodgers & Hammerstein collaborated for the first time in 1943 and are credited with developing the "integrated musical," a kind of musical in which the songs further the plot and reveal character, rather than just serving as pleasant interruptions to the story. The songs in most of their musicals could not be removed from the shows without losing their essence. Together, Rodgers & Hammerstein created some of the most memorable musicals known to Broadway, such as Oklahoma!, Carousel, South Pacific, The King and I, Flower Drum Song, Cinderella and The Sound of Music. They influenced musical theater writers to the point that nearly every musical on Broadway after 1943 used song and dance to further and enhance the plots of the shows rather than distract the audience from the storylines. Interestingly, the last song written before the death of Oscar Hammerstein II was "Edelweiss" from The Sound of Music. It was written at the last minute to provide male lead Theodore Bikel with a solo number, and Bikel has always thought it interesting that the last word that Hammerstein, who knew he was dying, wrote as a lyric was "forever." Indeed, the work of these two remarkable men will endure for years to come and will continue to delight audiences around the world. Source:
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