New Releases by Oscar Hammerstein

Rodgers & Hammerstein''s only musical written directly for the screen is now a stage musical that''s had critics raving from coast to coast. Set against the colorful backdrop of an American heartland tradition, State Fair travels with the Frake family as they leave behind the routine of the farm for three days of adventure at the annual Iowa State Fair. Mom and Pop have their hearts set on blue ribbons, while their children Margy and Wayne find romance and heartbreak on the midway. Set to the magical strains of an Academy Award-winning score and augmented by other titles from the Rodgers and Hammerstein songbook, State Fair is the kind of warm-hearted family entertainment only Rodgers & Hammerstein could deliver! ufeff

Rodgers + Hammerstein''s Cinderella is the new Broadway adaptation of the classic musical. This contemporary take on the classic tale features Rodgers & Hammerstein''s most beloved songs, including "In My Own Little Corner," "Impossible/It''s Possible" and "Ten Minutes Ago," alongside an up-to-date, hilarious and romantic libretto by Tony Award-nominee Douglas Carter Beane. Originally presented on television in 1957 starring Julie Andrews, Rodgers & Hammerstein''s Cinderella was twice remade for television, first in 1965 for Lesley Ann Warren and again in 1997, featuring Brandy and Whitney Houston. The original Broadway production of Rodgers + Hammerstein''s Cinderella opened in 2013 and starred Laura Osnes, Santino Fontana, Victoria Clark and Harriet Harris. Nominee: Nine 2013 Tony Awards, including Best Book of a Musical and Best Revival of a Musical Winner! 2014 Tony Award for Best Costume Design for a Musical Winner! Three 2013 Drama Desk Awards, including Outstanding Orchestrations

The timeless enchantment of a magical fairy tale is reborn with the Rodgers & Hammerstein hallmarks of originality, charm, and elegance. Originally presented on television in 1957 starring Julie Andrews, Rodgers & Hammerstein''s Cinderella was the most widely viewed program in the history of the medium. Its re-creation in 1965 starring Lesley Ann Warren was no less successful in transporting a new generation to the miraculous kingdom of dreams-come-true, and so was a second remake in 1997, which starred Brandy as Cinderella and Whitney Houston as her Fairy Godmother. In 1956 Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II were indisputably the world''s most successful writers of musicals. Julie Andrews was a sparkling new star, having just triumphed in My Fair Lady. When her agent approached Rodgers and Hammerstein and suggested that the television audience would welcome a musical version of "Cinderella," it was an irresistible temptation for all. Everything about the project was right from the start. The CBS production team was quickly assembled. Richard Lewine, a distant cousin of Rodgers and a close friend, was the producer, Ralph Nelson the director. Howard Lindsay and his wife, Dorothy Stickney, were signed for the King and Queen; Jon Cypher played the Prince; the Stepmother and Stepsisters were made less frightening and more comic by Ilka Chase, Kaye Ballard and Alice Ghostley; rather than the standard old crone, the beautiful Edie Adams played the Godmother. Rodgers and Hammerstein approached the story with the honesty and simplicity that characterized all their work. They purposely did not seek to improve a story they felt was dramatically sound, as many writers are prone to do, instead concentrating on bringing the characters to life. Rodgers wrote in his autobiography Musical Stages, "In writing the story and the songs, Oscar and I felt that it was important to keep everything as traditional as possible, without any ''modernizing'' or reaching for psychological significance." When Hammerstein was asked where he found the version of Cinderella story he based his adaptation upon, he answered, "I looked it up in the encyclopedia." The marriage of music, lyrics and story in Cinderella exemplified their artistic philosophy; all elements held together integrally to illuminate the characters. As Rodgers explained, "Although a few of its songs have become popular, our score for Cinderella is another example of what theatre music is really about. No matter what the medium, a score is more than a collection of individual songs. It is, or should be, a cohesive entity whose word and music are believable expressions of the characters singing them...Like a symphony, concerto or opera, some portions have greater appeal than others, but it is the work as a whole that makes the overall impression." Cinderella succeeded. When it was broadcast on March 31, 1957, it was viewed by more people than any other program in the history of television.

The timeless enchantment of a magical fairy tale is reborn with the Rodgers & Hammerstein hallmarks of originality, charm and elegance. Originally presented on television in 1957 starring Julie Andrews, Rodgers & Hammerstein''s Cinderella was the most widely viewed program in the history of the medium. Its recreation in 1965 starring Lesley Ann Warren was no less successful in transporting a new generation to the miraculous kingdom of dreams-come-true, and so was a second remake in 1997, which starred Brandy as Cinderella and Whitney Houston as her Fairy Godmother. As adapted for the stage, with great warmth and more than a touch of hilarity, this romantic fairy tale still warms the hearts of children and adults alike. This Enchanted Edition is inspired by the 1997 teleplay. Rodgers and Hammerstein''s Cinderella premiered in a live television broadcast on March 31, 1957, starring Julie Andrews, a sparkling new star who had just triumphed in My Fair Lady. Richard Lewine, a distant cousin and close friend of Rodgers, produced and Ralph Nelson directed. Real-life spouses Howard Lindsay and Dorothy Stickney played the King and Queen; Jon Cypher played the Prince; Ilka Chase, Kaye Ballard and Alice Ghostley played the comical Stepmother and Stepsisters; and Edi Adams played the Fairy Godmother. Rodgers and Hammerstein approached the story with the honesty and simplicity that characterized all their work, and Cinderella was a smash hit. The live broadcast was viewed by more people than any other program in the history of television. In 1997, Cinderella was remade for television in a production adapted by Robert L. Freedman and directed by Robert Iscove, with choreography by Rob Marshall. Produced by Whitney Houston and Debra Martin Chase for Walt Disney Television, Rodgers and Hammerstein''s Cinderella aired on November 2, 1997. This version featured a diverse cast, with Brandy Norwood as Cinderella, Whitney Houston as her fairy godmother, Bernadette Peters as Cinderella''s stepmother, Paolo Montalbán as the prince, Whoopi Goldberg as the queen, Victor Garber as the king and Jason Alexander as Lionel, the herald. Several songs were added, including "The Sweetest Sounds" from No Strings, sung by Cinderella and the Prince, and "There''s Music in You," written for the 1953 film Main Street to Broadway, sung as the finale by the Fairy Godmother. Sixty million viewers watched the broadcast, making it the most-watched television musical in decades, and earning ABC its highest Sunday-night ratings in 10 years.

