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1 feb 1999 · He was the recipient of countless awards, including Pulitzers, Tonys, Oscars, Grammys and Emmys. He wrote more than 900 published songs, and forty Broadway musicals. Richard Charles Rodgers was...
- Why Richard Rodgers matters
With musicals like "The Sound of Music" and "South Pacific,"...
- Richard Rodgers
Watch full interviews related to Richard Rodgers in our...
- Why Richard Rodgers matters
- Making—And Breaking—Records
- Richard Rodgers Had Multiple Key Creative Partners
- The Influence of “The Sound of Music” on Jazz
- Dream Ballets
- Side-by-Side with Stephen Sondheim
- Did I Write A Waltz?
- Richard Rodgers’ Songs Have Come to Represent These Places
- Live from New York
- A Firebrand at Branding
- You Still Hear Richard Rodgers’ Music Everywhere You Turn
The 1949 original cast album of “South Pacific” was released at about the same time as record manufacturers and producers were trying to hook the public on a new technology: the 33 1/3 rpm Long Playing record. The Rodgers score and the new consumer product were made for each other and the Columbia Broadway cast album was number one for 63 weeks—an ...
Many people think that Rodgers wrote “Oklahoma!” with Oscar Hammerstein after Lorenz Hart died; far from it. When approached with the project in 1942, Hart was never interested in musicalizing the source material and gave Rodgers his blessing to work with Hammerstein instead. Hart even attended the opening night on April 1, 1943 and congratulated R...
In the middle of 1960, the famed jazz saxophonist John Coltrane had left the Miles DavisQuintet and formed his own quartet. Apparently, a song plugger—no one quite remembers who or where from—gave the sheet music from “The Sound of Music” to Coltrane. Thinking it was probably a good idea to render some popular standards, Coltrane included “My Favor...
The three greatest stage choreographers of the middle of the twentieth century were George Balanchine, Agnes de Mille and Jerome Robbins. Rodgers was the only composer to collaborate with each of them—dance was always central to Rodgers’s sense of musical narrative. By extension, one could also include Bob Fosse in the list—he performed on-stage in...
If one could readily accede that Rodgers was the most revered Broadway songwriter for the first half of the twentieth century, Stephen Sondheim equally qualifies for the second half. Before Rodgers would pass the baton on to Sondheim, they were briefly teammates on the same project: the musical “Do I Hear a Waltz?,” which ran for 220 performances d...
Rodgers was so prolific and popular throughout most of the twentieth century that practically every pop singer from 1925 to 1975 sang at least a half-dozen of his songs. Frank Sinatra, Perry Como, Bing Crosby, Jo Stafford and Doris Day—among many others—each had hit singles and popular albums singing his tunes. Ella Fitzgeraldreleased a groundbreak...
The title number from “Oklahoma!” was adopted as the state song in 1953. “Edelweiss” from “The Sound of Music,” however, is neither an Austrian folk song nor the Austrian national anthem, although someone in the Reagan White House apparently didn’t get the memo: Rodgers’s tune was used to introduce the Austrian chancellor during a state function in...
“The Ed Sullivan Show” was the leading variety show on television for four decades, commanding national audiences every Sunday night from 1948 to 1970. On his very first show, Sullivan hosted Rodgers and Hammerstein, who talked about their upcoming musical “South Pacific” (that episode, sadly lost to history, also featured performances by Dean Mart...
Although Irving Berlin had pioneered the way for songwriters to take control over the publishing rights to their material back in 1917, it was Rodgers, in partnership with Oscar Hammerstein, who had the visionary idea of maintaining complete creative control of his work. Creative control was important to Rodgers; when he made his Broadway debut—sti...
In the last ten years alone, Rodgers’s music has been used in nearly 50 movies, television shows and commercials, including “Bridge of Spies,” “The Wolf of Wall Street,” “Watchmen,” “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” and “The Simpsons.” In the 2021 film “Being the Ricardos,” an entire scene is recreated from the film version of his 1939 stage musical, “To...
- Laurence Maslon
Watch full interviews related to Richard Rodgers in our Digital Archive. View all Richard Rodgers content on the American Masters website.
- June 28, 1902
- December 31, 1979
Richard Rodgers: The Sweetest Sounds: Directed by Roger Sherman. With Julie Andrews, Diahann Carroll, Barbara Cook, Sheldon Harnick. Richard Rodgers' contributions to the musical theatre were extraordinary, and his influence on the musical theatre of today and tomorrow is legendary He was the recipient of countless awards, including Pulitzers ...
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- Documentary, Biography, History
- Roger Sherman
- 2001-10-21
American Masters. Richard Rodgers: The Sweetest Sounds. Season 16 Episode 3. Richard Rodgers’ contributions to the musical theatre were extraordinary, and his influence on the musical theatre of today and tomorrow is legendary.
PBS’ American Masters series devoted an entire episode to the life and work of Richard Rodgers (Season 16, Episode 3: Richard Rodgers: The Sweetest Sounds ). As a companion piece, theatre historian Laurence Maslon contributed this comprehensive and engaging essay arguing Why Richard Rodgers Matters.
American Masters. Richard Rodgers: The Sweetest Sounds. Richard Rodgers’ contributions to the musical theatre were extraordinary, and his influence on the musical theatre of today and tomorrow is legendary.
