1. Bell Work Remembering our Entrance Procedures: ◦ Go directly to your seat ◦ Place your belongings under your chair When finished, Set up a piece of paper with this title: ◦ Rodgers and Hart/Hammerstein

2. Rodgers and Hart/Hammerstein- Kings of Musical Comedy and Music Theatre Arrives

3. Objectives Students will understand the biography of Rodgers and Hart and how they led to Rodgers and Hammerstein Students will take notes on his biography Students will view examples Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Work as the inventors of Music Theater Receive an assignment involving R&H

4. Rodgers and Hart Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart met in Columbia University Rodgers was in the School of Music while Hart was an English Major studying poetry Rodgers and Hart joined an amateur song writing competition to write a song about NYC at their school and won with the song “Manhattan” This one song solidified their styles of writing.

5. Their Writing Styles Rodgers had a very predictable way of writing music and it was easily identified. It would go like this: Intro, A, A, B, A More importantly though, were Hart’s lyrics. They were very heart-felt…no pun intended Hart was very in tune with human emotions and could write lyrics that spoke to people on a deeper level. Hart was also a master at rhyming multi- syllabic words and making up words to get a rhyme just right: i.e. Laughable, Unphotographable Ex. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Dpb3vN sTd8 (0.48) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Dpb3vN sTd8

6. Their Works The two men worked very well together and took the musical comedy world by storm. Some of their most famous works included: ◦ Babes in Arms ◦ The Boys from Syracuse ◦ Chee-Chee ◦ She’s My Baby

7. Most Famous Work…Pal Joey Their most famous work today is a musical comedy based on a main characters who is a villain. The audience hated it.

8. The Break-up Hart could not take criticism very well and turned to drink. Because of this problem, Hart missed a lot of his appointments and Rodgers began missing a lot of his deadlines. Rodgers had to hire other lyricists to help him produce shows on time, because Hart would be hung over from the night before Eventually Rodgers had to break it off with Hart so Hart could go seek help

9. Rodgers and Hammerstein Once Rodgers and Hart were no more, Oscar Hammerstein II took his place. Oscar Hammerstein had to establish himself differently than Hart, because the duo was so famous. Hammerstein had his own way of writing lyrics which was with more warmth, optimism, and sometimes corny This really spoke to Richard Rodgers and he shaped his music to match Hammerstein’s lyrics.

10. A New Genre of Theater The two began a project that changed the face of theater forever. In 1943, the team produced their first musical “Oklahoma!”

11. Music Theater is Born With “Oklahoma!”, R & H did something that no other writing team had attempted before. “The Songs and Dances in the Show came right out of the dialogue the actors were saying!”

12. Music Theater Continued This changed the way composers and authors wrote musicals. It enhanced the stories so the actors could sing or dance about what they were feeling, and made the audience pay attention to the full story line The show was a huge hit in 1943 because of it’s target audience….Women and Children

13. Brainstorm Why did the men not go to see the show right away? Where were they?

14. Will This Help???? WORLD WAR II The men weren’t home to see it, but heard about it overseas and came home in 1945 and gave the show another big surge when the entire family went to go and see it.

15. Legacy Rodgers and Hammerstein are the “Father’s of American Musical Theater”. They rarely produced flops and were very much in tune with the audience and what they wanted to see at that point in time.

16. Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Works R & H have written such musicals as: ◦ Oklahoma! ◦ Carousel ◦ South Pacific ◦ The King and I ◦ Cinderella ◦ Flower Drum Song ◦ The Sound of Music

17. In Conclusion Rodgers and Hart = Masters of Musical Comedy Era VS Rodgers and Hammerstein= Inventors of Musical Theater Era

18. Questions If you have any questions about either composing team, please ask them now!

19. Have a Great Day and I’ll See you Tomorrow!