He Took Manhattan ALL EDITIONS

That smooth-and-smart got its quietus, though, when Hart's self- destructive drinking forced [Richard Rodgers] to seek another creative partner. As for the pairing of Rodgers and Hammerstein ("Carousel," "South Pacific," etc.) - the verb "revolutionize" tends to po...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inNewsday
Main Author Celia Wren. Celia Wren is the managing editor at American Theater magazine
Format Newspaper Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Long Island, N.Y Newsday LLC 11.11.2001
EditionCombined editions
Subjects
Hammerstein, Oscar (1895-1960)
Hart, Lorenz
Rodgers, Richard
Secrest, Meryle
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Summary:That smooth-and-smart got its quietus, though, when Hart's self- destructive drinking forced [Richard Rodgers] to seek another creative partner. As for the pairing of Rodgers and Hammerstein ("Carousel," "South Pacific," etc.) - the verb "revolutionize" tends to pop up in accounts of these maestros, whose integration of music, narrative and character, in works like that "Beautiful Mornin'" blockbuster, played a seminal role in the development of the musical. [Meryle Secrest] modestly relays a representative sampling of other people's analysis on the change in Rodgers' music once he'd started working with [Oscar Hammerstein II] - her book's strength, after all, lies less in investigating a genre's technicalities than in weaving together anecdotes and striking quotations. Her interviews have turned up such fascinating cameos as [Stephen Sondheim] opining on the psychological reasons for Rodgers' alcoholism (working with Hammerstein, Rodgers "became a whole other person. It was like Wilde's 'The Picture of Dorian Gray' come to life") and the publicist Gary Stevens comparing Hart's suave lyrics with Hammerstein's folksier ones: "Hammerstein ... wanted the material understood and appreciated in 48 states. Larry Hart was happy if two guys at Sardi's understood it."