Quote:
Originally Posted by Catlady
I nominate a book about perhaps the greatest musical collaborators of the twentieth century: Something Wonderful: Rodgers and Hammerstein's Broadway Revolution by Todd S. Purdum (2018, 400 pp.).
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I finally got around to reading
Something Wonderful this past weekend; it was a great read. It did a lot to enhance my appreciation for R&H as I’ve been in the camp that said each man was better served by an earlier partnership, Rodgers with Hart and Hammerstein with Kern. But what seems like kitsch due to long familiarity was groundbreaking, and their reputation was not well-served by the film versions of their great musicals and of course that’s how we mostly know them now.
On a personal note, the original production of
The Sound of Music was my very first Broadway show as a little girl, although not while Mary Martin was in the cast as I’m not
quite that old, and I’ve always thought the show far better than the treacle-fest of the movie. How could they cut “How Can Love Survive?” and “No Way to Stop It”? And there was that ridiculous and tedious puppet show just to get in
The Lonely Goatherd which had been displaced from its original position in the show.