Richard Rodgers | |
|---|---|
 Rodgers at the St. James Theatre in 1948 | |
| Background information | |
| Born | Richard Charles Rodgers (1902-06-28)June 28, 1902 New York City, U.S. |
| Died | December 30, 1979(1979-12-30) (aged 77) New York City, U.S. |
| Genres | Musical theater |
| Occupations |
|
| Years active | 1919–1979 |
| Education | Columbia University (BA) Juilliard School |
Richard Charles Rodgers (June 28, 1902 – December 30, 1979) was an Americancomposer who worked primarily inmusical theater. With 43Broadway musicals and over 900 songs to his credit, Rodgers was one of the best-known American composers of the 20th century, and his compositions had a significant influence on popular music.
Rodgers is known for his songwriting partnerships, first with lyricistLorenz Hart and then withOscar Hammerstein II. With Hart he wrote musicals throughout the 1920s and 1930s, includingPal Joey,A Connecticut Yankee,On Your Toes andBabes in Arms. With Hammerstein he wrote musicals through the 1940s and 1950s, such asOklahoma!,Flower Drum Song,Carousel,South Pacific,The King and I, andThe Sound of Music. His collaborations with Hammerstein, in particular, are celebrated for bringing the Broadway musical to a new maturity by telling stories that were focused on characters and drama rather than the earlier light-hearted entertainment of the genre.
Rodgers was the first person to win all four of the top American entertainment awards in theater, film, recording, and television – anEmmy, aGrammy, anOscar, and aTony – now known collectively as anEGOT.[1] In addition, he was awarded aPulitzer Prize, making him the first ever to receive all five awards (later joined byMarvin Hamlisch).[2] In 1978, Rodgers was in the inaugural group ofKennedy Center Honorees for lifetime achievement in the arts.[3]
Rodgers was born into aJewish family in Queens, New York, the son of Dr. William Abrahams Rodgers, a prominent physician who had changed the family name from Rogazinsky, and his wife Mamie (née Levy). Rodgers began playing the piano at the age of six. He attended P.S. 166, Townsend Harris Hall andDeWitt Clinton High School. Rodgers spent his early teenage summers in Camp Wigwam (Waterford, Maine) where he composed some of his first songs.[5]
Rodgers,Lorenz Hart, and later collaboratorOscar Hammerstein II all attendedColumbia University. At Columbia, Rodgers joined thePi Lambda Phi fraternity. In 1921, Rodgers shifted his studies to the Institute of Musical Art (now theJuilliard School).[6] Rodgers was influenced by composers such asVictor Herbert andJerome Kern, as well as by theoperettas his parents took him to see onBroadway when he was a child.
In 1919, Richard metLorenz Hart, thanks to Phillip Levitt, a friend of Richard's older brother.Rodgers and Hart struggled for years in the field of musical comedy, writing several amateur shows. They made their professional debut with the song "Any Old Place With You", featured in the 1919 Broadway musical comedyA Lonely Romeo. Their first professional production was the 1920Poor Little Ritz Girl, which also had music bySigmund Romberg. Their next professional show,The Melody Man, did not premiere until 1924.
When he was just out of college Rodgers worked as musical director forLew Fields. Among the stars he accompanied wereNora Bayes andFred Allen.[7] Rodgers was considering quitting show business altogether to sell children's underwear, when he and Hart finally broke through in 1925. They wrote the songs for a benefit show presented by the prestigiousTheatre Guild, calledThe Garrick Gaieties, and the critics found the show fresh and delightful. Although it was meant to run only one day, the Guild knew they had a success and allowed it to re-open later. The show's biggest hit—the song that Rodgers believed "made" Rodgers and Hart—was "Manhattan". The two were now a Broadway songwriting force.
Throughout the rest of the decade, the duo wrote several hit shows for both Broadway and London, includingDearest Enemy (1925),The Girl Friend (1926),Peggy-Ann (1926),A Connecticut Yankee (1927), andPresent Arms (1928). Their 1920s shows produced standards such as "Here in My Arms", "Mountain Greenery", "Blue Room", "My Heart Stood Still" and "You Took Advantage of Me".
