Richard Rodgers / Geoffrey Block.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Block, Geoffrey Holden, 1948-

Series:

Yale Broadway masters

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Rodgers, Richard, 1902-1979--Criticism and interpretation.

Rodgers, Richard.

Rodgers, Richard, 1902-1979.

Criticism and interpretation.

Physical Description:

xiii, 315 pages : illustrations, music ; 25 cm.

Place of Publication:

New Haven : Yale University Press, [2003]

Summary:

A lively book that examines--for the first time--the full range of music by one of America's most celebrated composers. Richard Rodgers was an icon of the musical theater, a prolific composer whose career spanned six decades and who wrote more than a thousand songs and forty shows for the American stage. In this absorbing book, Geoffrey Block examines Rodgers's entire career, providing rich details about the creation, staging, and critical reception of some of his most popular musicals. Block traces Rodgers's musical education, early work, and the development of his musical and dramatic language. He focuses on two shows by Rodgers and Hart (A Connecticut Yankee and The Boys from Syracuse) and two by Rodgers and Hammerstein (South Pacific and Cinderella), offering new insights into each one. He concludes with the first serious look at the five neglected and often maligned musicals that Rodgers composed in the 1960s and 1970s, after the death of Hammerstein.

Contents:

From apprentice to musical dramatist

A tale of two Connecticut Yankees

Hits, long runs, and a musical comedy of errors

World War II, the musical : South Pacific

Broadway comes to television : the three Cinderellas

After Hammerstein.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [261]-290) and index.

ISBN:

0300097476

OCLC:

51613909