Rodgers & Hammerstein 101
OLLI Fall Semester 2019 • Alan Teasley, Instructor
Class 6 • Allegro (1947), Me & Juliet (1953), and Pipe Dream
(1957)
A Grand Night for Singing (1993)
Act 1 Closing Medley: • “That’s The Way It Happens”
(Me and Juliet) • “All At Once You Love
Her” (Pipe Dream) • “Some Enchanted
Evening” (South Pacific)
R&H Chronology
1943 Oklahoma! 1945 Carousel 1947 Allegro 1949 South Pacific
1951 The King and I 1953 Me and Juliet 1945 Pipe Dream
Today’s Focus: 3 Problematic Shows
1947 Allegro 1953 Me and Juliet 1945 Pipe Dream
Me and Juliet (1953)
• Source: Original “backstage” musical comedy, book by
Hammerstein
• Set: Jo Mielziner (85 tons!) • Director: George Abbott •
Dances/Musical Staging: Robert Alton • Cast: Isabel Bigley, Bill
Hayes, Joan
McCracken, Ray Walston • Ran 500 performances, including a
brief Chicago run. No revival.
Me and Juliet: Songs
• “That’s the Way It Happens” • “Marriage Type Love” • “Keep It
Gay” • “No Other Love” • “The Big Black Giant • “Intermission Talk”
• “We Deserve Each Other”
Pipe Dream (1955)
• Source: John Steinbeck’s novel Sweet Thursday
• Book: Oscar Hammerstein II • Set: Jo Mielziner • Director:
Harold Clurman • Dances/Musical Staging: Boris Runanin • Cast:
Helen Traubel, William Johnson,
Judy Tyler, Mike Kellin, G. D. Wallace • Ran 246 performances.
No tour; no
revival (“Encores” staging in 2012)
Pipe Dream: Songs
• “All Kinds of People” • “Everybody’s Got a Home But Me” •
“Sweet Thursday” • “All At Once You Love Her” • “The Next Time It
Happens”
Pipe Dream: “Encores” Production, 2012
• Will Chase (Doc) • Laura Osnes (Suzy) • Leslie Uggams (Fauna)
• Tom Wopat (Mac) • Stephen Wallem (Hazel)
Allegro (1947)
• Source: Book by Oscar Hammerstein II • Set: Jo Mielziner •
Director/Choreographer: Agnes
DeMille • Cast: John Battles, Roberta Jonay,
Lisa Kirk, & large chorus • Ran 9 months on Broadway.
Brief
tour; no London run. 2014 Off-Broadway production.
Allegro: Songs
• “One Foot, Other Foot” • “A Fellow Needs a Girl” • “So Far” •
“You Are Never Away” • “The Gentleman Is A Dope” • “Allegro”
Allegro: First Complete Recording, 2012
• Nathan Gunn (Dr. Joseph Taylor) • Audra McDonald (Marjorie
Taylor) • Marni Nixon (Grandma Taylor) • Laura Benanti (Jennie
Brinker) • Patrick Wilson (Joseph Taylor, Jr.) • Norbert Leo Butz,
Judy Kuhn, Danny
Burstein, Liz Callaway, Stephen Sondheim
• Original orchestrations, dance & vocal arrangements
Photo by W. Eugene Smith for Life
