"Rodgers and Hammerstein affected American culture by making musical theatre a piece of American culture. The importance of musicals to popular culture today throughout the world is in large part due to the legacy that they left." —Megan Sanborn Jones
Rodgers and Hammerstein left a legacy in musical theatre through trying new things and succeeding. Their legacy also is witnessed by the fact that most Americans have at least heard of their songs. Rodgers and Hammerstein were brave enough to do hard things. They shaped American culture and left a legacy of the theatre we all love today.
"The Rodgers and Hammerstein Archives of the Recorded Sound of the New York Public Library is one of the richest resources of recorded sound in the world. The aural landscape that helps define a community, a country, or a cultural era can be studied through the Archives' extraordinary holdings." —New York Public Library
"The Rodgers and Hammerstein Archives of the Recorded Sound of the New York Public Library is one of the richest resources of recorded sound in the world. The aural landscape that helps define a community, a country, or a cultural era can be studied through the Archives' extraordinary holdings." —New York Public Library
![Picture](/uploads/4/4/1/0/44103377/162987483.jpg?316)
“When Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II began their eighteen-year partnership as show writers in 1942, the field in which they worked was generally called musical comedy. By the time their collaboration ended with Hammerstein's death, it was more often referred to as musical theater. What brought about the change was primarily the body of work they created in the interim and the decisive influence it had on Broadway culture. In fact, their work is frequently seen in terms of a revolution in the form and function of the American musical-one that turned the book into the governing principle of a show, and one that was fought and largely won under the banner of what Hammerstein called ‘the musical play.’” —Larry Stempel
Rodgers and Hammerstein left a legacy by:
“I want everything I do to make some contribution, no matter how small, to push out the theatre’s walls a bit further. The past is helpful, but no production ever succeeds by looking over it’s shoulder.” —Richard Rodgers
|