| Hammerstein vs. Lindsay & Crouse | |
| Posted by: | AnObserver 10:36 am EST 12/07/13 |
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| Since Oscar Hammerstein II was usually (as far as I can tell) credited with writing the book for his shows with Rodgers (and maybe others?) why did he not write the book for The Sound Of Music? Lindsay and Crouse are credited and one assumes they actually did do the work. | |
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| Thanks for this thread | |
| Posted by: | FriendofDorothy 08:00 pm EST 12/07/13 |
| In reply to: | Hammerstein vs. Lindsay & Crouse - AnObserver 10:36 am EST 12/07/13 |
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| I never knew why H didn't write the book, and always thought it was odd. All the posts were interesting and informative. | |
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| re: Hammerstein vs. Lindsay & Crouse | |
| Posted by: | AlanScott 11:46 am EST 12/07/13 |
| In reply to: | Hammerstein vs. Lindsay & Crouse - AnObserver 10:36 am EST 12/07/13 |
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| Accounts differ a bit on the genesis. The idea for doing the show came from Vincent J. Donehue, who had first worked with Martin on the television adaptation of the revival of The Skin of Our Teeth that Alan Schneider had directed onstage. Martin liked working with Donehue on the production. He then directed her in the West Coast revival of Annie Get Your Gun that was also televised. He was working at Paramount. Paramount thought it might be a good idea to adapt the German film about the Trapps, which had not been released in the U.S., as a film for Audrey Hepburn. They showed Donehue the film with that idea in mind. He thought it would make a good show for Martin. He showed it to Martin and Halliday. They wanted to do it. There was a lot of difficulty obtaining the rights to the story because every member of the family had to sign off on it. Leland Hayward was brought in as co-producer, perhaps in part because he would be good at helping to obtain the rights. Along the way, and before anyone spoke to Rodgers and Hammerstein about the project, Lindsay and Crouse contacted Martin, Halliday and Hayward. They wanted to write it. This is where accounts start to differ. According to some accounts, the idea was that it would be a play with a few songs, which would be chosen from Austrian folk songs that the Trapps had sung. In this version of the story, at some point Rodgers and Hammerstein were contacted to perhaps write an additional, original song or two. At the time, Flower Drum Song was on its way toward production, and Hammerstein was in the hospital. Rodgers said that he thought it would be a bad idea for there to be one or two R and H songs mixed in with real folk songs, but if they could wait till FDS was finished, he and Hammerstein would like to write a complete score for a musical of the story. According to other accounts, everyone always thought it would be a musical, but Lindsay and Crouse had contacted Martin and company first and were hired to write the book. In either version, given the combination of Hammerstein's poor health and the delay necessitated by having to wait until FDS was finished, it made sense for Lindsay and Crouse to remain as the book-writers. | |
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| re: Hammerstein vs. Lindsay & Crouse | |
| Posted by: | lordofspeech 11:05 am EST 12/07/13 |
| In reply to: | Hammerstein vs. Lindsay & Crouse - AnObserver 10:36 am EST 12/07/13 |
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| I don't know where I read this, but I read in some reasonably reliable bio that Mary Martin (and husband-manager Halliday) had this Trapp family story as their personal project, and, though probably very grateful for all their collaboration had done for her, she wanted this project to be hers. And so, she approached Lindsay and Crouse to write the book for what was to have been a juke-box musical with Trapp songs and authentic folk-songs, no show tunes and no Rogers and Hammerstein. When she did, ultimately, approach R & H, it was so that they might write one significant pseudo-folk-song ("Edelweiss"). It soon, then, became clear that they should take on more and more. I would suggest that's why the book is somewhat clunky, trying to keep up with the theatrical savvy and imagination of Hammerstein. (Not that Lindsay and Crouse were slouches, but Hammerstein was in a class by himself for writing seamless, thematically-unified narrative into musical theatre and they were not). | |
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| re: Hammerstein vs. Lindsay & Crouse | |
| Posted by: | LegitOnce 11:44 am EST 12/07/13 |
| In reply to: | re: Hammerstein vs. Lindsay & Crouse - lordofspeech 11:05 am EST 12/07/13 |
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| Yes, this seems to be the outline, Leland Hayward and Richard Halliday conceived the show originally as essentially a straight play with a few "diagetic" folk songs from the Trapp Famly's repertoire. The next step apparently was to add a song or two by Rodgers and Hammerstein in a similar folk vein, so that the show would be a "play with music." Apparently as the piece was developed, it began to feel more and more like a full-scale musical, and so became the Sound of Music we know. The point, though, is that it began life a straight play by Lindsay and Crouse, and it was that text that eventually became the libretto of The Sound of Music. Oscar Hammerstein might have told the story in a different way had he been involved from the beginning, and presumably he had some hand in shaping the material during rehearsal. One possible reason the book feels a little stilted is that obviously a lot of a straight play would have to be cut away to make room for music -- so what remains is rather bare-bones. | |
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| re: Hammerstein vs. Lindsay & Crouse | |
| Posted by: | simbo 02:45 pm EST 12/07/13 |
| In reply to: | re: Hammerstein vs. Lindsay & Crouse - LegitOnce 11:44 am EST 12/07/13 |
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| It's also not an obvious project for Lindsay and Crouse - their musicals tended towards lighter fare ("Anything Goes", "Red Hot and Blue", "Call Me Madam"). The closest in their ouvre is probably "Life with Father" and "Life with Mother" and even there, it's not really that close... It's still a tad odd that they were the go-to-guys for this one. | |
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| re: Hammerstein vs. Lindsay & Crouse | |
| Posted by: | AnObserver 11:19 am EST 12/07/13 |
| In reply to: | re: Hammerstein vs. Lindsay & Crouse - lordofspeech 11:05 am EST 12/07/13 |
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| That may all be so, but it's my understanding that "Edelweiss" was the last thing Hammerstein ever wrote. | |
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| re: Hammerstein vs. Lindsay & Crouse | |
| Posted by: | owk 11:29 am EST 12/07/13 |
| In reply to: | re: Hammerstein vs. Lindsay & Crouse - AnObserver 11:19 am EST 12/07/13 |
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| Rodgers and Hammerstein were, indeed approached to provide a single song, but not, specifically "Edelweiss". They didn't believe that the show could work without an original score, and convinced Lindsay and Crouse, and whoever else they needed to convince, to let them take on the whole score. "Edelweiss", which I believe was written out of town, was Hammerstein's last song. | |
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