Richard Charles Rodgers

Richard Charles Rodgers (1902-1972), American composer, wrote the music for over 50 stage and film musicals and helped make the American musical a legitimate art form.

When Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart, and Dorothy Fields collaborated in 1925 on Dearest Enemy, "an American musical play" (as they called it), contributing respectively music, lyrics, and book, something new was added to the theatrical scene. Not only was the material original, charming, and witty, but the form and subject of the entertainment were distinctly unusual. Here was a play based on American history with unpredictable and pertinent musical sections. Rodgers and his lyricists, Hart and, later, Oscar Hammerstein II, were to repeat this sort of innovation on several occasions. Each occasion marked an important contribution to a more original, indigenous popular musical theater in the United States.

Richard Rodgers was born near Arverne, Long Island, New York, on June 28, 1902. His father was a successful physician and his mother, a well-trained amateur musician. Rodgers heard music in his home from earliest childhood and was regularly taken to the theater. He was especially delighted by the operettas of Victor Herbert and other popular composers. A little later he was inspired by the musicals of Jerome Kern, whose influence, Rodgers said, was "a deep and lasting one."

By the age of six Rodgers was playing the piano by ear and had begun receiving piano lessons. He attended secondary schools in New York. By the age of 14 he had written two songs in the popular vein (he was never interested in purely instrumental composition). His direction seemed fixed. Before he entered Columbia University in 1919, he had already written music for two amateur shows and had met Lorenz (Larry) Hart, a literate, amusing, somewhat driven creator of verse, with whom Rodgers would collaborate for the next 24 years. Their first published song was "Any Old Place with You" (1919), and hundreds followed. Rodgers left Columbia at the end of his second year to devote full time to musical studies at the Institute of Musical Art, where he spent another two years.

Collaboration with Hart

After working on amateur shows and on a few unsuccessful professional attempts, Rodgers and Hart won acclaim for their review Garrick Gaieties in 1925. Dearest Enemy, their second success, opened the same year. During the next decade they wrote three shows for the London stage and a number of Broadway musicals and Hollywood films. Though not all of them were successful, they were distinguished by a number of fine romantic ballads such as "My Heart Stood Still" (1927), "With a Song in My Heart" (1929), "Dancing on the Ceiling" (1930), and "Lover" (1932). Hart's lyrics always managed nicely to skirt sentimentality, and Rodgers matched them with tunes of grace and skill.

Among the nine stage shows written between 1935 and 1942 were several of Rodgers and Hart's most famous: Jumbo (1935); On Your Toes (1936), for which the distinguished Russian-born choreographer George Balanchine created the ballet Slaughter on Tenth Avenue; Babes in Arms (1937); The Boys from Syracuse (1938); and Pal Joey (1940). A number of the songs written during this time are among Rodgers and Hart's most durable: "There's a Small Hotel," "Where or When," "My Funny Valentine," "This Can't Be Love," and "The Lady Is a Tramp." These are sophisticated pieces which display a firm control of the medium.

Collaboration with Hammerstein

After Hart died in 1943, Rodgers entered a period of unprecedented success with lyricist Hammerstein. Of their 10 musicals, 5 were among the longest-running and biggest-grossing shows ever created for Broadway: Oklahoma (1943), Carousel (1945), South Pacific (1949), The King and I (1951), and The Sound of Music (1959).

If the best work of Rodgers and Hart was marked by a considerable measure of wit and sophistication, the style of the Rodgers and Hammerstein collaboration was dominated by a basic, almost folklike, simplicity. In many songs both music and words seem stripped to the barest essentials. Romantic sentiment is a major ingredient.

Through touring productions, film versions, and recordings, the Rodgers and Hammerstein shows have become known around the world. Songs that have become standards in the popular repertory include "Oh, What a Beautiful Morning," "People Will Say We're in Love," "If I Loved You," "You'll Never Walk Alone," "Some Enchanted Evening," "Hello, Young Lovers," and "Climb Every Mountain." After Hammerstein's death in 1960 Rodgers for the first time served as his own lyricist for the score of No Strings (1962).

Rodgers's long association with the popular musical theater was an important one. His best projects were aimed at giving the musical play an ever more natural American expression. Oklahoma, especially, brought an engaging simplicity and earthiness to the form. On many occasions his choice of subject matter was unconventional, involving certain characters, situations, and themes of a seriousness seldom encountered previously in musical comedy. His work enriched and broadened a genre once regarded as little more than frivolous entertainment and helped make it into an authentic American art form.

Rodgers' death on December 30, 1972 didn't stop the popularity of his musical works, which enjoyed numerous revivals. Vintage original cast reissues and contemporary recordings, movies and videos, Broadway and community playhouse productions and even illustrated books abounded. They became the medium through which the timeless works credited with launching the 20th Century musical continued to exist.

