How Did Rodgers And Hammerstein Create A Revolution In Musical Theatre

After her split with Desi Arnaz, "Lucille Ball at last realized her dream of Broadway success, opening in the musical comedy Wildcat on Dec. 16, 1960" (Moritz 34). Clearly her talents were varied.

During this period, musicals (which were labeled “musical comedies” at the time) were in the form of acceptable of guilty pleasures - the appeal of women and their sexuality, silly characters that made fools of themselves, or the goofy country girl dancing through the chores of the day. Ziegfeld’s Follies, Marx brother shows, and Al Jolson playing his character in blackface are great examples of these shows that focused on showing off the stars and gave little care to the

“Blue Skies” was written into the second act. The song’s introduction was made even more memorable by the fact that Ms. Baker forgot the lyrics, and Irving Berlin himself sang them from the front row. 1930s/40s Swing Time Notable Performers Ella Fitzgerald Frank Sinatra Willie

the audiences were excited to see, one of those being Oklahoma! by Rodgers and Hammerstein.

Porter reintroduced himself in 1928 with the musical Paris. This musical contained what is considered to be one of his best list songs, “Let’s Do It (Let’s Fall In Love”. For the next few years, Porter was constantly writing for huge shows and revues and was finally regaining his credibility as a writer. His peak of this time would come in 1934 with the timeless musical Anything Goes. Anything Goes is considered by many to be the greatest score of this period (and many people would say it is Porter’s greatest ever as well). The original Off-Broadway incarceration would go on to be revived several times on Broadway, winning many awards in the process.

Broadway was one of the first forms of entertainment. Before there were television programs, or movies, there was Broadway. Broadway originated in New York in 1750, when actor-manager Walter Murray built a theatre company at the Theatre on Nassau Street. A musical would show about once every weekend. The shows were very male based, and would commonly show a relationship between young boys and their fathers. Women were slowly integrated into Broadway, and as society changed its point of view on women, so did theatre.

At this time, Gershwin's career skyrocketed. He was hired by George White to compose for the Scandals series. He continued doing this for four years. During this time, Gershwin composed his first operetta, Blue Monday. It impressed Paul Whiteman, a famous bandleader, so much that he asked Gershwin to compose a symphonic jazz piece. At this time, however, Gershwin was still busy composing for White and forgot to compose for Whiteman until only one month before the scheduled performance. During this rushed creation, Gershwin found inspiration to create his most famous individual piece, Rhapsody in Blue. At its first performance, the piece was loved by the audience so much that they gave it a standing ovation.

     On February 16, 1956 the film version of Carousel was released. It stared two actors were not strangers to Rodgers and Hammerstein. They were the stars of their previous movie, Oklahoma! Shirley Jones played Julie Jordan and Gordon MacRea was Billy Bigelow. Many of the same songs were included in the movie, such as “If I Loved You,” and “You’ll Never Walk Alone.”

The studio became a success that they opened a second studio nearby.
 In the late 1930’s Kelly found his way to the Broadway stage with small roles in Leave It to Me. Nevertheless in 1939, Kelly got his big break in Broadway with William Saroyan’s Time of Your Life casting him the role of Harry the cheerful hoofer. Kelly also landed a lead role of the musical Pal Joey. John Martin in the New York Times writes about his performance: “It was appealing to be able to use the character to control the audience… if Kelly were to be evaluated exclusively by his performance of dance routines, he still would be a good dancer… a tap dancer who can illustrate his own routines and turn them into an integral element of imaginative theatrical is to unique.” Louis B Mayer, an MGM executive, caught Kelly’s excellent performance and offered Kelly a movie contract with them. 
 After being honored for his choreography in Best Foot Forward on Broadway, Kelly made his film debut called For Me and My Gal in 1941which starred Judy Garland. Kelly had a unique style and was compared to another famous film dancer, Fred Astaire. Unlike Astaire, an older friend of Kelly, top hat and tails were not his style. Kelly was more of sport shirt and slacks,

Fred Astaire, known best for many of successful musical films was born on May 10, 1899, in Omaha, Nebraska, he is said to be the greatest music dancer of all time. Astaire is remembered for his dances with Ginger Rogers. Fred Astaire revolutionized the movie musical with his dance style. He made dancing look easy, but he was a perfectionist and his dances were the product of endless practice. He began performing as a child with his older sister Adele. They toured the vaudeville circuit together before Broadway in 1917. The brother-sister team starred in the musical "Funny Face".

There are many well-known lyricists and composers, but none of them have left a mark on the theatre world like Rodgers and Hammerstein. The duo produced eleven musicals during their partnership and made an extensive change in musical comedy. They set a new standard that are still followed to this day in musical history.

In the early 1930’s, Ellington led the orchestra by using piano cues and visual gestures. He conducted the orchestra with a combination of humor and flattery. Some of Ellington’s instrumental pieces he composed became hits songs, such as "Sophisticated Lady" made in

Connick Jr has recorded numerous jazz songs and soundtracks. Those include: When Harry Met Sally, “The Happy Elf,” “Just Kiss Me,” “Let’s Just Kiss,” and “Santa Claus”. The soundtrack “When Harry Met Sally” was released in July 25, 1989, when Harry Connick Jr was just 21, for the movie “When Harry Met Sally”. The song ended up getting him his first Grammy award. He even played some of the piano in the song himself.

In 1963, Jule Styne, Arthur Laurents, and Isobel Lennart premiered a new musical called Funny Girl, based on the life of Fanny Brice. This American Musical was about one of the most famous female vaudevillian comediennes that was famous for her character “Baby Snooks”, a naughty mischievous little girl in a forty each old woman’s body. “Baby Snooks” made tons of appearances in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1910, 1921 and the radio. She not only was able to make people laugh but her songs such as “My Man” and “I’d Rather Be Blue” could make a person cry. Brice was such a well-rounded performer yet suffered a lot of heartbreak in her life with three failed marriages. Ray Stark, the producer supervisor of the Broadway musical, happened to start this biopic project because he was married to Frances Brice, Fanny Brice’s daughter. Fanny’s story of going from rags to riches was inspiring to not only Stark but to the future of musical theatre lovers. She changed the face of beauty that the Follies were known for and instead brought these characters and skits to make people adore her and her looks. Brice also invented a new form of Jewish female comedy which had never been seen in vaudeville before giving the show more ways to showcase her as a Jewish girl who was never a type before. The Broadway musical soon turned into a Hollywood motion picture and in both showed how the evolution

The Princess Theatre was turned into a playhouse to host “intimate musical comedies” in 1915 and housed a series of musicals, primarily composed by Kern that changed the way musical comedies were written and performed. “Very Good Eddie began the string of incomparable little musical comedies that became known as the Princess Theatre shows: “Oh, Boy!,” “ Oh, Lady! Lady!! ,” and two shows which were written for