All tagged Rodgers & Hart
The composing team of Rodgers and Hart had more than their share of hits throughout their prolific career as composer and lyricist (respectively) writing for the musical theatre. One of their bigger successes was the 1938 musical I Married an Angel, which was adapted from a Hungarian play called Angyalt Vettem Felesegul by János Vaszary. For I Married an Angel, the duo took the responsibility for writing the show’s book, a task they traditionally (but not always) turned over to the likes of George Abbott or Herbert Fields.
Rodgers and Hart musicals always included a delicious sense of fun and their 1938 comedy The Boys from Syracuse was no exception. Based on William Shakespeare’s 1594 play (his shortest) The Comedy of Errors, The Boys from Syracuse features one of Rodgers and Hart’s most-enduring score with such gems as “Falling in Love with Love,” “Sing for Your Supper,” “This Can’t Be Love” and “What Do You Do with a Man” as standouts.
There is something about the coming of spring, the earthen smell in the air and the flowers poised to bloom, that puts me in the mood for the songs of Rodgers and Hart. There is a loveliness and gaiety that I associate with their music that comes to life right around the time the earth does. Spring is all about pastoral beauty and romance, something that Rodgers and Hart deal with in spades. Today’s blog is simply a celebration of the ten Rodgers and Hart songs that put the “spring” in my step, the ditties that won’t seem to leave my brain until July.
You would have to be burrowed away in an artistic hibernation if you haven’t noticed a little musical quietly tip-toe to Broadway this season called Hamilton. Yes, I know that there hasn’t been much buzz around this show, so you are sure to have missed it. I am telling you though, it is there and this little sleeper is bound to catch on. To get you up to speed, Lin-Manuel Miranda, who also gave us the musical In the Heights, assembled this musical which tells the story of our forefather Alexander Hamilton (who is perhaps most-notable for his establishment of the US Banking system as Secretary of the Treasury). He took his inspiration from the biography written by Ron Chernow.
