Todd S. Purdum

From their early success with Oklahoma! through flops and triumphs, this book takes a look at Rodgers and Hammerstein's collaborations and how they were received by critics and the public. The author's tone is respectful of the duo's achievements, while making note of some of their flaws and foibles (Rodgers' womanizing, for instance, and Hammerstein's temper). Purdum makes the case that Rodgers and Hammerstein were revolutionary for their era, and paved the way for the creators who would follow in their footsteps on the Broadway stage.

I was introduced to The Sound of Music when I was probably 8 or 9 years old, and have been a fan ever since. I've seen most of the films of their major works, though I wish I could have seen the original staged versions. I do generally consider the R&H musicals as "safe," sentimental, and a little old-fashioned, so it was interesting to see the ways in which they were groundbreaking and perhaps a little shocking in their time. Moreover, it had me singing bits of some favorite melodies whenever they were mentioned. I'd recommend this to theatre buffs and musical aficionados.… (altro)

Much like its title, it's a wonderful read indeed! A thoroughly researched book about the creative partnership between Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II that revolutionized Broadway musicals. While most of the musical comedies in that era opened by a chorus number with dancing boys and girls in flashy costumes, Oklahoma! opens with the main character’s grandmother churning butter in an empty stage and a cowboy singing about the beautiful morning. As Purdum said on the prologue, "Oklahoma! was as radical in its way as Lin-Manuel Miranda's hip-hop, genre-bending Hamilton would be more than seventy years later." But Purdum doesn't over-glorify the writing duo. He doesn't shy away from the harsh realities behind their success, such as alcoholism, infidelity, backstage drama, and depression that Rodgers & Hammerstein respectively experienced.

As this is the first biography I've read about R&H, there are many interesting facts that I didn't know before regarding the many alterations in the lyrics, casting processes, and people who have worked beside them but not getting the recognition they deserved. Or the tickets for South Pacific were such hot items for many years like Hamilton‘s are now. I've also just learned that they rarely wrote the numbers in the same room unlike Al Hirschfeld's illustration in the cover shown. "To the ends of their days, each maintained that he'd never been sure whether the other really liked him."

Perhaps I cherish their works because I can remember vividly a five-year-old me crawling to the VCD player to replay The Sound of Music countless times and writing the lyrics in my diary. And throughout time, I watched their musicals (bootlegs or pro shots) and movie adaptations, but have no one to fangirl with except my grandmother. With the Broadway revival of The King and I (2015), Carousel (2018), and ongoing Oklahoma (2019), I found many young people with the same adoration too. It's no longer a question whether their musicals will stand the test of time or not. Purdum notes, "On a single spring evening in 2014, in the United States alone, there were 11 productions of Carousel, 17 of The King and I, 26 of South Pacific, 64 of Oklahoma!, and 106 of The Sound of Music." Their works still very dear to many people across generations, and this book will satisfy both newcomers or long-time fans. Reading this will transport you back to the moment in which these masterpieces were being written and produced, just in your own little corner.

"There's a common misconception that you can stand on the top of a mountain and look at a sunset and sit down and write something beautiful. I don't think it goes that way. I think the sunset, the mountain, the experience all go inside and may not come out for fifty years. But they become part of your knowledge, part of your personality…part of your education, part of your technique…and, eventually, you express yourself." -Richard Rodgers… (altro)

When I was a small boy, almost every summer my family and I would visit my grandparents in North Carolina. The first two nights on the road we slept in the our station wagon. On the third night we would reach Knoxville, TN and be able to spend the night in a Howard Johnsons. Why sleep in the car? Back then, that is what African-American families had to do. Holiday Inn and the other motels located along the Interstate Highways would not lease rooms to traveling African-Americans. In order to provide some assurance that we would not be hassled by state or local police my father, an officer in the U.S. Army, wore his summer uniform.

Fifty years ago this summer LBJ signed into law the 1964 Civil Rights Act. And matters in America, matters like leasing a hotel room, changed. Todd Purdum tells the story how this radical piece of legislation came into existence after years of bitter resistance from the Southern wing of the Democratic party. The Act did not solve the issue of racism, the events of 21st century America make that obvious. But it was a major step towards ensuring the basic rights for every American. In telling this story the author portrays a different Washington DC and a far different Congress. After reading this book you will realize how far the House and Senate have fallen in the quality of the men and women who are elected to office.… (altro)