Rodgers & Hammerstein

Indelible contributors to the Great American Songbook, composer Richard Rodgers and lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II were one of the most popular and influential songwriting teams in Broadway history. They each had high-profile careers with other writing partners before teaming up for the groundbreaking, Pulitzer Prize-winning stage musical Oklahoma!, which opened on Broadway in 1943. Following the example of 1927's Showboat (which featured lyrics by Hammerstein), it helped to define the "book musical" by placing character-driven songs in the context of a dramatic, high-stakes pl...