Rodgers' shows didn't seem to lose dramatic impact. Their stories remained vividly current in South Pacific, encompassing the uncertainties of its World War II setting and The King and I, soon after, that began to deal with racism and the despotism of absolute authority.

Since music had to be hand-copied during most of Rodgers' lifetime, the musical scores from different productions did not always agree. Although there are some early recordings to follow for authenticity, it still left room for changes in interpretation or even omission of particular numbers during performances.

The original shows were lavished with honors, from an Academy Award for best song (It Might as Well be Spring, 1945 from State Fair) to another one 10 years later for best score for Oklahoma!. Three shows, South Pacific (1949); The King and I (1951); and The Sound of Music (1959) won Tony Awards for "Best Musical."

Later performances continued to bring notoriety and additional awards as top stars such as Julie Andrews and Patti LuPone starred in reissues and revivals. Rodgers himself was featured in one collection of vignettes on video in a scene of him conducting an orchestra on the fabled Ed Sullivan Show.

One of the biggest breakthroughs in perpetuating Rodgers' work was the transfer of a superior 1954 original movie of Oklahoma! to videotape. It surpassed a same-cast, second filming of inherently poorer quality and performance that had circulated for years. It took until 1994 when equipment finally was developed to transfer the "original edition" defunct Todd-AO process onto video for mass distribution.

Further Reading

David Ewen, Richard Rodgers (1957), a laudatory full-scale biography which contains lists of Rodgers's stage and film works, is quite comprehensive, although not without minor errors. Deems Taylor, Some Enchanted Evenings (1953), is a chatty, informal account of the Hammerstein collaboration and contains some musical analysis of Rodgers's songs and has numerous photographs. See also Stanley Green, The Rodgers and Hammerstein Story (1963). For additional information, see also Publisher's Weekly (July 18, 1994); Entertainment Weekly (January 20, 1995 and December 23, 1994); and Newsweek (May 15, 1995). □

Rodgers, Richard [Charles] (1902–79), composer. He was born in New York and educated at Columbia, where he wrote music for college shows. The first part of Rodgers's remarkable career was collaborating with lyricist Lorenz Hart on the songs and occasionally the books of imaginative musical comedies. Their work for Broadway was heard initially in Poor Little Ritz Girl (1920), but success did not begin to come until they wrote “Manhattan” for the first Garrick Gaieties (1925). Other musicals with Hart included Dearest Enemy (1925), Garrick Gaieties of 1926, The Girl Friend (1926), Peggy‐Ann (1926), Betsy (1926), A Connecticut Yankee (1927), Present Arms (1928), She's My Baby (1928), Chee‐Chee (1928), Heads Up! (1929), Spring Is Here (1929), Simple Simon (1930), America's Sweetheart (1931), Jumbo (1935), 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). After breaking with Hart he joined Oscar Hammerstein and largely abandoned musical comedy for the musical play. Their Oklahoma! (1943) revolutionized American operetta writing, just as their next success, Carousel (1945), explored new ways of integrating song and character and their disappointing Allegro (1947) experimented with new ways of storytelling. The subsequent Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals were South Pacific (1949), The King and I (1951), Me and Juliet (1953), Pipe Dream (1955), Flower Drum Song (1958), and The Sound of Music (1959). After Hammerstein's death, Rodgers's luck soured although he continued to compose fine music, most notably when he set his own lyrics to his melodies for No Strings (1962). Hs later scores, with various lyricists, were Do I Hear a Waltz? (1965), Two by Two (1970), Rex (1976), and I Remember Mama (1979). Rodgers sometimes co‐produced his shows and those by others, such as I Remember Mama (1944), Annie Get Your Gun (1946), Happy Birthday (1946), and John Loves Mary (1947). From the start Rodgers's music was both traditional and inventive. One notable point was his steady return to the waltz at a time when many composers neglected it. Perhaps his most remarkable effort in this style was “The Carousel Waltz.” Because of the types of musicals for which he was writing and because of his lyricist, his material with Hart tended to be lighter and jauntier. Working with Hammerstein, both his sentimental and humorous moments tended to become more heavy‐handed. But his gift for incomparable melody never deserted him, nor did his willingness to attempt musicals on fresh, challenging themes. Few theatre composers were more popular than Rodgers; his songs still are performed in various venues perhaps more than any of his contemporaries. His enticing use of melody and harmony, his endless variety, and his ability to capture a mood or an entire culture in a few notes are among the talents that make Rodgers one of the greatest musical artists America ever produced. Autobiography: Musical Stages, 1975; biographies: Richard Rodgers, William Hyland, 1998; Somewhere for Me: A Biography of Richard Rodgers, Meryle Secrest, 2001.

