Something Wonderful: Rodgers and Hammerstein's Broadway Revolution

This is the best R&H book by far. The author obviously loves them but this is no hagiography, and he visits their dark sides. Failures - and they had several - are catalogued alongside the many hits. I feel like I know Bill and Dick, and the author should be very proud. Essential to any lover of the great musicals.

Anyone interested in musical theatre will find this totally absorbing. Todd Purdum's unashamed admiration for the achievements of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein shines through this combination of biography and analysis of their art. He presents a chronology of their productions - success and failures - to show how they performed a transformation in twentieth century popular theatre. Highly recommended.

Fascinating read into the background to two of my favourite composers, I especially liked the information about how their shows came together..

A fascinating account of Rodgers and Hammerstein and their musicals.

This was one of the most informative books on stage musicals I have ever read.

Interesting, bit shocking to find they were like all men if their time.....

Arrived on time. A great read.

Excellent

This is a very insightful book about one of the great musical comedy teams ever.

"You ask too much of people who have been successful, and they are human too," Richard Rodgers once remarked. In "Something Wonderful," Todd S. Purdum' s absorbing account of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Broadway revolution, he restores humanity to R and H. He also celebrates their sincerity, the very quality that later made Rodgers And Hammerstein musicals unfashionable to the critical elite. Elliott Norton observed, "When you mention Rodgers and Hammerstein to almost any normal American with a sound heart and good hearing, he thinks at once of songs and scenes and shows which they have written--and which have given him great and abiding pleasure." So it was and so it may always be. The Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals have become such a part of pop culture fabric, they are almost taken for granted. They never should be. Purdum doesn't knock Rodgers and Hammerstein off their musical theatre pedestals. He does not want to. Ethan Mordden effectively did that in his scholarly, heavily illustrated, coffee table book. Purdue's book is much more fair and much more fun to read. And it's because Purdum writes from a human perspective. It turns out, these Masters Of Musical Theatre were mere mortals after all. They were astonishingly talented, creative, driven, ambitious men, complete with flaws and all. It really doesn't matter that they were geniuses of their craft. Without their humanity, their flaws, and their simple, honest sincerity, the public never would have responded to their shows at all. Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II met each other long before their partnership, and each began to sew the seeds of their Broadway revolution with other partners. Hammerstein was literally born into the theatre. Rodgers was a musical prodigy from a cold, emotionally distant and abusive home. That coldness became part of Rodgers' nature. Hammerstein wrote Broadway's first really serious musical "Show Boat" with Jerome Kern in 1927. After "Rose Marie", Hammerstein had nothing but flops, spent several unproductive years in Hollywood, and suffered a nervous breakdown due to his turbulent personal life. Rodgers had nothing but hit after hit with his other Big "H" partner Lorenz Hart from the mid 1920's throughout the 1930's. Their 1940 musical "Pal Joey" was more worldly and sophisticated than anything Broadway had seen before. But Hart was a genius who was hell-bent on self-destruction, and he did exactly that. Rodgers couldn't take it anymore and Hammerstein needed a hit. The success of "Oklahoma!" was never predestined or a safe bet. But Purdum brings into sharp focus how Rodgers and Hammerstein came together at exactly the right time and, combining their years of theatrical experience, created "Oklahoma!", a musical that America not only needed by 1943, but also wholeheartedly embraced. Their next musical "Carousel" was even more risky. "Oklahoma!" was essentially about a picnic-party. "Carousel" was about life, death, spousal abuse, poverty, suicide, and a few other things in between. "Carousel", their darkest musical with their richest, most operatic score, remains their most problematic-- but somehow they pulled it off. Purdum celebrates their deserved successes and is fair minded about their Broadway flops ("Allegro", "Me And Juliet" and "Pipe Dream") and their personal flaws and failings. At some