All tagged Vivienne Segal
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.
The composing team of Rodgers and Hart had a reputation for putting together fun and witty musical comedies. Rodgers’ music sparkled with infectious melody while Hart’s lyrics were clever and bursting with wild use of rhyme. It wasn’t until their 1940 collaboration of the musical Pal Joey that the team ventured into edgier territory. Based on John O’Hara’s series of short stories that were published in The New Yorker, Pal Joey is both the crowning achievement of the duo’s partnership and a benchmark in advancement of serious musical theatre storytelling.
There are many great lyricists to celebrate throughout the history of Broadway: Sondheim for his complexity and deep understanding of character development, Porter for his sparkling wit and his wizardry with internal rhyme, E.Y. Harburg with his subtly subversive whimsy, Ira Gershwin for his sophistication, and of course Dorothy Fields for her bold, realistic characterizations. Still, I have always been partial to Lorenz Hart who could marry all of the above with an ease and smoothness that elevate the song to greatness without drawing attention to itself. In other words, it is natural. A Hart lyric glides, flows and illuminates.
