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BOOKSHELFOur Favorite Things: Rodgers, Hammerstein and HartBy Laura Butchy ’04 Arts 
Rodgers and Hammerstein As the number of original musicals on Broadway declines, revivals, concerts and cast albums are reinforcing who America’s favorites really are: Richard Rodgers ’23, Oscar Hammerstein II ’16 and Lorenz Hart ’18. An all-star concert version of the 1959 Rodgers and Hammerstein classic The Sound of Music wowed audiences at The Hollywood Bowl in July, while the 1927 Jerome Kern and Hammerstein landmark Show Boat surprised Londoners in a new in-the-round treatment at Royal Albert Hall in June. And the new Decca Broadway release of the acclaimed Carnegie Hall concert of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s South Pacific starring Reba McEntire and Brian Stokes Mitchell climbed to No. 4 on Billboard’s Top Cast Album chart in May following an April release. The music and magic live on in numerous publications commemorating the work of three Columbians who started their careers working on the Varsity Show and other College productions. Here’s a peek at a handful of recent books covering Rodgers’ music and Hammerstein’s and Hart’s lyrics.
Rodgers and Hart A Fine Romance: Hollywood/Broadway by Darcie Denkert is a hefty coffee table book that examines the love-hate relationship between Broadway musicals and their screen adaptations, as well as the newer phenomenon of movies adapted into Broadway musicals. Each chapter explores differences between the mediums through specific adaptation stories, with one chapter devoted to Rodgers and Hammerstein’s The Sound of Music, the ultimate example of a successful movie adaptation of a musical (Watson-Guptill, $45). The paperback reprint of My Favorite Things offers a different view of The Sound of Music. Illustrated by Renée Graef, this children’s book presents the beloved song with soft-color depictions of the Rodgers and Hammerstein favorite things, ending with sheet music for the classic song (HarperTrophy, $5.99).
My Favorite Things illustrated by Renée Graef Second Act Trouble: Behind the Scenes at Broadway’s Big Musical Bombs examines the backstage soap operas that plagued some of Broadway’s greatest failures. Author Steven Suskin has compiled first-person accounts of forgotten musical messes from the 1930s to the 1990s, including Rodgers’ I Remember Mama, which ran for 108 performances in 1979, and Rex, which ran for 48 performances in 1976 (Applause, $27.95). In Flower Drum Songs: The Story Of Two Musicals, David H. Lewis offers an intriguing look at Flower Drum Song, a hit when it debuted in 1958 but a box-office failure when revived in 2002 with revised lyrics that attempted to eliminate racial stereotypes. Lewis uses interviews with members of both casts to explore how and why the show changed and explores the value of preserving Rodgers’ and Hammerstein’s work (McFarland & Co., $32).
Flower Drum Songs: The Story Of Two Musicals by David H. Lewis Originally published in 1971, Lehman Engel’s Words with Music: Creating the Broadway Musical Libretto quickly became the masterwork dissecting the creation of librettos. This updated and revised version by Howard Kissel includes extensive coverage of the collaborations between Rodgers and Hammerstein and Rodgers and Hart (Applause, $17.95). Finally, two encyclopedic collections of American songs and singers include listings and details about Rodgers, Hammerstein and Hart songs. Philip Furia and Michael Lasser’s America’s Songs: The Stories Behind the Songs of Broadway, Hollywood, and Tin Pan Alley offers a comprehensive survey of legendary American songs and how they reflect American life, arranged chronologically and alphabetically within each year from 1910–77 (Routledge, $29.95). The two-volume set Who Sang What On Broadway, 1866–1996 alphabetically lists every performer who sang a named role on Broadway in that time, ranging from the well-known to the obscure. Compiled by Ruth Benjamin and Arthur Rosenblatt, this compendium includes performers’ biographical data and details of the songs and shows that made them famous — or not (McFarland & Co., $75). Laura Butchy ’04 Arts is CCT’s former assistant editor as well as a freelance journalist and dramaturge.
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