point, they stopped being Richard Rodgers, composer, and Oscar Hammerstein II, lyricist and librettist, and became trapped victims of their own success. This is, after all, a story of show business, and R & H became a business-- an entertainment empire, really. R & H were business men. Rather stingy business men who had prickly relationships with talented people in the R & H business. Purdum finally gives orchestrator Robert Russell Bennett, music arranger Trude Rittmann and scenic designer Jo Milzner their long overdue credits. Playwright and director Josh Logan was treated worst of all. Logan wrote the book to the masterpiece "South Pacific" with Hammerstein in bursts of inspired and manic creativity. Logan received co-author and director credit , but was cheated out of royalties. Hammerstein attempted to correct things by asking Logan to direct "The King And I." Wounded by his "South Pacific" experience, Logan refused. But Logan remained, by choice, a close friend in Hammerstein's circle. Hammerstein poured out his frustrations about Rodgers to Logan, and asked him for advice on shows. Hammerstein ignored Logan's advice on how to improve "Allegro", and it flopped. He took Logan's advice on how to make "The King And I" more warm and entertaining, and it was a huge hit. As far as knowing what stories to musicalize and how, Rodgers And Hammerstein were indeed ONE with a great track record of success and a few flops. As men and "friends", they hardly knew each other at all. Interestingly, R & H were both married to women named Dorothy. Both Dorothy R and Dorothy H were interior designers. And they didn't like each other, either. They kept up a cool if distant facade, however. By the mid-1950's, a coolness came into the R & H relationship that lasted until the end. After writing a bubbly and unpretentious score for "Cinderella" for CBS TV in 1957, Rodgers suffered a severe depression (nervous breakdown) and his first battle with cancer. R & H had one more "lucky hit" in them, "Flower Drum Song", which is seldom staged today. Mary Martin, the star of "South Pacific", brought "The Sound Of Music" to R & H. When rehearsals began, Hammerstein was diagnosed with cancer. If cancer had not killed him, critical response to "The Sound Of Music" might have. One critic said the show was too sweet for words and music. Hammerstein died in 1960, and "The Sound Of Music" became R & H's most popular "popular success." After great success and an entertainment empire, it became fashionable to knock the R & H empire and everything in it down. After Hammerstein's death, the critical elite dismissed R & H shows as conventional, pandering, condescending, and worst of all, childish. Purdum ponders how and why R & H fell into critical disfavor. It actually happened a few years before Hammerstein's death, and Purdum says the middlebrow movie versions of "Oklahoma!", "Carousel, and "South Pacific", which muted the innovations in the shows and maximized the schmaltz, do not help at all. "The King And I", with Yul Brynner and Deborah Kerr, is the best R & H movie adaptation, and "The Sound Of Music" starring Julie Andrews is the biggest R & H movie mega-hit. The modest Julie Andrews seems to be at a loss to explain to Purdum why "The Sound Of" Movie remains such a wildly popular success. Purdum feels that the major R & H hit shows are not bad at all, but for many years, productions and the packaging of them, were terrible. Recent productions of "Carousel" and "South Pacific" sparked a major R & H re-evaluation. I am sure readers will agree with Purdum that the R & H revolution was something wonderful indeed, and their shows are still relevant and worthy of serious discussion and artistic appreciation.

This book deserves 5 stars. Even if you have never been to a Broadway or West End show the stories behind the musicals are well told, and the composers are interesting characters. If you have a passing interest in musicals then find time to read this book. It's worth it.

There have been quite a few excellent books on Rodgers and Hammerstein, and the best of them enjoy permanent residence on my crowded bookshelves. This is a splendid addition to that collection, thoroughly researched and a pleasure to read. Todd Purdum treats both men's lives and careers (whoch have often been near deified) with a refreshing balance of candor and understanding. Dick and Oscar were not saints, but they were extraordinary men whose solid business sense and devotion to theater were matched by a mutual determination to do something new and even revolutionary. A great read whether you are new to the subject or a lifelong fan like me.

I found this an entrancing read; and I highly recommend it.