Rodgers & Hammerstein 
and more!

Songs from the Golden Age of Broadway from 

Saturday, May 7, 2005 @ 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, May 8 @ 2:30 p.m.

St. Augustine High School 
Center for the Performing Arts

Martha McKie, Accompanist

Westside Story Medley – St. Augustine High School Show Choir
 September, 1957 * Music - Leonard Bernstein * Lyrics - Stephen Sondheim

Alexandra Altiero   David Gaona     Stephanie Philips   Morgane Van Waeyenberge Justin Carter       Andy Garris       Felicia Proia         Alicia Wages
Cassie Conrad      Amanda LeBlanc   Collin Roth          Victoria Ward
Gary Cumpton      Joshua Longstreet   Justin Schenk   Brittany Williams
Chris Daniels              Zachary Longstreet   Allie Schmidt         Alicia Day          
Raquel Lopez        Samantha Smith        Lindsey Ferguson       Grace Miller       
Mark Staver        Jule Nelson-Duac   Tiffany Usina 

South Pacific (1949)
Bali Hai – Karen Adair, soprano
Some enchanted evening – David Stork, baritone
I’m gonna wash that man right out of my hair – Kris Kelly, soprano
Younger than springtime – Sean Stork, baritone

Oklahoma!  (1943)
Oh, what a beautiful morning – Weyman Hudgins, tenor
Many a new day – Rosemary Burns-Kerr, soprano
I cain’t say no – Jule Nelson-Duac, soprano

Fiddler on the Roof Medley – St. Augustine High School Show Choir
1964 *  Music – Jerry Bock * Lyrics – Sheldon Harnick * Based on stories of Sholem Aleichem
 If I were a rich man – David Stork
Far from the home I love – Morgane Van Waeyenbergh, soprano

Showboat
 1927 * Music – Jerome Kern * Lyrics – Oscar Hammerstein II
Make Believe – Roger Geronimo, tenor, & Jule Nelson-Duac

Flower Drum Song    (1958)
Love, look away – Karen Adair

State Fair   (1945)
It’s a grand night for singing – Regina Torres, mezzo-soprano, David Stork & company
It might as well be spring – Dan Kerr, tenor & Rosemary Burns-Kerr

Carousel   (1945)
Soliloquy – Weyman Hudgins
If I loved you – Alicia Day, mezzo-soprano & Sean Stork
You’ll never walk alone – David Stork & Company 

INTERMISSION 

The King and I   (1951)
Hello, young lovers – Alicia Day
I have dreamed – Jennifer Levoy, soprano & Roger Geronimo

Pipe Dream    (1955)
All at once you love her – Dan Kerr

Cinderella   (1957)
In my own little corner – Erin Stillson, soprano
A lovely night – Erin Stillson
Stepsisters’ lament – Regina Torres & Kris Kelly

Porgy and Bess   
1934 * Music – George Gershwin * Based on a novel by Dubose Heyward
Summertime – Barbara Norris, soprano
My man’s gone now – Barbara Norris

The Sound of Music   (1959)
Nuns’ chorus – Soloist – Regina Torres
Chorus:  Barbara Norris, Lindsey Ferguson, Rosemary Burns-Kerr, Karen Adair,
Kris Kelly, Morgane Van Waeyenberghe, Erin Stillson, Alicia Day,
Jule Nelson-Duac, Alexandra Altiero
My favorite things – Kris Kelly
Do, Re, Mi – Lindsey Ferguson
Climb every mountain – Regina Torres & Company

NOTES ON RODGERS & HAMMERSTEIN

     Richard Rodgers (1902–1979) and Oscar Hammerstein II (1895–1960) formed one of the most successful and creative teams in American musical theater history. Rodgers wrote the music, and Hammerstein wrote the lyrics. Prior to their collaboration, musicals were mainly songs and comedy, with little plot. The songs usually had little to do with the story. One of the first musicals to have songs that related to a meaningful plot was Showboat. The story is based on a novel by Edna Ferber. With music by Jerome Kern and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, it opened in 1927.
     OKLAHOMA! (1943), the first Rodgers & Hammerstein musical, was also the first of a new genre, the musical play, representing a unique fusion of Rodgers' musical comedy and Hammerstein's operetta. A milestone in the development of the American musical, it was followed by CAROUSEL (1945), ALLEGRO (1947), SOUTH PACIFIC (1949), THE KING AND I (1951), ME AND JULIET (1953), PIPE DREAM (1955), FLOWER DRUM SONG (1958) and THE SOUND OF MUSIC (1959). The team wrote one movie musical, STATE FAIR (1945), and one for television, CINDERELLA. (1957). Collectively, the Rodgers & Hammerstein musicals earned 34 Tony Awards, 15 Academy Awards, two Pulitzer Prizes, two Grammy Awards and 2 Emmy Awards. In 1998 Rodgers & Hammerstein were cited by Time Magazine and CBS News as among the 20 most influential artists of the 20th century and in 1999 they were jointly commemorated on a U.S. postage stamp. 
     Oklahoma! is based on a play called Green Grow the Lilacs by Lynn Riggs. Its songs either help move the plot along or help the audience understand the characters. The story is partly fun, but it has a serious side too. That is because Rodgers’ background was mostly in the old-style, "fun" musicals, while Hammerstein’s background was in opera and operetta—more "serious" types of music. The story of Oklahoma! is about a young woman, Laurey, living in the Oklahoma Territory in the early 1900s. She is in love with a cowboy named Curly. He loves her too, but so does the "bad guy," a hired hand named Jud. Comic characters—Laurey’s friend Ado Annie and her boyfriend, Will Parker—lighten things up a bit. There is tension between Curly and Jud until, in the final scene on Laurey and Curly’s wedding day, Jud starts a fight, falls on his own knife, and is killed. Laurey and Curly get married, and everyone sings the song "Oklahoma," about Oklahoma’s becoming a state.  Audiences loved Oklahoma!. It played on Broadway for 2,248 performances, breaking every record for shows up until that time. The show also won the Pulitzer Prize for drama in 1944.
     Rodgers and Hammerstein’s next big hit was Carousel, in 1945. It had an even more dramatic plot than Oklahoma!. Instead of the usual overture before the show begins, the show opens with the whole cast performing a ballet as the orchestra plays. The best-known song from Carousel is "You’ll Never Walk Alone."
     South Pacific, written in 1949, and based on stories by novelist James A. Michener, is set during World War II. It has the most serious plot of any Rodgers and Hammerstein show because it confronts both war and racism. South Pacific also won the Pulitzer Prize.
     The King and I is about conflicts between cultures. It is based on a true story about Anna Leonowens, an Englishwoman who went to Siam (now called Thailand) to teach the king’s children. Anna finds life in Siam very different from what she is accustomed to, but she and the king come to like each other despite their differences.
     Rodgers and Hammerstein’s final collaboration was The Sound of Music, in 1959. It is also based on a true story, about a young novice nun who becomes the governess for seven children of a widower, Captain Von Trapp. This musical also has a serious side—it is set in the days of Nazi Germany, and the Von Trapp family’s freedom is at stake. The beautiful song "Edelweiss" from The Sound of Music was the last song Rodgers and Hammerstein wrote together. Hammerstein died of cancer on August 23, 1960.
     Most of the musicals of Rodgers and Hammerstein were made into movies and are available on video or DVD. A new production of Oklahoma! opened on Broadway in New York City in March of 2002, just in time to celebrate Richard Rodgers’s one hundredth birthday.

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