How to Write Your Very Own Rodgers & Hammerstein Musical (Take 2)

This may sound familiar to people who have been following my blog for a while. A few years ago after watching an Anna Russell sketch in which she details how to write your own Gilbert & Sullivan operetta, I was inspired to write some notes on a similar approach to Rodgers & Hammerstein musicals, as they also have many common threads. After writing my notes on paper, they disappeared. Finally, in 2018, having not found my notes, I wrote what I remembered of them for the All Things Broadway blog. When that blog went down, I reblogged it here. 

I have recently been going through my papers and finally found the notes! So, as I originally intended, I am adapting them here, based on the actual notes and not just my memory of them. I am also incorporating more points that weren't in my notes, but most of the below points were there.

Ezio Pinza, Barbara Luna, Michael or Noel De Leon, Mary Martin,
in the final scene of the original production of South Pacific (1949)

Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein III wrote multiple musicals, many of which went on to be classics. They had a very distinct style, however, and you can generally tell by listening to them that they are Rodgers & Hammerstein. Inspired by Anna Russell's lesson on writing your own Gilbert & Sullivan operetta, I sat down a few years ago to come up with some important elements to remember when writing your own R&H musical. I put examples in as subpoints below. The examples, of course, are not comprehensive lists.

The plot should tackle some controversial subject. For example, The Sound of Music involved Nazis. Carousel and Oklahoma! involved abuse. Carousel involved attempted robbery and suicide. Oklahoma! involved drugs ("Egyptian smelling salts"), which brought on a hallucinogenic dream that turned into a nightmare. Flower Drum Song had a mail-order bride, illegal immigration, and a striptease. South Pacific involved interracial and intercultural romance (which was more controversial at the time than it is now), racism in general, and a major character who killed in self-defense. The King & I involved slavery and a harem.

The overture must be relatively or extremely long. If there is an entr'acte, it should also be long.

There must be some element of love, no matter how far-fetched.

• The lovers must sing a duet in which one of them sings the first verse and then the other sings the first verse nearly verbatim back to them. 
• "Sixteen Going on Seventeen" from The Sound of Music
• "Ten Minutes Ago" and "Do I Love You Because You're Beautiful?" from Cinderella
• "If I Loved You" from Carousel
• "I Have Dreamed" and "We Kiss in a Shadow" from The King & I
• "People Will Say We're in Love" and "All er Nothin' " from Oklahoma!
• The male lover may be a widowed man with children, though the number of children he has varies. 
• Captain Von Trapp in The Sound of Music
• Emile de Becque in South Pacific
• The main female lover may have a quirky friend who is also in love 
• Carrie Pipperidge (friend of Julie Jordan) in Carousel
• Ado Annie Carnes (friend of Laurey Williams) in Oklahoma!
• At least one of the lovers should go through a short period of time when they are, or look like they are, or think they are, in love with someone else. 
• Laurey Williams and Curly McLain/Jud Fry, as well as Ado Annie Carnes and Will Parker/Ali Hakim, in Oklahoma!
• Sammy Fong/Wang Ta and Linda Low/Mei Li (it's complicated) in Flower Drum Song
• Captain Von Trapp and Maria Rainer/Baroness Elsa Schraeder in The Sound of Music
• A pair of lovers should sing a song dreaming about their life together. 
• "An Ordinary Couple" from The Sound of Music
• "Sunday" from Flower Drum Song
• "When the Children Are Asleep" from Carousel
• The lovers don't always have to marry each other, but that is preferable. 
• Some couples marry, though the wedding may or may not be shown onstage:
• Curley and Laurey (Oklahoma!)
• Julie and Billy, Enoch and Carrie (Carousel)
• Maria and the Captain (The Sound of Music)
• Cinderella and the Prince
• Nellie and Emile (South Pacific) are engaged. 
• Things look promising for Ado Annie and Will (Oklahoma!)
• Some couples do not marry, for various reasons:
• Liesl and Rolf (The Sound of Music) 
• Cable and Liat (South Pacific)
• Tuptim and Lun Tha (The King & I).
• One of the lovers may sing a solo love song. 
• "Younger than Springtime" and "I'm in Love with a Wonderful Guy" from South Pacific
• "Mister Snow" from Carousel
• "The Surrey with the Fringe on Top" from Oklahoma!

