Oscar Andrew Hammerstein: "The Hammersteins"
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2010-12-16/oscar-andrew-hammerstein-hammersteins
Oscar Hammerstein was perhaps the most influential lyricist of the American theater. Together with collaborator Richard Rodgers, he helped define the modern musical, winning eight Tonys and two Academy Awards in the process. Oscar Hammerstein wrote the lyrics to some of the most enduring songs and shows in history -- from Showboat to Oklahoma! to South Pacific and The Sound of Music. Fifty years after his death, Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals continue to pack houses on Broadway and throughout the world. But he was not the only Hammerstein to influence musical theater. Oscar Hammerstein’s grandson joins Diane to talk about how his family changed Broadway.
Guests
Oscar Andrew Hammerstein
a painter, writer, lecturer and Hammerstein family historian.
Comments
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hjkl
I wish someone, somewhere, sometime, somehow would discuss how American Musical Theatre is an idealized construction of hegemonic WASP life by marginalized people:
1) The Jews
2) The Gays
3) People of Color
How else could it be so idealized? So iconically perfected? Unless created with the knowledge and deeply sensitive perspective of those on the margins of a culture with white heterosexual christian standards?
How else could it have undercurrents of social commentary?
American Musical Theatre from the Hammerstein era is intensely political in perpetuating myths of hegemonic ideals despite showing their imperfections. Interestingly the very same thing was happening in Hollywood: marginalized people were creating films that perpetuated the hegemonic standard of white christian heterosexuality as well.
I think there's a much more interesting story here than a complacent, hackneyed trip down memory lane.
Oscar Hammerstein II was a unique lyricist who brought to life serious concerns to make the audience think and reflect and leave them with a warm uplifting feeling and attitude. He could turn heads. He was a positive force for social change and his lyrics are timeless.
Did he at times romanticize our life as we want to see it and feel it ought to be? Musical theatre is there to entertain and in so doing draw us in. As an instrument of social awareness and change Hammerstein's lyrics combined with the music of Richard Rodgers make a more forceful and lasting impact that mere words, talk, and discussion in a lecture, seminar, symposium or written commentary.
We owe a debt of gratitude to a man of such ability and conscience of compassion. His influence in the theatre touched us all and now is recreated in the book, " The Hammersteins " by his grandson who has a marvelous cadence in his voice as I listened to his comments.
What a theatrical legacy the generations of this family has left all of us. This was a delightful program today. Made MY day !
I agree with Laurence; it was a wonderful program today. . .
I don't know what "heterosexual Christian standards" were perpetuated by the Jewish Oscar Hammerstein.
@ Lisa Boucher
"I don't know what "heterosexual Christian standards" were perpetuated by the Jewish Oscar Hammerstein."
Precisely. I find that comment embarrassing.
(I started a comment and made it through two remarkably cogent paragraphs before inadvertently hitting the tab button which propelled me into another page and blanked my comments, so if it reappears, sorry for the duplication)
I find it amazing how I can listen to a piece like this and draw such different conclusions, but yours compels me to respond. I drew a quite different impression, coming away with admiration of how brave Hammerstein was for writing such insightful lyrics at a time when conventional wisdom and artisitc success seemed to demand utter conformity with the kind of cultural values you deride.
And let's be realistic about expectations. After all, you are commenting on an art form in which seemingly ordinary people break into song accompanied by full orchestras. Where in the real world does that happen? It sounds as if you want musicals to have the same profundity that you find in a well written book. Not too realistic, in my humble opinion.
The difficulty in keeping my disbelief suspended is one reason I am not a big fan of musical theater, but I appreciate it for what it is: occasionally good music, with occasionally thought provoking lyrics. In a lot of Hammerstein's work I hear both.
I try not to set my standards as high as you seem to; I don't think I could live a life that would seem to promise so many disappointments.