Richard Charles Rodgers 1902–79, American composer, b. New York City. Rodgers studied at Columbia and the Institute of Musical Art, New York City. He met both of his future collaborators, Lorenz Hart and Oscar Hammerstein 2d, while at Columbia. Rodgers wrote his first song at 14 and had his first Broadway show, a flop, produced when he was 18. Rodgers and Hart began collaborating in 1919 and had their first hit play with The Garrick Gaieties (1925) and their first hit song with "Manhattan." Frequently characterized by a brash insouciance and lively sophistication, the duo's outstanding musical comedies include The Girl Friend (1926); A Connecticut Yankee (1927; rev. 1943); On Your Toes (1936), containing the famous "Slaughter on Tenth Avenue" ; Babes in Arms (1937); The Boys from Syracuse (1938); Pal Joey (1940); and By Jupiter (1942).

In 1942, Rodgers and Hammerstein began their collaboration; their first musical was the tremendously successful, Pulitzer Prize–winning Oklahoma! (1943). Generally more idealistic and often more markedly American in character than the earlier Hart collaborations, most of their nine musicals were enormously popular, e.g., Carousel (1945), South Pacific (1949), and The King and I (1951). Perhaps the most performed American composer, Rodgers is famous for his inventive and intensely melodic compositions. During his long career he wrote 39 musicals (30 of which became films), more than 1,000 songs, and a few symphonic works, notably the film score for Victory at Sea. From 1962 to 1969 he was head of the Music Theater of the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City.

Bibliography: See his autobiography, Musical Stages (1975, repr. 1995); biographies by D. Ewen (1963), W. G. Hyland (1998), and M. Secrest (2001); D. Taylor, Some Enchanted Evening (1953, repr. 1972); E. Mordden, Rodgers and Hammerstein (1992); G. Block, ed., The Richard Rodgers Reader (2002).

Rodgers, Richard (Charles) (b Hammels Station, Long Is., 1902; d NY, 1979). Amer. composer. With Lorenz Hart as lyric-writer, wrote successful Broadway musicals The Girl Friend (1926), Connecticut Yankee (1927), On Your Toes (1936, incl. ballet Slaughter on Tenth Avenue), Babes in Arms (1937), The Boys from Syracuse (1938), and Pal Joey (1940). With Oscar Hammerstein II, wrote Oklahoma! (1943), Carousel (1945), Allegro (1947), South Pacific (1949), The King and I (1951), Flower Drum Song (1958), and The Sound of Music (1959). With Stephen Sondheim he wrote Do I Hear a Waltz? (1965). Many of these made into films. Wrote mus. for TV documentary Victory at Sea. Among the songs he composed are ‘There's a Small Hotel’, ‘My Funny Valentine’, ‘The Lady is a Tramp’, ‘Bewitched, bothered, and bewildered’, ‘Blue Room’, ‘O What a Beautiful Morning’, ‘Some Enchanted Evening’, ‘The Sound of Music’.

Richard Rodgers Theatre (New York). The 1,400‐seat playhouse on West 46th Street was built by the enterprising Chanin brothers in 1924 and named (predictably) Chanin's 46th Street Theatre. The Chanin name was dropped during the Great Depression when the Shuberts took ownership, but they also lost the structure and today it is a Nederlander house. Herbert J. Krapp designed the auditorium with steep orchestra seating, so that its rear section is as high as most theatres' balcony. Suitable for both plays and musicals, the house has seen more than its fair share of hits in both genres, from The Spider (1927) to Lost in Yonkers (1991), and from Good News (1927) to Movin' Out (2003). In 1990 the playhouse was renamed in honor of composer Richard Rodgers, though of his thirty‐some musicals, only Do I Hear a Waltz? (1965) ever played at the old 46th Street Theatre.

Richard Rodgers Theatre, New York, on West 46th Street. With a seating capacity of 1,338, it opened as Chanin's Forty-Sixth Street Theatre in 1925 and became the Forty-Sixth Street Theatre in 1932. It is best known for such musicals as Hellzapoppin (1938), Du Barry was a Lady (1939), Panama Hattie (1940), Finian's Rainbow (1947), Guys and Dolls (1950), and Damn Yankees (1955). In 1958 Gielgud occupied the theatre with his one-man recital from Shakespeare The Ages of Man. Later musicals included How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying (1961), 1776 (1969), Chicago (1975), The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (1978), and Nine (1982), with a book by Arthur Kopit. August Wilson's Fences (1987) was also staged there. The theatre received its present name in 1990.

Rodgers, Richard Charles (1902–79) US composer of Broadway musicals. He worked first with Lorenz Hart and then with Oscar Hammerstein II on successful musicals, including Oklahoma! (1943), Carousel (1945), South Pacific (1949), The King and I (1951), and The Sound of Music (1959).