Carousel Trivia, Week Four
What was the first successful Broadway collaboration of Rodgers and Hammerstein before Carousel?
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court
The King and I
Oklahoma!
State Fair
Scroll down for the answer and to learn more…
The answer is Oklahoma! Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein had individually been interested in turning the 1930 play Green Grow the Lilacs into a musical. Richard Rodgers’s former collaborator Lorenz Hart declined. So did Hammerstein’s former collaborator, Jerome Kern. So, the two established pros finally got to work together. Oklahoma! was a smash, running for 2,212 performances on Broadway. Carousel, while not quite so successful, ran for 890 performances and then had a lengthy run in London. Carousel has been made into several movies and many stage revivals since then. TIME magazine named Carousel the best musical of the 20th century.
Watch the clip of “If I Loved You” from the 2013 Lincoln Center Performance with Kelli O’Hara and Nathan Gunn. (Full version available on Prime Video)
Come hear our orchestra perform Carousel Saturday, February 11, 2023!