Broadway has had some superb composer-lyricist teams
that have created some of Broadway's best musicals.
Of the seven movie musicals that won the Academy
Award for Best Picture, six were written by composing
teams. Only one of the teams, Leonard Bernstein and
Stephen Sondheim, did not write as a team for an
extended length of time. The other teams had long and
successful careers, writing many hit Broadway
musicals, several of which also became popular movie
musicals. [read more ...]
"Girl Crazy" was written in 1930 by George and Ira
Gershwin. It ran for 272 performances on Broadway and
starred two young performers, Ginger Rogers and Ethel
Merman. Included in the orchestra were several
well-known musicians, such as Glen Miller, Gene
Krupa, Tommy Dorsey, and Benny Goodman. Two of the
best-known songs from "Girl Crazy" are "Embraceable
You" and "I Got Rhythm." [read more ...]
"An American in Paris," the Academy Award
winner for Best Picture in 1951, has a score by
George and Ira Gershwin. All of the songs, however,
were from earlier Gershwin plays and movies. Included
in the score are "Embraceable You,"
"I Got Rhythm" and "Stairway to
Paradise." [read more ...]
Although George and Ira Gershwin wrote many wonderful
songs, their masterpiece was the score for the modern
opera, "Porgy and Bess." It opened on
Broadway in 1935 and ran for 124 performances. The
music was composed by George Gershwin and the the
lyrics were by Ira Gershwin and DuBose Heyward. The
opera was based on DuBose's novel and play,
"Porgy." [read more ...]
In 1943, Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II
thrilled Broadway audiences with their innovative
musical, "Oklahoma." The play used music and dance to
help tell a well-developed story about people in
Oklahoma in the early 1900s. "Oklahoma" was a huge
success on Broadway, running for 5 years and 2,212
performances. [read more ...]
"Carousel" was Richard Rodgers and Oscar
Hammerstein's second musical, coming after their
extremely successful "Oklahoma." It was based on the
play "Liliom" by Hungarian playwright, Ferenc Molnar.
"Carousel" opened on Broadway in 1945 and it ran for
2 years and 890 performances. The original cast
included John Raitt as Billy. Like "Oklahoma," the
choreographer for "Carousel" was Agnes de
Mille. [read more ...]
After composing the scores for two successful
Broadway musicals, "Oklahoma"
and "Carousel," and while both shows were still
playing on Broadway, Richard Rodgers and Oscar
Hammerstein II wrote the score for a movie
musical, "State Fair." The 1945 film score was the
only one they ever wrote specifically for a
movie. [read more ...]
The musical "South Pacific" began when Joshua Logan
and Leland Hayward purchased the rights to James
Michener's novel, "Tales of the South Pacific." They
then asked Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II
to write the music and book for the play. Rodgers and
Hammerstein agreed, but Hammerstein asked Logan, who
had served in WW II, to help write the book. Next,
the decision was made to hire Ezio Pinza and Mary
Martin to play the lead roles of Emile de Becque and
Nellie Forbush. [read more ...]
A year after "South Pacific" opened on Broadway, Rodgers and Hammerstein II
wrote "The King and I." The play was based on the
memoirs of Anna Leonowens who, in the 1860s, was
the teacher of the King of Siam's children. [read more ...]
Frederick Loewe and Alan Jay Lerner wrote several
musicals, but they are best known for their highly
successful play, "My Fair Lady." Lerner and Loewe are
the only composing team that wrote the scores for two
movie musicals that won the Academy Award for Best
Picture - "Gigi"
in 1958 and "My Fair Lady"
in 1964. [read more ...]
Four years after their success with "Brigadoon," Alan
Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe created the musical
"Paint Your Wagon." Although the score included some
good songs, the play was not too successful, running
for only 289 performances on Broadway. The
choreography for the Broadway version of
"Paint Your
Wagon"
was developed by Agnes de Mille. [read more ...]
In 1960, after the enormous success of "My Fair
Lady," the Lerner and Loewe musical
"Camelot"
opened on Broadway. The play, based on the T.H.
White book, "The Once and Future King," about the
legendary King Arthur and his kingdom of Camelot,
had a long history before making its way to
Broadway. Tryouts started in Toronto and the
original play was so long that evening
performances ended long after most people's
bedtime. It was cut by an hour and a half before
it went to Boston and additional numbers were cut
prior to the Broadway opening. [read more ...]
In the mid-1960s, a new composing team,
John Kander
and Fred Ebb,
were starting to make their mark on Broadway. From
1966 to 1975, the team created five Broadway
musicals, including two that eventually became
successful movie musicals.
Kander and Ebb's first play in 1965, "Flora The Red
Menace," was a flop, playing for only 87
performances. I saw the play in previews and the only
thing I remember about it was its one redeeming
feature - it starred a new, young actress-singer who
would shake up Broadway. Liza Minnelli, the
extraordinarily talented daughter of Judy Garland,
made her Broadway debut in the lead role. The part
earned Minnelli a Tony award and started a long
career for her, including several more musicals with
Kander and Ebb. [read more ...]
In 1975, the same year as their successful Broadway
musical, "Chicago, "John Kander
and Fred Ebb wrote
part of the score to the Barbra Streisand film,
"Funny Lady." The film was a sequel to "Funny
Girl" and it was a moderate success. One of Kander
and Ebb's songs from the film, "How Lucky Can You Get?,"
was nominated for an Academy Award. The best songs
in the film, however, were older songs not written
by Kander and Ebb. [read more ...]
