The collaboration between Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein was one of the most successful in the history of Broadway theatre and was comparable in many ways to the one between Gilbert and Sullivan in Britain.

They first met while Hammerstein was a student at Columbia University and Rodgers was in high school. When Rodgers got to Columbia they worked together on some college shows but did not collaborate professionally until Rodgers was forty and Hammerstein was forty-seven. They had remained friends in the interim but were not close.

With the failing health of Hart, Rodgers was looking for a new partner. He did not formerly split with Hart but visited Hammerstein and told him of his dilemma. They discussed possibilities, and Green Grow the Lilacs was suggested to them. They agreed to collaborate on it, and the resulting Oklahoma made theatrical history.

For a while both Rodgers and Hammerstein continued to work with others but, after Hart's death, they could work together freely. They produced Carousel (1945) and the film State Fair (1945). They also became business partners forming their own music publishing company and were theatrical producers. Among their other collaborations were South Pacific (1949), The King and I (1951), Flower Drum Song (1958) and The Sound of Music (1959). From beginning they worked well together; Hammerstein was very different from the erratic Hart.

Hammerstein wrote the lyrics, like Gilbert singing his own tunes to them. When he felt they were polished enough, he sent them to Rodgers to be set to music. They made all their decisions on the basis of what they wanted and hoped the public would also want it. They wished to get away from traditional boy-girl themes, and write musical plays rather than the then prevailing musical comedies, and they used a more traditional orchestra and classically trained dancers for their ballets.

Like Gilbert and Sullivan, while they worked harmoniously together and were congenial, they were never close and had very different temperaments. Some of the things said about them:

Hammerstein was the big boy who is a softy and Rodgers the small guy who is tough.

Hammerstein was a huge, gangling, six-foot-one, two hundred-pound hulk of calmness. Rodgers appeared normal compared to Hart but compared to Hammerstein was like a seething volcano. However, on opening nights Hammerstein is the jittery one.

Although they worked very well together neither ever felt he knew the other.

Sondheim said Hammerstein was "a man of limited ability and infinite soul" and Rodgers was "a man of infinite ability and limited soul".

In spite of their differences, they became the most successful partnership in Broadway history and also spent a great deal of time in Hollywood. Producers as well as writers, they were the main shareholders in the biggest shows of their time including many works by others as well as their own. No one could recall their having disagreed on anything, from the booking of a theatre to the casting of a walk-on. They held frequent auditions and awarded scholarships to music students, encouraging them to go into theatre. They also had a London producing firm, a publishing house (Williamson Music after both their fathers) and a motion picture company. Incidentally both had wives name Dorothy who were designers.

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Revised June 2009
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