A hate song is an added bonus. The singer may or may not actually hate, but they would like to think so. 

• "Stonecutters Cut it on Stone" from Carousel
• "I'm Gonna Wash that Man Right Outta My Hair" from South Pacific
• "Many a New Day" from Oklahoma!

In lieu of a hate song, or along with it, the lovers might sing a love song trying to convince each other (or trying to make it look like) they aren't actually in love. 

• "People Will Say We're in Love" from Oklahoma!
• "If I Loved You" from Carousel

There should be a song giving advice about what happy or positive thing to do when experiencing negative feelings. 

• "My Favorite Things" from The Sound of Music
• "I Whistle a Happy Tune" from The King & I
• "You'll Never Walk Alone" from Carousel

A major character may sing a soliloquy, in which he ponders a major decision set before him. His decision at the end of the song determines the course of the rest of his life. He does not survive the show. 

• "Soliloquy" from Carousel
• "Lonely Room" from Oklahoma!

Someone should sing a song trying to convince another character to (or not to) do something. 

• "Happy Talk" from South Pacific
• "Don't Marry Me" from Flower Drum Song
• "Climb Every Mountain" from The Sound of Music

Sometimes, this song has a haunting, wistful melody. 

• "Bali Ha'i" from South Pacific
• "Something Wonderful" from The King & I

There should be at least one song that the whole company (or nearly the whole company) sings, which is accompanied by a dance. 

• "The Farmer and the Cowman" and "Oklahoma!" from Oklahoma!
• "It's a Grand Night for Singing" from State Fair
• "This Was a Real Nice Clambake" and "You'll Never Walk Alone (reprise)" from Carousel

A variation on this would be the company dancing while the two lovers sing their duet to each other, oblivious to the company's presence. 

• "Ten Minutes Ago" and "Do I Love You Because You're Beautiful?" from Cinderella

If the state or territory where the musical is set (if it's set in the US) is important enough to the plot, there must be a song about that state or territory, preferably one which spells out the name of aforementioned state or territory. 

• "Oklahoma!" from Oklahoma!
• "All I Owe Ioway" or "It's the Little Things in Texas" from two versions of State Fair
• "Grant Avenue" (San Francisco, California, USA!) from Flower Drum Song

Characters in the musical may put on a stage production, in some cases a "play within a play." 

• "Honey Bun" in South Pacific
• "Small House of Uncle Thomas" in The King & I
• "Do Re Mi (reprise)" and "Edelweiss" in The Sound of Music
• "Fan Tan Fanny" in Flower Drum Song
• Pretty much the entire plot of Me and Juliet

One group of characters may sing a song about how they don't understand or can't stand another group. It can be men and/or women singing about each other, generations singing about each other, or really any two groups that don't fully understand each other.

• "Stonecutters Cut it on Stone" and "Give it to 'em Good, Carrie" from Carousel
• "Many a New Day" and "It's a Scandal! It's a Outrage!" from Oklahoma!
• "The Other Generation" from Flower Drum Song

An instrumental break accompanied by a dreamy ballet is a plus. This is very important to the plot.

• Oklahoma!
• Carousel
• Flower Drum Song

A major character may teach another character a dance.

• "Laendler" from The Sound of Music
• "Shall We Dance?" from The King and I

Upon thinking they have lost the love of their life, a lover sings a lament about what they believe they have lost. It generally turns out all right.

• "Geraniums in the Window" from Carousel
• "This Nearly Was Mine" from South Pacific
• "Love, Look Away" from Flower Drum Song

The musical should include the word "dope" (as in, foolish person) in there somewhere. 

• "Marry a dope, innocent and gaga" from Flower Drum Song
• "The gentleman is a dope" from Allegro
• "I sit around and mope, pretending I am wonderful, and knowing I'm a dope" from State Fair
• "I'm stuck like a dope with a thing called hope" from South Pacific
• "Because these daft and dewy-eyed dopes keep building up impossible hopes, impossible things are happening every day" from Cinderella

Something should also be "cockeyed" (askew or quirky). 

• "I'm only a cockeyed optimist" from South Pacific
• "While somersaulting at a cockeyed angle, we make a cockeyed circle round the sun" from The Sound of Music)

It may also include the word "gay" (as in happy or fun). 