With theDepression in full swing during the first half of the 1930s, the team sought greener pastures in Hollywood. The hardworking Rodgers later regretted these relatively fallow years, but he and Hart did write some classic songs and film scores while out west, includingLove Me Tonight (1932) (directed byRouben Mamoulian, who would later direct Rodgers'sOklahoma! on Broadway), which introduced three standards: "Lover", "Mimi", and "Isn't It Romantic?". Rodgers also wrote a melody for which Hart wrote three consecutive lyrics which were either cut, not recorded or not a hit. The fourth lyric resulted in one of their most famous songs, "Blue Moon". Other film work includes the scores toThe Phantom President (1932), starringGeorge M. Cohan,Hallelujah, I'm a Bum (1933), starringAl Jolson, and, in a quick return after having left Hollywood,Mississippi (1935), starringBing Crosby andW. C. Fields.
In 1935, they returned to Broadway and wrote an almost unbroken string of hit shows that ended shortly before Hart's death in 1943. Among the most notable areJumbo (1935),On Your Toes (1936, which included the ballet "Slaughter on Tenth Avenue", choreographed by George Balanchine),Babes in Arms (1937),I Married an Angel (1938),The Boys from Syracuse (1938),Pal Joey (1940), and their last original work,By Jupiter (1942). Rodgers also contributed to the book on several of these shows.
Many of the songs from these shows are still sung and remembered, including "The Most Beautiful Girl in the World", "My Romance", "Little Girl Blue", "I'll Tell the Man in the Street", "There's a Small Hotel", "Where or When", "My Funny Valentine", "The Lady Is a Tramp", "Falling in Love with Love", "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered", and "Wait till You See Her".
In 1939, Rodgers wrote the balletGhost Town for theBallet Russe de Monte Carlo, with choreography byMarc Platoff.[8]
Rodgers' partnership with Hart began having problems because of the lyricist's unreliability and declining health fromalcoholism. Rodgers began working withOscar Hammerstein II, with whom he had previously written songs (before ever working with Lorenz Hart). Their first musical, the groundbreaking hitOklahoma! (1943), is a notable example of a "book musical", a musical play in which the songs and dances are fully integrated into the plot. What was once a collection of songs, dances and comic turns held together by a tenuous plot became a fully integrated narrative. Even thoughShow Boat is considered to be the earliest example of a book musical,Oklahoma! epitomized the innovations for whichShow Boat had laid the groundwork and is considered the first production in American history to be intentionally marketed as a fully integrated musical.[9]
In 1943, Richard Rodgers became the ninth president of theDramatists Guild of America. In November that year he and Hart mounted a revival ofA Connecticut Yankee; Hart died from alcoholism and pneumonia just days after its opening.
Rodgers and Hammerstein went on to create four more hits that are among the most popular in musical history. Each was made into a successful film:Carousel (1945),South Pacific (1949, winner of the 1950Pulitzer Prize for Drama),The King and I (1951), andThe Sound of Music (1959). Other shows include the minor hitFlower Drum Song (1958), as well as relative failuresAllegro (1947),Me and Juliet (1953), andPipe Dream (1955). They also wrote the score to the filmState Fair (1945) (which was remade in 1962 withPat Boone) and a special TV musical ofCinderella (1957).
Their collaboration produced many well-known songs, including "Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin'", "People Will Say We're in Love", "Oklahoma" (which also became the state song of Oklahoma), "It's A Grand Night For Singing", "If I Loved You", "You'll Never Walk Alone", "It Might as Well Be Spring", "Some Enchanted Evening", "Younger Than Springtime", "Bali Hai", "Getting to Know You", "My Favorite Things", "The Sound of Music", "Sixteen Going on Seventeen", "Climb Ev'ry Mountain", "Do-Re-Mi", and "Edelweiss", Hammerstein's last song.
Much of Rodgers' work with both Hart and Hammerstein was orchestrated byRobert Russell Bennett. Rodgers composed twelve themes, which Bennett used in preparing the orchestra score for the 26-episodeWorld War II television documentaryVictory at Sea (1952–53). ThisNBC production pioneered the "compilation documentary"—programming based on pre-existing footage—and was eventually broadcast in dozens of countries. The melody of the popular song "No Other Love" was later taken from theVictory at Sea theme entitled "Beneath the Southern Cross". Rodgers won anEmmy for the music for the ABC documentaryWinston Churchill: The Valiant Years, scored byEddie Sauter,Hershy Kay, andRobert Emmett Dolan. Rodgers composed the theme music, "March of the Clowns", for the 1963–64 television seriesThe Greatest Show on Earth, which ran for 30 episodes. He also contributed the main title theme for the 1963–64 historical anthology television seriesThe Great Adventure.
