Search results for ""Author Richard Rodgers""

ÊThe King and IÊ opened on Broadway on March 29 1951. The musical is based on a 1944 novel by Margaret Landon ÊAnna and the King of SiamÊ which in turn was adapted from the real-life reminiscences of Anna Leonowens as recounted in her own books ÊThe English Governess at the Siamese CourtÊ and ÊThe Romance of the HaremÊ.ÞIt is 1862 in Siam when an English widow Anna Leonowens arrives with her young son at the Royal Palace in Bangkok having been summoned by the King to serve as tutor to his many children and wives. The King is largely considered to be a barbarian by those in the West and he seeks Anna's assistance in changing his image if not his ways. With both keeping a firm grip on their respective traditions and values Anna and the King grow to understand and eventually respect one another in a truly unique love story. Along with the dazzling score the incomparable Jerome Robbins ballet ÊThe Small House of Uncle ThomasÊ is one of the all-time marvels of the musical stage.

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In a Maine coastal village toward the end of the 19th century swaggering carefree carnival barker Billy Bigelow captivates and marries naive millworker Julie Jordan. Billy loses his job just as he learns that Julie is pregnant and ä desperately intent upon providing a decent life for his family ä he is coerced into being an accomplice to a robbery. Caught in the act and facing the certainty of prison he takes his own life and is sent up there. Billy is allowed to return to earth for one day 15 years later and he encounters the daughter he never knew. She is a lonely friendless teenager her father's reputation as a thief and bully having haunted her throughout her young life. How Billy instills a sense of hope and dignity in both the child and her mother is a dramatic testimony to the power of love. It's easy to understand why of all the shows they created ÊCarouselÊ was Rodgers and Hammerstein's personal favorite.

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ÊMusic by Richard RodgersÊÞÊLyrics by Oscar Hammerstein IIÊÞÊBook by Oscar Hammerstein II and Joshua LoganÊÞÊAdapted from the Pulitzer Prize-winning novelÊ Tales of the South Pacific Êby James A. MichenerÊÞÞWinner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the Tony for Best Musical ÊSouth PacificÊ flourished as the golden musical of Broadway's post-WWII golden era. Nearly 60 years after its 1949 premiere ÊSouth PacificÊ returned to Broadway in Lincoln Center Theater's glorious Tony-winning production setting box-office records and bringing this timely and timeless musical to new generations. With a score by Rodgers & Hammerstein and a libretto by Hammerstein and Joshua Logan based on James A. Michener's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel ÊTales of the South PacificÊ this landmark musical combines compassionate love stories with the saga of a world at war. Richly developed characters are faced with life-changing moments in a complex world their thoughts and yearnings powerfully expressed in the lyrics to such songs as This Nearly Was Mine Younger Than Springtime and Some Enchanted Evening.

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ÊMusic by Richard RodgersÊÞÊLyrics by Oscar Hammerstein IIÊÞÊNew book by Douglas Carter BeaneÊÞÊOriginal book by Oscar Hammerstein IIÊÞIn March 2013 a new Rodgers and Hammerstein musical opened on Broadway ä new to Broadway but based on a TV musical first written nearly 60 years before and beloved by audiences all over the world. It was ÊRodgers + Hammerstein's CinderellaÊ which very quickly became the belle of the ball of the Broadway season winning cheers for its fresh take on a timeless classic. Douglas Carter Beane created a new Tony-nominated book that was hailed for complementing the inspirational themes of Rodgers and Hammerstein with a 21st-century sensibility giving the musical new characters surprising plot twists and revelatory moments that harkened back to the Charles Perrault version of the fairy tale. The score was cheered as well: the familiar songs from the television versions ä In My Own Little Corner Impossible A Lovely Night Do I Love You Because You're Beautiful and so on ä along with undiscovered gems from the trunk. ÊRodgers + Hammerstein's CinderellaÊ was hailed by the Associated Press as a charming witty and relevant take on the classic story and cheered by ÊNew YorkÊ magazine as a wised-up wit-spackled CINDERELLA... As solidly entertaining as they come!

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