• "I feel so gay in a melancholy way that it might as well be spring" from State Fair
• "Younger than springtime am I. Gayer than laughter am I." from South Pacific
• "The games they played were bright and gay and loud" from Flower Drum Song
• "Keep it gay" from Me and Juliet

No matter the subject, the finale must be called "Finale Ultimo."

It's an added bonus if your audience has collapsed in tears by the end of "Finale Ultimo."

• Carousel
• South Pacific
• The King & I

I hope this helps get the juices flowing. Have fun with your new R&H show!

How Have Things Changed on Broadway?

For today's installment in the "Days of Yore" series, I'm excited that my friend Michael Kape has graciously agreed to share from his extensive experience onstage, behind the scenes, and as a Broadway critic, to recall ways Broadway has changed over the years. He also founded an amazing group (I may be slightly biased) called Broadway Remembered that he has allowed me to join him in adminning, along with three other fantastic admins. 

So without further ado, here's Michael:

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How Have Things Changed on Broadway?

Nearly 70 Years of Watching

 

Michael Kape

It begins by settling into a cramped seat—taking your time or rushing because you showed up after the show started. And not much has changed—with the seats, that is—in over 100 years. But what about the shows we’re seeing on the stage? Ah, there, at least, we’ve made some progress.

It is nearly impossible to encapsulate everything we’ve seen change over the past several decades. My own time in the theatre extends back only 70 years or so. I can only offer my observations and opinions (and I definitely do have some opinions). So, let me begin by offering a bit of heresy. The 1950s and 1960s were NOT really the so-called Golden Age. Those were good years, of course. But things have changed and improved. It can even be argued shows are better now than they’ve ever been, and they continue to improve. Yes, this is coming from someone who is considered an old fuddy-duddy. We’ll come back to this.

Oddly enough, this all came into focus by viewing a 35-year-old musical recently, one I had always thought was a pinnacle of great direction and design (not great music and definitely not great lyrics). Yeah, we all know the show—Phantom of the Opera.

After 35 years, it’s become old. What was once innovative and thrilling now feels tired and stodgy. I’m not talking about the performers (all great); I’m talking about the staging, the design, the overall feel. What once was exciting seems old hat. Maybe if I hadn’t been exposed to it multiple times when it debuted, I might still be thrilled by a slowly falling chandelier (like really, that can’t be considered a crash, can it?). Oh. Look. That. Chandelier. Is. Creeping. Down. To. The. Stage. In. Slow. Motion. (Cue the quasi-rock music.)

Once upon a time, like 70 years ago, we had a Main Stem bustling with excitement. A constant barrage of new plays and musicals, many of which became classics. But let’s give this golden age some context. Amusement options were fewer. Most of the country derived its entertainment from movies or television—with theatre even then a distant third (though there were more tours treading the boards from Savannah to Seattle). For every My Fair Lady, Broadway offered up a panoply of overnight flops. On the other hand, any show running at least 500 performances was considered a hit; now it hasn’t even begun to repay its investors.

My first real exposure to Broadway happened when I was only three. My late mother, ever the Broadway Baby, bought me Rodgers and Hammerstein for Children, a boxed set of 45s with music from Oklahoma to Pipe Dream (Flower Drum Song and The Sound of Music were still to be written). It was an easy way to introduce musical theatre to budding audiences. We could sing along to Happy Talk or The Gentleman Is a Dope (such a naughty word for us tots!) under the complete cooperation of theatre nerd parents (even my father got into the act by giving me his copy of the printed version of Damon Runyon’s Guys and Dolls—not the musical but the book upon which it’s based). So, I come by my theatre fixation honestly; I was raised that way. My first time on stage (but definitely not my last) was in the title role of The Gingerbread Boy at age six. Every cast album played on the new stereo as soon as it was released. I had the truncated version of Most Happy Fella memorized by age seven. The collection in our home also included South Pacific, Kiss Me Kate (on 45s), West Side Story (I was already a Sondheim fan), The Music Man (which my late sister Anita and I did in 1965), and many more. Of course, I devoured the liner notes for each recording (does anyone else miss those brilliantly written liner notes?) And being a devilish developing theatre nerd, I somehow “appropriated” my mother’s copy of The Complete Words of Gilbert and Sullivan (and I still have it, too).

