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.