HAMMERSTEIN

The librettist and lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II was born in New York City on July 12, 1895, into a family blessed with outstanding theatrical credentials. His grandfather, Oscar Hammerstein I, a German-Jewish immigrant, was an entrepreneur and impresario who bought several theatres in Manhattan and whose operatic productions rivalled those of New York’s Metropolitan Opera. Willie Hammerstein, Oscar’s father, managed New York’s Victoria Theater, and Arthur Hammerstein, his uncle, was a successful Broadway producer.

Despite the theatrical lineage, Oscar initially embarked on a legal career. This proved shortlived, however, and while studying law, the young Hammerstein set about writing lyrics for shows. The lure of showbusiness ultimately proved more appealing, and his Uncle Arthur found him his first theatrical job as an assistant stage manager. After co-writing the lyrics for two musicals, Tickle Me (1920) and Wildflower (1923), Hammerstein collaborated with Rudolf FRIML and scored a Broadway success with Rose Marie (1924). He then teamed up with Jerome KERN for Sunny (1925), and with Otto Harbach and Sigmund Romberg for Desert Song (1927).

His next musical was to prove a milestone. Show Boat (1927) was based on a novel by Edna Ferber about the life of entertainers and the crew of a river-boat. The musical was a huge success, but Hammerstein’s contribution was largely overshadowed by praise for the composer, Jerome Kern. Hammerstein won acclaim the following year, however, for The New Moon (with Harbach and Friml). But it was his partnership with Kern over the next few years that was to produce further hit shows and countless memorable songs.

While Hammerstein’s collaborations with Kern were hugely successful, this was not to prove the most memorable partnership of the lyricist’s career. Returning to Broadway in the early 1940s, after an unsuccessful stint in Hollywood, Hammerstein joined forces with the composer Richard RODGERS. In the 1920s and 1930s, Rodgers had enjoyed a highly successful working relationship with lyricist Lorenz Hart, but as the partnership progressed, Hart’s behaviour had become increasingly erratic. At last, when looking for a collaborator on an adaptation of Lynn Riggs’ play Green Grow the Lilacs, Rodgers turned to Hammerstein. This story of a romance between a farmer’s daughter and a cowboy became the musical Oklahoma! (1943). The show ran for a staggering 2,212 performances and won a Pulitzer Prize.

Oklahoma! was to prove only the first of a string of hit shows for the partnership. The pair’s next major success came with Carousel (1945), which was based loosely on Ferenc Molnár’s Hungarian tragedy. After Allegro (1947), came the Pulitzer-Prize-winning South Pacific (1949). Adapted from stories of James Michener, this tackled the spectre of racial prejudice, just as Show Boat had done in 1927. This was followed in 1951 by The King and I, which told the true story of an English tutor assigned to the court of the King of Siam.

Not all of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s shows were successful during the 1950s, but the constant transferral of their creations into breathtaking widescreen movies made them household names. This trend continued when the pair’s hugely successful final work, The Sound of Music (1959), was later made into one of the most popular film musicals of all time. Hammerstein, however, would not live to see the cinematic version: he died from cancer on August 23, 1960.

The timeless nature of Hammerstein’s material warrants his inclusion in the songbooks of generations of jazz and pop singers, and ensures endless revivals of his shows. He left behind a treasure of unforgettable lyrics, and was a member of not just one, but two of the most important songwriting partnerships in the history of musical theatre.

Jeff Kaliss

OSCAR

HAMMERSTEIN