 

But I digress. (I’m often accused of talking in parentheses to which I plead guilty.)

How have things changed on Broadway over seven decades? Simple. There’s a lot less being done (with far fewer theatres) but what is done is much better. This isn’t to say we didn’t have some great works 70 years ago. We did. The Lerner and Loewe catalog. The Rodgers and Hammerstein library (except for maybe Pipe Dream and Me and Juliet—what were they thinking?). Candide (yes, I know it was a flop but has there ever been a finer overture?). 

Then the so-called Golden Age gave way to something better. Concept. Shows like Cabaret. The whole Sondheim collection. Lloyd-Webber and Rice (when they worked together; we won’t discuss Cats). The mega-musicals. Better librettos. Much better design (have you ever looked at how cheap those Golden Age musicals looked?) and lighting (the current Phantom lighting looks so cheap and meh compared to what’s available now).

We expect (and get) more from Broadway now. Yet as the saying goes, you can’t hum the scenery. Yes, the set, lighting, and sound have all taken giant leaps in the past 70 years or so, but are the stories being told any better? That all depends on how they’re being told. Case in point (for me) is Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman. I know, I know, the great American tragedy. But it’s always felt like a product of its time. (Sorry, that’s just how I felt about it.) Could we really identify with Willy Loman 70 years later? I know I couldn’t—until I saw the new production on Broadway recently. The play had been reimagined, reconsidered, refocused. Now, at long last, it felt relevant again. And that’s what great theatre is supposed to do—challenge what we thought we knew and take us in an entirely different direction. On the other hand, I know many theatre companies across the country (and a few in New York City) work on slavishly recreating original productions. We can see The King and I still faithfully reproduced in any number of places (I’m not referring to the last production) as if it was a museum piece. No thought. No imagination. Even the sets are from 1951!

After all this, I’m sure some of you are wondering what could ever qualify me to write about nearly 70 years of going to Broadway? Not a helluva lot, actually (gotta be honest here). But having been given this platform to speak, I’m taking advantage of it. But in that time, I’ve been an actor, director, designer, producer, stagehand, playwright, and (much to my eternal shame) a critic (seven years on the Dark Side). And one other credit on that list—one of the brave souls administering Broadway Remembered, an aptly named group all things considered. We remember and we celebrate. And we educate because there’s still a lot of people to learn. Consider the following overheard very recently on 45^th Street and Shubert Alley: “The Booth Theatre—is that where Lincoln was shot?”

Yeah, we have a lot of educating left to do and plenty to remember.

Writing Your Very Own Rodgers & Hammerstein Musical

September 3, 2018

Several years ago, I watched a monologue by Anna Russell giving detailed instructions on writing your very own Gilbert & Sullivan operetta. She had much of the plot worked out for hers, detailing the exploits of the lovely maid Pneumonia. There was a patter song and a contralto involved. She observed that most of Gilbert & Sullivan’s operettas were basically the same, with all the same elements.

It got me thinking… Rodgers & Hammerstein were another classic pair of composers. They also had similarities in style and story elements in all or most of their musicals. A few years ago (more recently than when I watched Anna Russell), I wrote some tips on writing your own Rodgers & Hammerstein musical. Unfortunately, I don’t know where I put it, but I remember enough that I think I can recreate it from memory (all alone in the moonlight… oh wait, wrong composer).

First of all, the music. Your Rodgers & Hammerstein musical must have the same style as every other Rodgers & Hammerstein musical. It can have varieties in instruments (for example, The King & I uses a Thai-sounding style, and The Sound of Music involves yodeling), but the songs from one musical to another must sound like they could easily be from the same musical. 

The plot. Your Rodgers & Hammerstein musical must involve a somewhat controversial plot. South Pacific addresses interracial relationships (more controversial at the time than it is now), racism and a “good” character who had to flee for his life because he killed a man. Flower Drum Song involves a mail-order bride. Oklahoma! sees a main character taking a hallucinogen, and also involves abuse and a fight to the death. Carousel also addresses abuse, adding murder and stealing to the mix. The King & I involves slavery, a harem, and violent punishment (although Tuptim being whipped was less violent than the real story, in which she fled the palace, posed as a monk, and was subsequently beheaded). The Sound of Music involves Nazis.

