Rodgers and Hammerstein
[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).
Among their many Broadway hits were the shows A Connecticut Yankee (1927), Babes in Arms (1937), The Boys from Syracuse (1938), Pal Joey (1940), and By Jupiter (1942), as well as many successful film projects.
[7] By the early 1940s, Hart had sunk deeper into alcoholism and emotional turmoil, and he became unreliable, prompting Rodgers to approach Hammerstein to ask if he would consider working with him.
[8] Independently of each other, Rodgers and Hammerstein had been attracted to making a musical based on Lynn Riggs' stage play Green Grow the Lilacs.
Ultimately the original cast included Alfred Drake (Curly), Joan Roberts (Laurey), Celeste Holm (Ado Annie), Howard Da Silva (Jud Fry), Betty Garde (Aunt Eller), Lee Dixon (Will Parker) and Joseph Bulloff (Ali Hakim).
Many enduring musical standards come from this show, among them "Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin'", "The Surrey with the Fringe on Top", "I Cain't Say No", the aforementioned "People Will Say We're in Love", and "Oklahoma!".
This music was included in John Mauceri's Philips Records CD of the complete overtures of Rodgers and Hammerstein with the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra.
It was a great success, winning Rodgers and Hammerstein their lone Oscar together, for the song "It Might as Well Be Spring",[15] but it was also unadventurous material for them, compared with several of their Broadway shows.
State Fair finally arrived on Broadway on March 27, 1996, with Donna McKechnie and Andrea McArdle, produced by David Merrick, and received five Tony Award nominations.
The play is based upon two short stories by James A. Michener from his book Tales of the South Pacific, which itself was the winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1948.
When the show was touring in Atlanta, Georgia, it offended some Georgian lawmakers, who proposed a bill to outlaw any entertainment they deemed to be inspired by Moscow.
The 1958 film version, also directed by Logan, starred Mitzi Gaynor, Rossano Brazzi, John Kerr, Ray Walston, and Juanita Hall.
This musical featured the hit songs "I Whistle a Happy Tune", "Hello, Young Lovers", "Getting to Know You", "We Kiss in a Shadow", "Something Wonderful", "I Have Dreamed", and "Shall We Dance?"
[18] The King and I was adapted for film in 1956 with Brynner re-creating his role opposite Deborah Kerr (whose singing was largely dubbed by Marni Nixon).
Andrews played Cinderella, with Edith Adams as the Fairy Godmother, Kaye Ballard and Alice Ghostley as stepsisters Joy and Portia, and Jon Cypher as Prince Christopher.
After the success of the 1957 production, another version was presented in 1965 and shown annually on CBS, starring Lesley Ann Warren, Stuart Damon, Celeste Holm and Walter Pidgeon.
Stage versions were also presented in London and elsewhere, and the musical finally was given a Broadway production, with a revised book by Douglas Carter Beane, and incorporating four songs from the Rodgers and Hammerstein catalog, in 2013.
[22] A Broadway revival in 2002 starring Lea Salonga had a rewritten plot by playwright David Henry Hwang but retained the inter-generational and immigrant themes as well as most of the original songs.
Starring Mary Martin as Maria and Theodore Bikel as Captain von Trapp, it opened on Broadway at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre on November 16, 1959, garnering much praise and numerous awards.
The most enduring of these include the title song, "Do-Re-Mi", "My Favorite Things", "Climb Ev'ry Mountain", "So Long, Farewell" and "Sixteen Going on Seventeen".
Because the efforts of Rodgers and Hammerstein were so successful, many musicals that followed contained thought-provoking plots with mature themes, and in which all the aspects of the play, dance, song, and drama, were combined in an integrated whole.
"[26] In The Complete Book of Light Opera, Mark Lubbock adds, "After Oklahoma!, Rodgers and Hammerstein were the most important contributors to the musical-play form – with such masterworks as Carousel, The King and I and South Pacific.
[27] In 2010, the original film arrangements of the team's music were restored and performed at the Proms concerts in London's Royal Albert Hall by the John Wilson Orchestra.
[citation needed] In 1954, they appeared on a memorable TV musical special, General Foods 25th Anniversary Show: A Salute to Rodgers and Hammerstein.
[citation needed] They were the mystery guests on episode number 298 of What's My Line, which first aired on February 19, 1956; blindfolded panelist Arlene Francis was able to correctly identify them.
[29] The pair made a rare feature film appearance in MGM's 1953 production Main Street to Broadway, in which Rodgers played the piano and Hammerstein sang a song they had written.
[34] Based on the true story of the von Trapp family, The Sound of Music explores the views of Austrians on the takeover of Austria by Nazi Germany.