In 1950,Rodgers and Hammerstein receivedThe Hundred Year Association of New York's Gold Medal Award "in recognition of outstanding contributions to the City of New York." Rodgers, Hammerstein, andJoshua Logan won thePulitzer Prize for Drama forSouth Pacific.[10] Rodgers and Hammerstein had won aspecial Pulitzer Prize in 1944 forOklahoma!.[11]
In 1954, Rodgers conducted theNew York Philharmonic Orchestra in excerpts fromVictory at Sea,Slaughter on Tenth Avenue and theCarousel Waltz for a special LP released byColumbia Records.
Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals earned a total of 37Tony Awards, 15Academy Awards, twoPulitzer Prizes, twoGrammy Awards, and twoEmmy Awards.
Rodgers composed five new musicals between Hammerstein's death in 1960 and his own in 1979. In chronological order, they are:No Strings (1962),Do I Hear a Waltz? (1965),Two by Two (1970),Rex (1976), andI Remember Mama (1979).[12]
Rodgers wrote both words and music for his first new Broadway projectNo Strings, which earned two Tony Awards and played 580 shows. The show was a minor hit and featured the song, "The Sweetest Sounds".
Rodgers also wrote both the words and music for two new songs used in the film version ofThe Sound of Music. (Other songs in that film were from Rodgers and Hammerstein.)
Each of his final Broadway musicals faced a declining level of success as Rodgers was overshadowed by up-and-coming composers and lyricists. This was evident by the steady drop in run times and critic reviews.Do I Hear a Waltz? ran 220 performances;Two by Two, 343 performances;Rex only 49 performances; andI Remember Mama, 108 performances.[12]
While Rodgers went on to work with lyricists:Stephen Sondheim (Do I Hear a Waltz?), who was a protégé of Hammerstein,Martin Charnin (Two by Two,I Remember Mama) andSheldon Harnick (Rex), he never found another permanent partner. These partnerships proved to be unsuccessful as a result of issues of collaboration. Sondheim's reluctance to participate inDo I Hear a Waltz? led to tension between the two. In addition, Charnin and Rodgers were met with opposing ideas when creatingTwo by Two.[12]
Nevertheless, his overall successful lifetime career did not go unrecognized. At its 1978 commencement ceremonies,Barnard College awarded Rodgers its highest honor, theBarnard Medal of Distinction.
Rodgers was an honoree at the firstKennedy Center Honors in 1978. At the 1979 Tony Awards ceremony—six months before his death—Rodgers was presented the Lawrence Langner Memorial Award for Distinguished Lifetime Achievement in the American Theatre.
One of Rodger's final works was a revival ofFly With Me for the 1980 Varsity Show, to which he added several new songs. He died less than four months before its premiere in April 1980.[4]
In 1930, Rodgers marriedDorothy Belle Feiner (1909–92).[13] Their daughter,Mary (1931–2014), was the composer ofOnce Upon a Mattress and an author of children's books.[14] The Rodgers later lost a daughter at birth. Another daughter, Linda (1935–2015), also had a brief career as asongwriter. Mary's son and Richard Rodgers's grandson,Adam Guettel (b. 1964), also a musical theater composer, won Tony Awards for Best Score and Best Orchestrations forThe Light in the Piazza in 2005.Peter Melnick (b. 1958), Linda Rodgers's son, is the composer ofAdrift In Macao, which debuted at the Philadelphia Theatre Company in 2005 and was producedOff-Broadway in 2007. Mary Rodgers' bookShy: The Alarmingly Outspoken Memoirs of Mary Rodgers was published posthumously in 2022, and included her frank revelations and assessments of her father, family and herself.[15]
Rodgers was anatheist.[16] He was prone to depression and alcohol abuse and was at one time hospitalized.
Rodgers was portrayed byTom Drake in theMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer filmWords and Music, a semi-fictionalized depiction of the partnership of Rodgers and Hart. InRichard Linklater's 2025 filmBlue Moon, he is played byAndrew Scott, who won theSilver Bear for Best Supporting Performance at the75th Berlin International Film Festival.
Rodgers died in 1979, aged 77, after surviving cancer of the jaw, a heart attack, and alaryngectomy. He was cremated, and his ashes were scattered at sea.[citation needed]
In 1990, the 46th Street Theatre was renamed theRichard Rodgers Theatre in his memory. In 1999, Rodgers and Hart were each commemorated on United States postage stamps. In 2002, the centennial year of Rodgers' birth was celebrated worldwide with books, retrospectives, performances, new recordings of his music, and a Broadway revival ofOklahoma!. TheBBC Proms that year devoted an entire evening to Rodgers' music, including a concert performance ofOklahoma! TheBoston Pops Orchestra released a new CD that year in tribute to Rodgers, entitledMy Favorite Things: A Richard Rodgers Celebration.
