Ruth Leon recommends.. My Favorite Things: The Rodgers & Hammerstein 80th Anniversary Concert

My Favorite Things: The Rodgers & Hammerstein 80th Anniversary Concert

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 Rodgers & Hammerstein – composer Richard Rodgers and lyricist Oscar Hammerstein 11 – together wrote many of the signature musicals of the 20th century, with songs which have survived their original shows and which continue to be sung to this day throughout the world. This partnership became the cornerstone of the Broadway musical theatre and marked a turning point in theatre history.

Before they teamed up they had each had successful careers with other collaborators. Richard Rodgers had partnered with lyricist Lorenz Hart on a series of musical comedies that epitomized the wit and sophistication of Broadway in its heyday. Oscar Hammerstein’s shows with Rudolf Friml, Sigmund Romberg and Vincent Youmans resulted in such operetta classics as The Desert Song, Rose-Marie and The New Moon. With Jerome Kern,  he wrote Show Boat, the 1927 operetta that changed the course of modern musical theatre.
 
In July 1942, the Theatre Guild announced that these very different individuals, Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, were teaming up for their first collaboration: a musical adaptation of Green Grow the Lilacs. That musical would eventually become Oklahoma!A milestone in the development of the American musical, it also marked the beginning of the most successful partnership in Broadway musical history.

Ten musicals followed, eight for the stage, including Carousel, South Pacific, The King And I, Flower Drum Song, and The Sound Of Music, one, State Fair, for a film, and one, Cinderella, for television. Collectively, the musicals of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II earned 42 Tony Awards, 15 Academy Awards, two Pulitzer Prizes, two Grammy Awards and 2 Emmy Awards.

Celebrate 80 years of Rodgers & Hammerstein with this landmark concert filmed at Theatre Royal Drury Lane, with songs from The Sound of Music, Carousel, South Pacific, and Oklahoma! Sung by Michael Ball, Daniel Dae Kim, Audra McDonald and Patrick Wilson and featuring a 40-piece orchestra.

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