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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

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

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

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

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

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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