The Musical Theatre of Richard Rodgers

Richard Rodgers
Richard Rodgers and Larry Hart.

Thousands of images from artifacts that represent productions composed by Richard Rodgers from forty-one shows, from Poor Little Ritz Girl of 1920 to I Remember Mama, 1979. Included are photographs, programs, window cards, advertising ephemera, manuscripts and set designs.

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About These Selections

Welcome to The New York Public Library’s celebration of Richard Rodgers’s life in the theatre. Featured here is material selected from the vast holdings of the Billy Rose Theatre Division that represent productions composed by Richard Rodgers. Presented for your enjoyment are artifacts documenting forty-one shows, from Poor Little Ritz Girl of 1920 to I Remember Mama, 1979. Included are photographs, programs, window cards, advertising ephemera, manuscripts and set designs.

Because the Rodgers legacy is so great, it is impossible for the scope of this web presentation to be comprehensive. Many more objects may be explored in person at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. Here, we have chosen to focus on Rodgers’s original stage productions. A revival is included when its success was more remarkable than the original show, or otherwise notable. Not included are the many motion picture and television productions that delivered Rodgers’s songs to a far wider audience.

The Sweetest Sounds is organized into sections reflecting distinct periods of Rodgers’s career and his collaborations. Among the items pictured are many backstage moments and candid shots never before published, as well as charming photographs of family and personal life. The Library is grateful for the gracious permission granted by rights-holders to offer their images on this site.

The production of The Sweetest Sounds was made possible by the generous support of The Rodgers Family Foundation. Many New York Public Library staff members contributed greatly to this homage to Richard Rodgers. Special appreciation goes to Christopher Frith, Amy Schwegel, and Patricia Rader for their dedication to this project.

Background

Rodgers and Hart

Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart began their collaborative career in 1919 when the song, “Any Old Place with You,” was sung in the show, A Lonely Romeo. The two were students at Columbia University where they became partners in writing many successful amateur productions.

Their first professional collaboration, Poor Little Ritz Girl, was staged in 1920 with compositions by Sigmund Romberg incorporated into the production. In 1925, the revue Garrick Gaieties became a success, popularizing the Rodgers and Hart song, “Manhattan,” still loved as a standard. A Connecticut Yankee (1927) ran for almost a year in New York featuring the song, “Thou Swell.”

According to many sources, Rodgers and Hart were temperamentally very different. Rodgers kept a disciplined schedule and Hart was unpredictable in his habits. As songwriters, Rodgers would generally produce the music first and Hart would supply the lyrics after he heard the meter and melody. The music inspired his imagination and the chemistry was productive with many projects underway in close succession.

The team wrote songs for a number of new musicals, including very successful productions on the London stage. Then, the stock market crash of 1929 caused the buckling of New York theatre financing. Rodgers and Hart formed a successful partnership in providing songs for Hollywood movies.

They returned to Broadway in 1935 with Jumbo, and On Your Toes (1936). Babes in Arms (1937) included the song “Where or When.” Several hits followed, including The Boys from Syracuse in 1938 that introduced “Falling in Love with Love,” “This Can’t be Love,” and “Sing for Your Supper.”

Pal Joey (1940) departed from the lighthearted Broadway revues of previous decades with a John O’Hara plot based on an unscrupulous nightclub owner. “Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered” and “I Could Write a Book” were introduced to the audience and remain popular standards.

The final collaboration of Rodgers and Hart was By Jupiter in 1942. The show ran longer than any of their other productions. In spite of Rodgers’s enthusiasm, Hart declined to write for a new project, Green Grow the Lilacs. After 25 years, the creative relationship had become fraught with difficulties. Hart’s escalating health problems caused Rodgers to turn to Oscar Hammerstein II for the new musical, finally titled, Oklahoma!

There is no doubt that Rodgers and Hart’s teamwork was magical. Together they produced charming and witty songs that survived well outside of the context of their debut musicals and continue to be performed today. The Tin Pan Alley flavor of their songs suited audiences of the early 20th century. The later years of Rodgers career would see new developments in American musical theatre.

Richard Rodgers and Hammerstein

Richard Rodgers’s successful, 25-year partnership with Lorenz Hart ended when Hart could not commit to writing for the new production, Green Grow the Lilacs. Rodgers turned to his old friend Oscar Hammerstein II as lyricist for the project. Hammerstein had worked with the era’s most notable composers for theatre. The landmark Showboat was a Hammerstein collaboration with Jerome Kern, a composer Rodgers greatly admired. Showboat incorporated American vernacular music and was an enormous hit in 1927.

Green Grow the Lilacs opened in 1943 as Oklahoma! With choreography by Agnes de Mille, the musical was the first to fully integrate music, story and dance to advance the narrative of the production. This would be a hallmark of the Rodgers and Hammerstein partnership and an advance in the genre of the American musical. Oklahoma! also favored recognizably American folk style rather than the clever urbanity of the Rodgers and Hart period.

Where Rodgers and Hart had worked from melody to lyrics, the Hammerstein collaboration operated in the opposite direction. Hammerstein would write words to suit the plot, and Rodgers would formulate a melody. Fitting music to lyrics changed the style of Rodgers’s composition. In order to meet the challenge of Hammerstein’s crafted text, Rodgers’s became more creative in his musical form.

The success of Oklahoma! was unprecedented. From 1945-1959, the Rodgers and Hammerstein collaboration produced the American musical classics Carousel, South Pacific, The King and I, and the Sound of Music. Many of the shows were designed by the scenic artist, Jo Mielziner, who achieved a distinctive look in the décor. They achieved such success that all were made into motion pictures and reached worldwide audiences.

The acclaimed and profitable partnership ended with Oscar Hammerstein’s death in 1960. But, their work together created a golden age in American musical theatre.

Richard Rodgers And Other Lyricists

After the death of Oscar Hammerstein II, Richard Rodgers wrote the music and lyrics for No Strings (1962). The show won two Tony awards and featured the song, “Somewhere for Me,” from which the lyric “the sweetest sounds” comes, hence the title of this website. Reviews were mixed, but Rodgers received praise for the score.

Arthur Laurents recruited Hammerstein’s protégé, Stephen Sondheim, to work with Rodgers on Do I Hear a Waltz? (1965). The show was a success, but the partnership was an unhappy one.

Sheldon Harnick, well-known for his career with Jerry Bock, provided lyrics for Rex, a musical about Henry VIII, in 1976. Martin Charnin collaborated with Rodgers on Two by Two (1971) and his final production, I Remember Mama in 1979.

In earlier days, Rodgers had supplied Lorenz Hart with melodies to inspire the lyrics. His collaboration with Oscar Hammerstein reversed that process, Rodgers fitting music to his partner’s words with great success. In these later years, Rodgers continued this method of composition, allowing his collaborators to initiate the creative work.

Internet Broadway Database - Richard Rodgers.

Public Broadcasting. American Masters Profile of Richard Rodgers.

Richard Rodgers Fact Book with Supplement. New York: The Lynn Farnol Group, 2006.

Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization.

Secrest, Meryle. Somewhere for Me: a Biography of Richard Rodgers. New York: Random House, Inc., 2001.

Production Titles

2015