Alec Wilder wrote the following about Rodgers:
Of all the writers whose songs are considered and examined in this book, those of Rodgers show the highest degree of consistent excellence, inventiveness, and sophistication ... [A]fter spending weeks playing his songs, I am more than impressed and respectful: I am astonished.[17]
Rodgers is a member of theAmerican Theater Hall of Fame.[18]
Along with the Academy of Arts and Letters, Rodgers also started and endowed an award for non-established musical theater composers to produce new productions either by way of full productions or staged readings. It is the only award for which the Academy of Arts and Letters accepts applications and is presented every year. Below are the previous winners of the award:[19]
| Year | Show | Awardee |
|---|---|---|
| 2018[20] | Gun and Powder | Ross Baum |
| Angelica Chéri | ||
| KPOP | Jason Kim | |
| Helen Park | ||
| Max Vernon | ||
| Woodshed Collective | ||
| 2017 | What I Learned from People | Will Aronson |
| Hue Park | ||
| 2016 | We Live in Cairo | Patrick Lazour |
| Daniel Lazour | ||
| Costs of Living | Timothy Huang | |
| Hadestown | Anaïs Mitchell | |
| 2015 | String | Adam Gwon |
| Sarah Hammond | ||
| 2014 | Witness Uganda | Matthew Gould |
| Griffin Matthews | ||
| 2013 | Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812 | Dave Malloy |
| The Kid Who Would Be Pope | Tom Megan | |
| Jack Megan | ||
| 2012 | Witness Uganda | Matthew Gould |
| Griffin Matthews | ||
| 2011 | Dogfight | Peter Duchan |
| Benj Pasek | ||
| Justin Paul | ||
| Gloryana | Andrew Gerle | |
| 2010 | Buddy's Tavern | Raymond De Felitta |
| Alison Louise Hubbard | ||
| Kim Oler | ||
| Rocket Science | Patricia Cotter | |
| Jason Rhyne | ||
| Stephen Weiner | ||
| 2009 | Cheer Wars | Karlan Judd |
| Gordon Leary | ||
| Rosa Parks | Scott Ethier | |
| Jeff Hughes | ||
| 2008 | Alive at Ten | Kirsten A. Guenther |
| Ryan Scott Oliver | ||
| Kingdom | Aaron Jafferis | |
| Ian Williams | ||
| See Rock City and Other Destinations | Brad Alexander | |
| Adam Mathias | ||
| 2007 | Calvin Berger | Barry Wyner |
| Main-Travelled Roads | Dave Hudson | |
| Paul Libman | ||
| 2006 | Grey Gardens | Scott Frankel |
| Michael Korie | ||
| Doug Wright | ||
| True Fans | Chris Miller | |
| Bill Rosenfield | ||
| Nathan Tysen | ||
| Yellow Wood | Michelle Elliott | |
| Danny Larsen | ||
| 2005 | Broadcast | Nathan Christensen |
| Scott Murphy | ||
| Dust & Dreams: Celebrating Sandburg | David Hudson | |
| Paul Libman | ||
| Red | Brian Lowdermilk | |
| Marcus Stevens | ||
| 2004 | To Paint the Earth | Daniel Frederick Levin |
| Jonathan Portera | ||
| The Tutor | Andrew Gerle | |
| Maryrose Wood | ||
| Unlocked | Sam Carner | |
| Derek Gregor | ||
| 2003 | The Devil in the Flesh | Jeffrey Lunden |
| Arthur Perlman | ||
| Once Upon a Time in New Jersey | Susan DiLallo | |
| Stephen A. Weiner | ||
| The Tutor | Andrew Gerle | |
| Maryrose Wood | ||
| 2002 | The Fabulist | David Spencer |
| Stephen Witkin | ||
| The Tutor | Andrew Gerle | |
| Maryrose Wood | ||
| 2001 | Heading East | Leon Ko |
| Robert Lee | ||
| The Spitfire Grill | Fred Alley | |
| James Valcq | ||
| 2000 | Bat Boy | Kaythe Farley |
| Brian Flemming | ||
| Laurence O'Keefe | ||
| The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin | Kirsten Childs | |
| Suburb | Robert S. Cohen | |
| David Javerbaum | ||
| 1999 | Bat Boy | Kaythe Farley |
| Brian Flemming | ||
| Laurence O'Keefe | ||
| Blood on the Dining Room Floor | Jonathan Sheffer | |
| The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin | Kirsten Childs | |
| Dream True: My Life with Vernon Dexter | Ricky Ian Gordon | |