The vocabulary. There are certain words that must be used in your Rodgers & Hammerstein musical:

Cockeyed. This can mean crooked, askew or absurd.

Examples:
“They call me a cockeyed optimist.” (South Pacific)
“While somersaulting at a cockeyed angle, we make a cockeyed circle round the sun.” (The Sound of Music)

Dope. This is the older definition of the word, as in a silly or stupid person.

Examples:
“I’m stuck like a dope with a thing called hope.” (South Pacific)
“I sit around and mope, pretending I am wonderful and knowing I’m a dope.” (State Fair)
“The gentleman is a dope!” (Allegro)
“The world is full of zanies and fools who don't believe in sensible rules, who don't believe what sensible people say, and because those daft and dewy-eyed dopes keep building up impossible hopes, impossible things are happening every day!” (Cinderella)

Gay. Again, this is an older definition of the word, as in happy or fun.

Examples:
“I feel so gay in a melancholy way that it might as well be spring.” (State Fair)
“Younger than springtime am I. Gayer than laughter am I.” (South Pacific)
“The games they played were bright and gay and loud! They used to shout, ‘Red Rover! Red Rover, please come over!’” (Flower Drum Song)

Louise. It is important for a character to be named Louise or a variant on that. Julie Bigelow names their daughter Louise in Carousel. Anna’s son in The King & I was Louis. When writing The Sound of Music, none of the children’s names were anywhere similar. We can’t have that! The solution was to change the names of all seven children so that one of them could be named Luisa. (I’m more inclined to believe that their names were changed because the real “Luisa” was named Maria, and that could lead to confusion in the storytelling. It caused enough confusion when she died a couple years ago, and a lot of people thought it was a different Maria von Trapp who died. I’m not sure why they changed the names, but that’s my theory.)

The haunting plea. In South Pacific, Bloody Mary decides that Lt. Joe Cable would make a great husband for her daughter Liat, and thus expounds on the virtues of her island “Bali Ha’i” to him. The tune is slow and haunting. In The King & I, Lady Thiang realizes that Anna is the only person who can help the King in his current predicament, but as Anna is currently angry with the King, Lady Thiang sings a haunting ballad about how the King can be infuriating at times, but sometimes he can do “Something Wonderful.”

The advice. In The King & I, Anna advises Louis to “Whistle a Happy Tune” when he is afraid. In The Sound of Music, Maria reveals her strategy in a similar situation is to think about “My Favorite Things.”

The lovers. Their song(s) must start with one lover singing a verse. Then the other lover must repeat back almost verbatim what the first lover sang. Certain adjustments are all right. For example, “You are sixteen going on seventeen” in the first verse becomes “I am sixteen going on seventeen” for the second verse. Sometimes the verses are almost completely identical. For example, “I Have Dreamed” and “We Kiss in a Shadow” from The King & I, “Do I Love You Because You’re Wonderful?” and “Ten Minutes Ago” from Cinderella. The Sound of Music mixes this one up a bit with the song “How Can Love Survive,” as the duet is about the lovers, but only one of the lovers in question is actually singing. Interestingly, that love does not survive, as the Captain later realizes that the Baroness is far too willing to compromise on important matters. Flower Drum Song flips the formula, in which two characters try to convince the other: “Don’t Marry Me!”

Denial. In Oklahoma!, Curly and Laurey give each other advice on how to behave, as they aren’t willing to admit publicly that they’re dating. They worry that “People Will Say We’re in Love,” so they decide to pretend they are not. In Carousel, Billy and Julie (played by the same actors as the previous couple in the classic movies) aren’t willing to admit to each other, let alone publicly, that they’re in love, so they tell each other what they would do “If I Loved You.” It just so happens that what they sing about doing is exactly what they are doing. They end up not verbalizing their love for each other until it’s too late. (“Make Believe” from Show Boat also fits in this category, and that musical was by Oscar Hammerstein, though he composed it with Jerome Kern rather than Richard Rodgers.)