CAROUSEL: THE COMPLETE BOOK AND LYRICS OF THE BROADWAY MUSICAL

RODGERS + HAMMERSTEIN''S CINDERELLA: THE COMPLETE BOOK AND LYRICS OF THE BROADWAY MUSICA

(Applause Libretto Library). Rodgers & Hammerstein''s first collaboration remains, in many ways, their most innovative, having set the standards and established the rules of musical theatre still being followed today. Set in a Western Indian territory just after the turn of the century, the high-spirited rivalry between the local farmers and cowboys provides the colorful background against which Curly, a handsome cowboy, and Laurey, a winsome farm girl, play out their love story. Although the road to true love never runs smooth, with these two headstrong romantics holding the reins, love''s journey is as bumpy as a surrey ride down a country road. That they will succeed in making a new life together we have no doubt, and that this new life will begin in a brand-new state provides the ultimate climax to the triumphant Oklahoma!

From every “beautiful mornin’” to “some enchanted evening,” the songs of Oscar Hammerstein II are part of our daily lives, his words part of our national fabric. Born into a theatrical dynasty headed by his grandfather and namesake, Oscar Hammerstein II breathed new life into the moribund art form of operetta by writing lyrics and libretti for such classics as Rose-Marie (music by Rudolf Friml), The Desert Song (Sigmund Romberg), The New Moon (Romberg) and Song of the Flame (George Gershwin). Hammerstein and Jerome Kern wrote eight musicals together, including Sweet Adeline, Music in the Air, and their masterpiece, Show Boat. The vibrant Carmen Jones was Hammerstein’s all-black adaptation of the tragic opera by Georges Bizet. In 1943, Hammerstein, pioneer in the field of operetta, joined forces with Richard Rodgers, who had for the previous twenty-five years taken great strides in the field of musical comedy with his longtime writing partner, Lorenz Hart. The first Rodgers and Hammerstein work, Oklahoma!, merged the two styles into a completely new genre—the musical play—and simultaneously launched the most successful partnership in American musical theater. Over the next seventeen years, Rodgers and Hammerstein wrote eight more Broadway musicals: Carousel, Allegro, South Pacific, The King and I, Me and Juliet, Pipe Dream, Flower Drum Song, and The Sound of Music. They also wrote a movie musical (State Fair) and one for television (Cinderella). Collectively their works have earned dozens of awards, including Pulitzers, Tonys, Oscars, Grammys, and Emmys. Throughout his career, Hammerstein created works of lyrical beauty and universal feeling, and he continually strove—sometimes against fashion—to seek out the good and beautiful in the world. “I know the world is filled with troubles and many injustices,” he once said. “But reality is as beautiful as it is ugly . . . I just couldn’t write anything without hope in it.” All of his lyrics are here—850, more than a quarter published for the first time—in this sixth book in the indispensable Complete Lyrics series that has also brought us the lyrics of Cole Porter, Lorenz Hart, Ira Gershwin, Irving Berlin, and Frank Loesser. From the young scribe’s earliest attempts to the old master’s final lyric—“Edelweiss”—we can see, read, and, yes, sing the words of a theatrical and lyrical genius.

An illustrated collection of sixteen songs by Rogers and Hammerstein.

While sitting in a corner, a little girl imagines that she is a Norwegian princess, a prima donna in Milan, a dancing mermaid, and more.

A group of resourceful kids start "solution-seekers.com," a website where "cybervisitors" can get answers to questions that trouble them. But when one questioner asks the true meaning of Christmas, the kids seek to unravel the mystery by journeying back through the prophecies of the Old Testament. What they find is a series of "S" words that reveal a "spectacular story!" With creative characters, humorous dialogue and great music, The "S" Files is a children''s Christmas musical your kids will love performing.

Sheet music.

The scripts and lyrics of six of their most popular musicals.

Pipe Dream is the seventh musical by the team of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II; it premiered on Broadway on November 30, 1955. The work is based on John Steinbeck''s short novel Sweet Thursday - Steinbeck wrote the novel, a sequel to Cannery Row, in the hope of having it adapted into a musical. Set in Monterey, California, the musical tells the story of the romance between Doc, a marine biologist, and Suzy, who in the novel is a prostitute; her profession is only alluded to in the stage work. Pipe Dream was a flop and a financial disaster for Rodgers and Hammerstein.