Rodgers & Hammerstein

Among the lasting architects of the Great American Songbook, composer Richard Rodgers and lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II formed one of Broadway’s most successful and far-reaching creative partnerships. Each had already built prominent careers alongside other collaborators when they joined forces on the innovative, Pulitzer-winning musical Oklahoma!, which premiered on Broadway in 1943. Taking its cue from the 1927 production Show Boat (whose lyrics were supplied by Hammerstein), the show established the template for the “book musical” by weaving character-focused numbers into a tense, story-driven narrative. Departing sharply from the lighter operettas, revues, and comedies that had dominated earlier decades, the pair confronted weighty themes of racism, classism, and sexism across much of their output, among them the stage landmarks South Pacific (1949), The King and I (1951), and The Sound of Music (1959). Combined with Rodgers’s expansive, instantly recognizable melodies and Hammerstein’s conversational yet meticulously crafted lyrics—Rodgers setting music to Hammerstein’s finished words—these and additional Rodgers & Hammerstein successes were adapted into major Hollywood motion pictures. Standout songs from their catalog include “My Favorite Things,” “Getting to Know You,” “Some Enchanted Evening,” “You’ll Never Walk Alone,” and “Edelweiss.”

Prior to his alliance with Oscar Hammerstein II, Richard Rodgers had spent more than two decades as one half of Rodgers & Hart alongside Lorenz Hart. Among the many Broadway productions they created were the enduring titles A Connecticut Yankee (1927), Babes in Arms (1937), and Pal Joey (1940). “Blue Moon” and “My Funny Valentine” ranked among the dozens of popular numbers that emerged from their work. Meanwhile Hammerstein scored successes with several composers, among them Jerome Kern, whom Rodgers himself cited as an influence. With additional lyric contributions from P.G. Wodehouse, the most celebrated Kern-Hammerstein collaboration was the 1927 musical Show Boat, drawn from Edna Ferber’s novel. Two screen versions of Show Boat appeared within the following decade, and the songwriting duo received an Academy Award in 1941 for “The Last Time I Saw Paris,” featured in the film Lady Be Good.

With Hart’s health failing in the early 1940s, Rodgers teamed with fellow New Yorker Hammerstein on the musical Oklahoma!. The pair had already worked together as Columbia University students, notably on the 1920 Varsity Show Fly with Me. Oklahoma! opened at the St. James Theatre on March 31, 1943. The production ran more than five years and surpassed 2,000 performances, setting a Broadway record then, and captured a special Pulitzer Prize in 1944. During the same period Rodgers & Hammerstein delivered the Broadway success Carousel and the film musical State Fair, both arriving in 1945. State Fair, the sole Rodgers & Hammerstein score written expressly for the screen, contained “It Might as Well Be Spring,” which earned the Academy Award for Best Original Song. Like numerous other pieces from their pen, the song became a Top Ten hit that year, appearing in recordings by Dick Haymes, Sammy Kaye, and Paul Weston with Margaret Whiting. After the strong box-office performance of their initial two stage works, their third and less familiar Broadway musical, Allegro, premiered in October 1947 and closed the next July. In June 1948 Rodgers & Hammerstein appeared on the debut broadcast of Ed Sullivan’s long-running variety program (originally titled Toast of the Town), sharing the stage with Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis.

The songwriting team returned to Broadway in 1949 with South Pacific. Adapted from James Michener’s novel Tales of the South Pacific, the show addressed racial prejudice directly, most pointedly in the number “You’ve Got to Be Carefully Taught.” Their first musical eligible for the Tony Awards (created in 1947), the production claimed Best Musical, Best Score, Best Libretto, and every acting prize. Rodgers & Hammerstein shared the 1950 Pulitzer Prize for Drama with South Pacific co-author Joshua Logan.

Continuing their candid treatment of racism and sexism, The King and I, based on Margaret Landon’s novel Anna and the King of Siam, arrived in 1951. It secured five Tony Awards, including Best Musical and Best Featured Actor for Yul Brynner. Subsequent stage efforts Me and Juliet (1953) and Pipe Dream (1955) proved less successful. After the 1955 screen transfer of Oklahoma!, the 1956 CinemaScope version of The King and I featured Brynner reprising his stage role in an Oscar-winning turn, while a film adaptation of Carousel also reached theaters that year.

Rodgers & Hammerstein’s sole musical created expressly for television, Cinderella, premiered on CBS on March 31, 1957—the fourteenth anniversary of Oklahoma!. Julie Andrews starred and earned an Emmy nomination, as did Richard Rodgers’s score. Back on Broadway, Flower Drum Song, featuring an Asian cast, opened in 1958 and marked Gene Kelly’s debut as a stage director. That same year a Hollywood adaptation of South Pacific appeared, starring Rossano Brazzi and Mitzi Gaynor.

Widely regarded as Rodgers & Hammerstein’s most cherished work, The Sound of Music would be their last joint project. Set against the Austrian Anschluss of 1938, the musical opened on Broadway in 1959 and captured five Tony Awards, including Best Musical. “Edelweiss” became the final song the pair completed together before Oscar Hammerstein succumbed to stomach cancer in August 1960. A film version of Flower Drum Song reached theaters in 1961, followed by the motion-picture adaptation of The Sound of Music in March 1965. With Julie Andrews portraying Maria, the film became the year’s highest-grossing release and won five Academy Awards, among them Best Picture.

Richard Rodgers continued composing after 1960, creating musicals with Stephen Sondheim (Do I Hear a Waltz?, 1965) and Martin Charnin (Two by Two, 1970), among others, until his death in 1979. Rodgers & Hammerstein were commemorated on a U.S. postage stamp in 1999, and their songs remain frequently performed American standards. Their influence on the stage is reflected in numerous Broadway revivals, including The Sound of Music in 1998, South Pacific in 2008, The King and I in 2015, and Oklahoma! in 2019.