RODGERS AND HART

New Zealand Listener, Volume 36, Issue 924, 26 April 1957, Page 7

RODGERS AND HART

ODGERS to day is almost inevitably followed by Hammerstein in the speech of enthusiasts for American musicals, but some 15 years ago it was Rodgers and Hart who wowed the audiences, On Saturday, May 4, Theatre of Music will include a quarter-hour of their lesser-known songs. There are plenty of shows from which to choose them, for in a partnership of 25 years their output included 25 musicals in New York, three in London, one nonmusical play, some 30 songs in nine motion pictures, and "Blue Moon," their only popular song not included in a play or a film. Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart began writing together in 1918, when a friend introduced them, At that time Hart, seven years older than Rodgers, had a job translating treacly German operas. Rodgers later wrote, describing their first meeting: "He was violent on the subject of rhyming in songs, feeling that the public was capable of understanding better things than the current monosyllabic juxtaposition of ‘mush’ and ‘slush.’ It made good sense and I was enchanted by this little man and his ideas. I left Hart’s house having acquired in one afternoon a career, a partner, a best friend, and a source of permanent irritation." The new partners worked on songs for shows, mostly amateur, and scores for several varsity shows at Columbia University, until in 1925 they joined with junior. members of the Theatre Guild to write The Garrick Gaieties. This show, that was scheduled for two performances to raise money for some tapestries, ran for a year, until its successor was ready. Many years later, when the partners were at an opening night at the Guild Theatre, Hart nudged his partner, "See those tapestries, Dick? We're responsible for them." "Hell," replied Rodgers, "they're responsible for us!" From this time there were many Broadway successes, four and five shows in a year, with runs of up to 400 performances. The introduction of the talking film took them to Hollywood, and in spite of an early satire they did on that city, they returned to write songs for many films, including those Bing Crosby crooned in Mississippi. Rodgers and Hart were always very particular about the way their songs were interpreted, and they insisted upon supervising all their compositions when they were first presented. For one film number which they wrote in New York, they had a film made of the authorised interpretation and flown to Hollywood. Their later major successes were On Your Toes, Babes in Arms, I Married an Angel and By Jupiter-their show which had the most performances. This was about virile Amazon women and their effete consorts. In 1943 they wrote six new songs for a revival of A Connecticut Yankee, Eight days after the show opened the partnership came to an end. Hart died in hospital'of pneumonia. The critics and audiences had been enthusiastic about their work. They had brought. fresh and unhackneyed treatments of stories, charming scores and ingenious lyrics. Irving Berlin’s tribute to the partnership was: Tuneful and _ tasteful, Schmaltzy and smart, Music by Rodgers, Lyrics by Hart.

The first part of Theatre of Music on May 6 will be selections from two operettas by Franz Lehar, The Land of Smiles and Paganini. These operettas have little in common with the contemporary musical comedy. They are close relatives of the Italian opera buffa, the comic operas of Auber and Offenbach, and the Gilbert and Sullivan Savoy operas. These two works have charming stories. The Land of Smiles is China, to which a Viennese beauty goes with her Chinese husband and a Viennese admirer. There differences in outlook make her unhappy, and eventually ‘she returns to Europe. The music is part-Vien-nese and part based on delightful Chinese melodies, comparable with those of Sullivan and Puccini. Paganini tells of a brief interlude in the life of the great violinist. For these selections of some of the most memorable songs, the Vienna Light Opera Company is directed by Franz Sandauer.