The Men Behind the Musicals
By Mae Klingler

RODGERS AND HAMMERSTEIN
Lyricist/librettist Richard Rodgers and composer Oscar Hammerstein II, often hailed as the most successful partnership in American musical theatre, created the Broadway hits Oklahoma!, Carousel, South Pacific, The King and I and The Sound of Music. The two have been credited with creating a new musical style – the musical play, fusing Rodgers’ skills in musical comedy and Hammerstein’s operetta expertise. Richard Rodgers is one of only two people to have won an Emmy, a Tony, an Oscar, a Grammy and a Pulitzer Prize.

STEPHEN SONDHEIM
Stephen Sondheim, often described as one of the most accomplished and influential composers and lyricists in Broadway history, was abandoned by his father at the age of 10 and became fast friends with Jimmy Hammerstein, son of famed composer Oscar Hammerstein II. The elder Hammerstein began mentoring Sondheim, often turning his Bucks County, Pennsylvania, kitchen into a veritable musical theatre university. At the age of 25, Sondheim provided the lyrics to Leonard Bernstein’s West Side Story score and, five years later, the music and lyrics to his first Broadway show, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. His sophisticated and complex style has garnered seven Tony Awards – more than any other composer – for Company, Sweeney Todd and A Little Night Music, among others.

JERRY HERMAN
At the behest of his mother, 17-year-old Jerry Herman spent an afternoon with composer Frank Loesser (Guys and Dolls) and immediately thereafter began pursuing a career in songwriting. After graduating from the University of Miami in 1953, Herman composed scores for Hello, Dolly!, Mame and La Cage aux Folles, among many others. His work is honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

ANDREW LLOYD WEBBER
Born to a music scholar and piano teacher, Andrew Lloyd Webber began composing and playing various musical instruments at a very early age. At 19, Webber and lyricist Tim Rice wrote Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Three years later, the duo followed with Jesus Christ Superstar, a rock opera based on the last days of Jesus Christ. Webber has been involved with a string of smash hits, including Evita and Cats, which, at 6,138 performances, held the record for the longest-running musical in Broadway history – only to be eclipsed by another Webber production, The Phantom of the Opera.

KANDER & EBB
Formed in 1962, this songwriting team produced musical hits including Cabaret, Chicago, Fosse and Curtains for more than 40 years. The duo also scored numerous films including New York, New York, featuring Frank Sinatra’s signature song of the same name. Ebb suffered a fatal heart attack in 2004 during the development of Curtains, a show that had already unexpectedly lost both its orchestrator and librettist and is, coincidentally, about a series of deaths that occur during the production of a Broadway musical.

Pictured above from left to right are Rodgers and Hammerstein, Stephen Sondheim, Kander and Ebb, Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber and Jerry Herman.