The breakup. At least one of the lovers decides they can’t go forward in this relationship. After learning of his children by a Polynesian woman in South Pacific, Nellie decides she cannot get past that and resolves to “Wash that Man Right Out of My Hair.” Emile quickly manages to help her get over her racist attitude, and that resolution falls flat. In The Sound of Music, Maria counsels Liesl what to do when she realizes that Rolf doesn’t love her as much as she thought, in “Sixteen Going on Seventeen (Reprise).” (Again, Show Boat fits into this category, as Gaylord Ravenal leaves and Magnolia must raise their daughter on her own. He eventually returns, but their daughter has grown up by then.) The breakup sometimes leads to the women singing about their frustrations with men and marriage. “Give It to ’Em Good, Carrie!”, “Stonecutters Cut It on Stone”, “Many a New Day”. These songs often don’t work to convince her to foreswear her love. Either the lovers get back together, or they never stopped loving each other in the first place and were just in denial or pretending.

The soliloquy. A character should ponder their options, as they have a difficult choice ahead of them. In his “Lonely Room” in Oklahoma!, Jud Fry considers how to proceed in his relationship with Laurey and resulting rivalry with Curly, having just been taunted and threatened by Curly. Jud’s decision ultimately leads to his death. In Carousel, Billy Bigelow walks along the beach singing his “Soliloquy” dreaming about his child and pondering how he is going to provide for him or her. Again, his decision ends up resulting in his death. On the other hand, the “Twin Soliloquys” in South Pacific combine the love song and soliloquy. Nellie and Emile are pondering their options related to their budding romance. They sing nearly verbatim what the other person sings, but they are pondering these things to themselves rather than singing to each other. Unlike the lone soliloquys mentioned above, their decisions do not end up in their deaths. Another variation is near the beginning of the musical, as the character sings a soliloquy about their current situation, such as “In My Own Little Corner” from Cinderella and “It Might as Well Be Spring” from State Fair.

The ballet. Carousel, Oklahoma! and Flower Drum Song have dreamy ballets. The one in Oklahoma! is particularly important to the plot, as it helps Laurey realize the extent of the danger she is in from Jud’s abuse.

Careful, awkward wording. A character is put in an awkward situation where they must word their requests very carefully. In South Pacific, Nellie is set the task of asking Emile why he killed a man. This is a red flag in the mission the US army has in mind for him, and they need to be sure he is trustworthy. But for Nellie, who has feelings for Emile, she doesn’t want to damage their relationship, and she can’t reveal why she is asking. In The King & I, Anna must give the King advice without seeming to. She resorts to “guessing” what the King is going to do, thus preventing an international incident. In Cinderella, the title character tells her stepfamily about the “Lovely Night” she just had at the ball, but can’t reveal that she was actually there. So she acts like she’s dreaming about how it would have been had she gone.

Singing about the location of the musical. Oklahoma! has an enthusiastic song about the virtues of their territory that will soon be “a brand new state!” State Fair has a similarly enthusiastic song about “All I Owe Ioway.” In both of these examples, they spell out the name of their state/territory in the song. When State Fair was revamped and reset in Texas, “All I Owe Ioway” was replaced with “The Little Things in Texas.” The similar tribute in The Sound of Music doesn’t mention Austria by name, but “Edelweiss” does ask to “bless my homeland forever.” Flower Drum Song gets very specific with its song about “Grant Avenue, San Francisco, California, USA!”

The smaller story within the story. Characters tell a story. Sometimes they reenact it. Tuptim composes a play called Small House of Uncle Thomas, based on the classic novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin, in The King & I. Maria and the children sing the story of “The Lonely Goatherd” (using marionettes in the movie, but not in the stage version) in The Sound of Music. We learn (very briefly) about “Fan Tan Fanny” in Flower Drum Song.

The big dance. This is different from the ballet. It is much more enthusiastic, and is accompanied by a song sung partially or entirely by the full company. I’m talking “The Farmer and the Cowman” (Oklahoma!) “It’s a Grand Night for Singing” (State Fair), and others

The finale. No matter the subject matter, the title of the song must be “Finale Ultimo.” While not necessary, it is a good idea to have the audience incredibly moved at this point. They could be grieving a lost main character. Maybe the wedding was just that powerful. It could be any variety of reasons.

I hope this gets your creative juices going, and I look forward to seeing everyone’s Rodgers & Hammerstein musicals on Broadway someday!

Steven Sauke grew up watching Rodgers & Hammerstein musicals. He has performed in two of them.

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This is a reblog of a post I wrote in 2018 for the All Things Broadway blog, which is no longer online.