Join the Museum this Saturday November 9 at 2:00PM for a free lecture on the Rodgers and Hammerstein Era: Reinventing Musical ...Theater, by Marc Courtade.
Beginning with 1943's "Oklahoma!", Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II changed the face of American musical theater. Has musical comedy evolved since, and is it still a measure of American society? One of theater's most successful creative teams, Rodgers and Hammerstein incorporated dance and music smoothly into the fabric of the plot, using them to propel the story to its conclusion. Their works also captured an idealized image of America and Americans. The Rodgers and Hammerstein model proved to be versatile, and allowed them to explore topics that were not the usual fare for the Broadway musical-going public. Using musical examples, we will explore these various Broadway musicals, and analyze their similarities and differences in styles, as well as how they reflect American culture.
This lecture is free and open to the public. It is made possible through Speakers in the Humanities, a program of the New York Council for the Humanities. Speakers in the Humanities lectures are made possible with the support of the National Endowment for the Humanities
