CONVERSATIONS WITH 2 LEGENDS OF THE AMERICAN MUSICAL THEATRE - Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II

Album review

In early 1960, only a couple of months after the successful Broadway opening of what would turn out to be the final musical with songs by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, The Sound of Music, the radio network of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) planned a documentary on Rodgers & Hammerstein and sent Tony Thomas to New York to interview them. He spoke to each separately on the same day, and those two conversations, each running roughly half an hour, are presented on this album. (The annotations state that the interviews took place in February 1960. In the interview with Hammerstein, however, he makes a point of noting that the day before had marked the 75th anniversary of the birth of his former partner, Jerome Kern, which would make the date of the interview January 28, 1960.) Although they took place at the end of the team's partnership (Hammerstein died on August 23, 1960), these are interesting but hardly definitive interviews. Thomas spends much of his time with Rodgers reminding the composer of obscure songs he wrote for shows of the 1920s with his earlier partner, Lorenz Hart, and getting him to play snatches of these songs on the piano. In speaking to Hammerstein, he allows the songwriter considerable space to quote his lyrics. While Rodgers talks about both Hart and Hammerstein, Hammerstein talks more about former partners Jerome Kern and Sigmund Romberg than about Rodgers. But despite the idiosyncrasies of the interviewer, the interviewees prove to be as eloquent and serious-minded as one might expect, and there is plenty of interesting information for the Rodgers & Hammerstein fan.
© William Ruhlmann /TiVo