| Tina Landau | ||
| The Singing | Lenora Champagne | |
| Daniel Levy | ||
| 1998 | Little Women | Alison Hubbard |
| Allan Knee | ||
| Kim Oler | ||
| Summer | Erik Haagensen | |
| Paul Schwartz | ||
| 1997 | The Ballad of Little Jo | Mike Reid |
| Sarah Schlesinger | ||
| Barrio Babies | Fernand Rivas | |
| Luis Santeiro | ||
| Violet | Brian Crawley | |
| Jeanine Tesori | ||
| 1996 | Bobos | James McBride |
| Ed Shockley | ||
| The Hidden Sky | Kate Chisholm | |
| Peter Foley | ||
| The Princess & the Blac | Andy Chuckerman | |
| Karole Foreman | ||
| 1995 | Spendora | Mark Campbell |
| Stephen Hoffman | ||
| Peter Webb | ||
| 1994 | Doll (not produced) | Scott Frankel |
| Michael Korie | ||
| The Gig | Douglas Cohen | |
| Rent | Jonathan Larson | |
| The Sweet Revenge of ... | Mark Campbell | |
| Burton Cohen | ||
| Stephen Hoffman | ||
| 1993 | Allos Makar | Scott Frankel |
| Michael Korie | ||
| Valeria Vasilevsky | ||
| Avenue X | John Jiler | |
| Ray Leslee | ||
| Christina Alberta's | Polly Pen | |
| They Shoot Horses ... | Nagle Jackson | |
| Robert Sprayberry | ||
| 1992 | Avenue X | John Jiler |
| Ray Leslee | ||
| The Molly Maquires | Sid Cherry | |
| William Strempek | ||
| 1991 | Opal | Robert N. Lindsey |
| The Times | Joe Keenan | |
| Brad Ross | ||
| 1990 | Down the Stream | Michael Goldenberg |
| Swamp Gas and Shallow Feelings | Randy Buck | |
| Shirlee Strother | ||
| Jack E. Williams | ||
| Whatnot | Howard Crabtree | |
| Dick Gallagher | ||
| Mark Waldrop | ||
| 1989 | Juan Darien | Elliot Goldenthal |
| Julie Taymor | ||
| 1988 | Lucky Stiff | Lynn Ahrens |
| Stephen Flaherty | ||
| Sheila Levine is Dead ... | Michael Devon | |
| Todd Graff | ||
| Superbia | Jonathan Larson | |
| 1987 | Henry and Ellen | Michael John LaChiusa |
| Lucky Stiff | Lynn Ahrens | |
| Stephen Flaherty | ||
| No Way to Treat A Lady | Douglas J. Cohen | |
| 1986 | Break/Agnes/Eulogy | Michael John LaChiusa |
| Juba | Wendy Lamb | |
| Russell Walden | ||
| 1984 | Brownstone | Andrew Cadiff |
| Peter Larson | ||
| Josh Rubens | ||
| Papushko | Andrew Teirstein | |
| 1982 | Portrait of Jennie | Enid Futterman |
| Howard Marren | ||
| Dennis Rosa | ||
| 1981 | Child of the Sun | Damien Leake |
| 1980 | Nine (not produced) | Maro Fratti |
| Maury Yeston |
Rosemary Clooney recorded a version of "Falling in Love with Love" by Rodgers, using a swing style. After the recording session Richard Rodgers told her pointedly that it should be sung as a waltz.[21] AfterDoris Day recorded "I Have Dreamed" in 1961, he wrote to her and her arranger, Jim Harbert, that theirs was the most beautiful rendition of his song he had ever heard.
AfterPeggy Lee recorded her version of "Lover", a Rodgers song, with a dramatically different arrangement from that originally conceived by him, Rodgers said, "I don't know why Peggy picked on me, she could have fucked upSilent Night".[22]Mary Martin said that Richard Rodgers composed songs for her forSouth Pacific, knowing she had a small vocal range, and the songs generally made her look her best. She also said that Rodgers and Hammerstein listened to all her suggestions and she worked extremely well with them.[23] Both Rodgers and Hammerstein wanted Doris Day for the lead in the film version ofSouth Pacific and she reportedly wanted the part. They discussed it with her, but after her manager/husbandMartin Melcher would not budge on his demand for a high salary for her, the role went toMitzi Gaynor.
Rodgers is the first entertainer to have won theEGOT (Emmy,Grammy,Oscar, andTony).
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