Hammerstein’s introduction to theater was so powerful that his future journey into the world of theater became almost inevitable. This was a dream world and he was about to take his first look at heaven” (19). He became so ill with excitement that he almost forgot where he was. Suddenly Oscar broke out in a cold sweat, his stomach fluttered, and his knees began to shake. Stanley Green, lecturer, film publicist, and editor, captured four-year-old Oscar’s first theater experience in The Rodgers and Hammerstein Story: “the houselights dimmed…the orchestra struck up the music for the first act…and the curtain began to rise.

Oscar Hammerstein II also fell in love with Broadway very early in his life. But would these men have ever been able to make the impact they did without each other, working alone or with another partner?Īt age six, when I saw my first show on Broadway, I was overcome with the power of a magical world where anything was possible a world where the music was extraordinarily exciting because it all worked towards telling a story. A genre that was reinvented by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, who contributed more to musical theater than anyone before them had ever dreamed possible.

I vividly remember the beginning of my relationship with musical theater at the ripe old age of six and a half years old I was exposed to the genre that would become a great love in my life. If Rodgers and Hammerstein have taught me anything, it’s that the beginning is indeed, a very good place to start.

Oklahoma! by Richard Rodgers