Follows the career of Broadway composer Richard Rodgers through six decades that included collaborations with Loranz Hart and Oscar Hammerstein II

From every “beautiful mornin’” to “some enchanted evening,” the songs of Oscar Hammerstein II are part of our daily lives, his words part of our national fabric. Born into a theatrical dynasty headed by his grandfather and namesake, Oscar Hammerstein II breathed new life into the moribund art form of operetta by writing lyrics and libretti for such classics as Rose-Marie (music by Rudolf Friml), The Desert Song (Sigmund Romberg), The New Moon (Romberg) and Song of the Flame (George Gershwin). Hammerstein and Jerome Kern wrote eight musicals together, including Sweet Adeline, Music in the Air, and their masterpiece, Show Boat. The vibrant Carmen Jones was Hammerstein’s all-black adaptation of the tragic opera by Georges Bizet. In 1943, Hammerstein, pioneer in the field of operetta, joined forces with Richard Rodgers, who had for the previous twenty-five years taken great strides in the field of musical comedy with his longtime writing partner, Lorenz Hart. The first Rodgers and Hammerstein work, Oklahoma!, merged the two styles into a completely new genre—the musical play—and simultaneously launched the most successful partnership in American musical theater. Over the next seventeen years, Rodgers and Hammerstein wrote eight more Broadway musicals: Carousel, Allegro, South Pacific, The King and I, Me and Juliet, Pipe Dream, Flower Drum Song, and The Sound of Music. They also wrote a movie musical (State Fair) and one for television (Cinderella). Collectively their works have earned dozens of awards, including Pulitzers, Tonys, Oscars, Grammys, and Emmys. Throughout his career, Hammerstein created works of lyrical beauty and universal feeling, and he continually strove—sometimes against fashion—to seek out the good and beautiful in the world. “I know the world is filled with troubles and many injustices,” he once said. “But reality is as beautiful as it is ugly . . . I just couldn’t write anything without hope in it.” All of his lyrics are here—850, more than a quarter published for the first time—in this sixth book in the indispensable Complete Lyrics series that has also brought us the lyrics of Cole Porter, Lorenz Hart, Ira Gershwin, Irving Berlin, and Frank Loesser. From the young scribe’s earliest attempts to the old master’s final lyric—“Edelweiss”—we can see, read, and, yes, sing the words of a theatrical and lyrical genius.

"Even before they joined forces, Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II had written dozens of Broadway shows, but together they pioneered a new art form: the serious musical play. Their songs and dance numbers served to advance the drama and reveal character, a sharp break from the past and the template on which all future musicals would be built. [This is a portrait of that creative partnership]"--Amazon.com

Secrest, biographer of Frank Lloyd Wright, Stephen Sondheim, and Leonard Bernstein, brings her extraordinary skills to this full-scale life of composer Rodgers. She shows for the first time the complexities of his nature, his emotional fault lines, and, most important, the wellsprings of his art.

(Vocal Collection). The most accomplished composer in the history of the American musical theatre was Richard Rodgers (1902-1979), with a professional career on Broadway that spanned more than 50 years. In an edition designed especially for singers, 45 songs have been carefully chosen from both the Rodgers & Hart and Rodgers & Hammerstein output. Contents: Bewitched (PAL JOEY) * Climb Ev'ry Mountain (THE SOUND OF MUSIC) * Do I Love You Because You're Beautiful? (CINDERELLA) * Edelweiss (THE SOUND OF MUSIC) * Falling in Love with Love (THE BOYS FROM SYRACUSE) * Hello, Young Lovers (THE KING AND I) * I Could Write a Book (PAL JOEY) * I Didn't Know What Time It Was (TOO MANY GIRLS) * I Have Dreamed (THE KING AND I) * I Wish I Were in Love Again (BABES IN ARMS) * If I Loved You (CAROUSEL) * Isn't It Romantic? (LOVE ME TONIGHT) * It Might as Well Be Spring (STATE FAIR) * It Never Entered My Mind (HIGHER AND HIGHER) * The Lady Is a Tramp (BABES IN ARMS) * Love, Look Away (FLOWER DRUM SONG) * Manhattan (THE GARRICK GAIETIES) * My Favorite Things (THE SOUND OF MUSIC) * My Funny Valentine (BABES IN ARMS) * My Heart Stood Still (ONE DAM THING AFTER ANOTHER) * My Lord and Master (THE KING AND I) * My Romance (JUMBO) * No Other Love (ME AND JULET) * Nobody's Heart (BY JUPITER) * Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin' (OKLAHOMA!) * People Will Say We're in Love (OKLAHOMA!) * Some Enchanted Evening (SOUTH PACIFIC) * Something Wonderful (THE KING AND I) * The Sound of Music (THE SOUND OF MUSIC) * The Surrey with the Fringe on Top (OKLAHOMA!) * The Sweetest Sounds (NO STRINGS) * Ten Cents a Dance (SIMPLE SIMON) * There's a Small Hotel (ON YOUR TOES) * This Can't Be Love (THE BOYS FROM SYRACUSE) * This Nearly Was Mine (SOUTH PACIFIC)* Thou Swell (A CONNECTICUT YANKEE) * To Keep My Love Alive (A CONNECTICUT YANKEE) * Where or When (BABES IN ARMS) * With a Song in My Heart (SPRING IS HERE) * A Wonderful Guy (SOUTH PACIFIC) * You Are Never Away (ALLEGRO) * You Took Advantage of Me (PRESENT ARMS) * You'll Never Walk Alone (CAROUSEL) * You're Nearer (TOO MANY GIRLS) * Younger Than Springtime (SOUTH PACIFIC)

RODGERS + HAMMERSTEIN'S CINDERELLA: THE COMPLETE BOOK AND LYRICS OF THE BROADWAY MUSICA

Actor and theatre aficionado Ron Fassler recalls his upbringing on Broadway, in conversation with Harold Prince, Stephen Sondheim, Bette Midler, Sheldon Harnick, James Earl Jones, Austin Pendleton, Ken Howard, Hal Linden, Stacy Keach, Jane Alexander and Mike Nichols among many others.

(Vocal Score). Complete vocal score to the 1955 musical with 22 pieces in all: All at Once You Love Her * All Kinds of People * Everybody's Got a Home but Me * How Long * The Man I Used to Be * Suzy Is a Good Thing * Sweet Thursday * Will You Marry Me * and more.