Musical Stages: An Autobiography

by Richard Rodgers

Richard Rodgers (1902-1979) was sixteen when he formed his famous partnership with Lorenz Hart. The ensuing years of toil and disappointment nearly convinced the young composer to abandon the theater for the security of a salesman's job in the clothing industry, but the overnight success of The Garrick Gaieties in 1925 determined his career. Ultimately, Rodgers wrote the scores for over forty Broadway musicals and collaborated with two of the world's greatest lyricists, the brilliantly talented but tormented Hart, and the sturdier but equally inspired Oscar Hammerstein II. These partnerships contributed a tremendous legacy to the musical theater, including Babes in Arms, On Your Toes, Pal Joey, Oklahoma!, Carousel, South Pacific, The King and I, and The Sound of Music . Musical Stages is more than the inside story behind Rodgers's prodigious successes; it is an honest, astute meditation on the influences and people who encouraged him. Filled with revealing glimpses of celebrities and packed with Broadway and Hollywood anecdotes, it also contains fascinating passages on the art of lyric writing and composing, and insights into the troubles and triumphs of collaboration. Through his songs Richard Rodgers has given pleasure to millions of people; Musical Stages is one more gift in that tradition.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction, Biography, Theatre, Memoir, Autobiography, Musicals

384 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1975

About the author

Richard Charles Rodgers (June 28, 1902 – December 30, 1979) was an American composer who worked primarily in musical theater.

With 43 Broadway musicals and over 900 songs to his credit, Rodgers was one of the best-known American composers of the 20th century, and his compositions had a significant influence on popular music.

Richard Rodgers was in the inaugural group of Kennedy Center Honorees in 1978 for lifetime achievement in the arts.
In 1990, the 46th Street Theatre was renamed the Richard Rodgers Theatre in his memory.

Reviews

[Russell Sanders · Rating 5 out of 5]

Autobiographies are curious animals. Often they are “as told to” or ghost-written outright with no mention of the craftsperson who created the words. I have no idea if Richard Rodgers with his Musical Stages actually wrote the book or not. I’ve read that it was ghosted by celebrated musical theater historian Stanley Green. What I do know is that Rodgers’s book portrays a man who is dedicated to his craft, humble in his accomplishments, encyclopedic in his memories (perhaps that’s where Green’s contribution came in, for his is credited for his “research,”) thoroughly charming, and comfortable in his life. The problem and delight with autobiographies is that we rely only on the subject’s memories, which can be faulty at best and reconceived at worst. Musical Stages is utterly believable, and the insight is invaluable for musical theater buffs. Rodgers takes each of the shows he worked on and analyzes it, giving us some cogent facts, some delicious memories, some earnest doubts and proud moments. And, unlike the historian (i.e. a recent book I read that was a biography of Florenz Ziegfeld) he touches on his subject, gives us a half page if the show is minor, a few pages if the show is major, and then moves on. We absorb the impact of his early works, of Pal Joey, of the celebrated Rodgers and Hammerstein shows, and we briefly note the failures or the shows that succeeded but were not blockbusters. And, after all, most readers don’t want to know much about Allegro, Me and Juliet, or Pipe Dream, but they are interested in the creation of Oklahoma!, Carousel, South Pacific, The King and I, The Sound of Music, and even the lesser Flower Drum Song and Cinderella. This remarkable man, whose career in theater spanned more than fifty years and had two of the longest writing partnerships in musical theater—Rodgers and Hart (Lorenz Hart) and Rodgers and Hammerstein (Oscar Hammerstein II)—refused to be defeated. After Hammerstein’s death, he wrote several shows and worked with Stephen Sondheim even, albeit a poorly received show and not a very happy collaboration. And even after the publication of Musical Stages in 1975 and a bout with laryngeal cancer, he wrote a couple other shows. Richard Rodgers was a remarkable talent and a remarkable man, and we are blessed to have this book to honor him.

[MH · Rating 4 out of 5]

An A-to-Z memoir of the great man's life in the theater, how his projects came about, what he worked on and with who, all in very thorough detail. He pussyfoots around Larry Hart's many problems, and a few of his backstage anecdotes feel a little pat, but it's an excellent and thoughtful reference point for his decades of Broadway success. His memories of his personal life should apparently be taken with a large grain of salt, though - he wrote this knowing his wife and children would read it, and so presents himself as the consummate loving husband and father, faithful and sober, something his daughters have taken great exception to.

[Sull · Rating 3 out of 5]

Unexciting but nonetheless interesting read from a composer whose musicals provided the background music of my childhood. Pal Joey, Oklahoma, Carousel, The King & I, Sound of Music....

He had two lyricist partners but it's obvious that he was the workaholic backbone of both teams, a modest man who loved his work & never wanted it to stop. He remembers quixotic, obscure details of each musical, both the famous & less-famous ones, that have more to do with the process of dreaming up & crafting the songs that pushed along the stories behind each musical.

The private person RR comes out in small bits & pieces along the way. He was not quite so good at 'normal' private life, perhaps, as he was at writing those songs, but he put his head down & worked at that, too, with less pleasure than his music gives him yet gamely, cheerfully....

[Surreysmum · Rating 3 out of 5]

The best thing about an autobiography is that it doesn't usually end with a death! (although in the "centenary edition" I was reading, there was an afterword that covered the last years of Rodgers' life). The worst thing is that you usually only get half the picture, if that, especially if the author is, as Rodgers obviously was, fairly conservative, conventional and private. What I enjoyed most about this book were the passages where he detailed the kind of thinking that went into the composition of specific musical passages and how they related to the lyrics. It was delightful to have a little score right on the page illustrating some point about emphasis or internal rhyme and showing just how very craftsmanlike the whole process of composition was for him. It was interesting, too, how very much he obviously disliked the movie business, and I was surprised to learn he had nothing to do with any of the famous movies of his musicals after Oklahoma and State Fair. The gossip-lover in me would have liked more scuttlebutt, I must admit, about his associates (especially, of course, Larry Hart; and the apparently less-than-ideal working relationship with Stephen Sondheim as well). But there you go - that's why there's more than one book in the world! I shall have to read some more musical theatre biographies now.

[Jeremy Blaustein · Rating 3 out of 5]

Charming tales from the best there ever was (until Sondheim came along). Certainly aware of his own importance in the genre of composition for the musical theater, but you can glean from this book that he certainly earned that attitude. Would have given this a higher rating had there been more information about what the process of creating each the shows had been. Some of his material really got short-changed. Only a page and a half for "Flower Drum Song"? I wanted a chapter on that show alone! His tribute to Larry Hart, however, was very touching. Overall, it was a fascinating portrait of a fascinating man.

[Matt Heimer · Rating 3 out of 5]

You won't learn much about Rodgers's creative process in this brisk memoir; if anything, it appears that the secret to his five decades of musical-theater success may have been his total lack of self-awareness. But if you grew up listening to the likes of "Oklahoma," "The Sound of Music" and "South Pacific," it's still fairly thrilling to read about the mix of trial and error, inspiration and serendipity that brought those shows to life.

[Marcus Gorman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Made me rethink the talent of the man himself, all while reinforcing my opinion that his gorgeous, hilarious, sharp, and nation-changing work with Hart is head-and-shoulders above the sentimentality he accomplished with Hammerstein.

[Shawn Thrasher]

Disappointingly snoozey. Next please.

[Veronica Harris · Rating 5 out of 5]

(A-)