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Allegro (musical)
Encyclopedia
Allegro is a musical by Richard Rodgers
(music) and Oscar Hammerstein II
(book and lyrics), their third collaboration for the stage. Opening on Broadway
on October 10, 1947, the musical centers on the life of Joseph Taylor, Jr.—Joe follows in the footsteps of his father as a doctor, but is tempted by fortune and fame at a big-city hospital.
After the immense successes of the first two Rodgers and Hammerstein
musicals, Oklahoma!
and Carousel
, the pair sought a subject for their next play. Hammerstein had long contemplated a serious work which would deal with the problems of the ordinary man in the fast-moving modern world. He and Rodgers sought to create a work which would be as innovative as their first two stage musicals. To that end, they created a play with a large cast, including a Greek chorus
. The production would have no sets; props and projections served to suggest locations.
After a disastrous tryout in New Haven
, Connecticut
, the musical opened on Broadway to a large advance sale of tickets, and very mixed reviews. Agnes de Mille
, the choreographer of Rodgers and Hammerstein's previous Broadway productions, both directed and choreographed the work. The show was viewed as too moralistic, and the Broadway run ended after nine months; it was followed by a short national tour. It had no West End
production, and has rarely been revived. Allegro has been recorded twice, the original cast album and a studio recording released in 2009.
had two hits (Oklahoma!
and Carousel
) on Broadway, and had success as producers of musicals others had written. In March, Hammerstein approached Rodgers with the idea for a play with two men as the central characters, rather than the usual "boy and girl" format. Over the following weeks, the two discussed it, and the concept evolved into a musical about one man, a doctor's son. The concept appealed to Rodgers, the son and brother of doctors. By September, the general theme for the story had been established: the struggle of the main character to avoid compromising his principles as he progresses in life.
Hammerstein had thought of writing a play about a man, from birth to death. However, having just killed his leading male character, Billy Bigelow, onstage in Carousel, he was reluctant to kill off another. In the end, he took his protagonist from birth to age 35. He envisioned a simply staged work like Our Town
which after its initial run would lend itself to college productions. Allegro was conceived as taking place in an open space, using props and projections to convey scenery to the audience. In addition to the customary singing chorus, there would be a speaking chorus, in the manner of a Greek chorus
, which would comment on the action, and speak to both characters and audience.
Hammerstein did background research about the medical profession by interviewing his own doctor. He wrote a few pages of the book before embarking with his wife for Australia to visit his mother-in-law; when his ship arrived in Brisbane
he mailed Rodgers part of the remainder. On receiving the packet, Rodgers, who did not compose until his lyricists supplied him with the words, immediately sat down and composed three songs. Hammerstein put a good deal of his own experiences into the play. According to his son, William, "Most of the first act was based on his own memories of his own childhood. He had always been intrigued by it, you know; his mother died when he was twelve. I always felt his songs came out of his feelings about her."
Hammerstein spent a year writing and polishing the first act, taking infinite pains over the wording. The second act was more rushed; under a deadline, Hammerstein completed it only a week before rehearsals began. Stephen Sondheim
, who served as a $25-a-week gofer
on the production, stated,
Agnes de Mille to direct—a move between two theatre functions which was unusual at the time. De Mille had been the choreographer for the dances in Oklahoma! and Carousel, designing ballets which disclosed the characters' psychological states to the audience. She had been concerned about the cohesion of the script as she received it from Hammerstein. When a few days before rehearsals began, she asked Hammerstein what the show was about, the lyricist replied, "It's about a man not being allowed to do his own work because of worldly pressures." De Mille answered, "That's not the play you've written. You haven't written your second act." Hammerstein replied, "But we're already committed to the theatre in New York."
De Mille faced an immense task. Instead of conventional sets, locations were suggested by platforms, images projected onto backdrops, and lighting—there were 500 lighting cues, at the time a Broadway record. There were forty stagehands, needed to shift sixty partial sets, with objects moved onto the stage by a semicircular track hidden by an elaborate series of curtains. According to de Mille biographer Carol Easton, "Allegro was a leviathan of a show, on a scale exceeding the grasp of any individual."
Rehearsals took place in three New York locations, for principals, singers, and dancers. The production contained 41 principals and over a hundred dancers. De Mille also choreographed the dances, which were both extremely complicated and provided the framework for the scenes which made up the show. During the dances, Joe learns to walk, falls in love, goes astray, and then gets back on the proper track. De Mille used adults in children's clothes for the dances when Joe is a child; since there were no actual children on stage to provide scale, the illusion worked. The dance which accompanied "One Foot, Other Foot" was based on de Mille's own experiences in watching her own son Jonathan learn to walk.
Sondheim later expressed his view of de Mille's directing, calling her "a horror. She treated the actors and singers like dirt and treated the dancers like gods ...[she was,] I think, an extremely insensitive woman, an excellent writer, and a terrible director, in terms of morale, anyway. That was my first experience of bad behavior in the theatre." However, Rufus Smith, who played the minor role of the football coach, stated, "Never again in my life will I experience what it is like to stop a show cold, by doing exactly what she taught me". The immense job of directing the play finally proved too big for de Mille, who stated "I can't do the new dances and the new songs and the new book," and Hammerstein stepped in to direct the dialogue. According to Rodgers biographer Meryle Secrest, at this point the cast was up in arms over de Mille's treatment of them. James Mitchell, one of the dancers in the production, later stated that de Mille was better at directing dancers than actors, as actors come to the stage with preconceived notions about how to play a part, and dancers do not.
The first tryout, in New Haven, Connecticut
, did not go to plan. During the first act, William Ching, playing Joseph Taylor, Sr., was singing "A Fellow Needs a Girl" when the scenery wall began to collapse, forcing him to hold it up until the stagehands noticed. Dancer Ray Harrison caught his tap in a track in the stage, and tore the ligaments in his knee. He was carried from the stage, screaming. Lisa Kirk
, the first Emily, fell into the orchestra while singing "The Gentleman is a Dope". She was catapulted back onto the stage with no pause in her singing, to great applause by the audience. Sondheim remembered,
The disasters of the New Haven opener concluded during "Come Home", a song near the end the play—the quiet urgings of the chorus and Joe's mother to entice him to return to his small town. A false fire alarm went off, and the audience began to push towards the exit. Joshua Logan
, who was in attendance, loudly ordered the crowd to sit down, which it did. One of the Boston tryouts which followed New Haven was marked by boisterous behavior by conventioneers, until Hammerstein yelled, "Shut up!" and the audience subsided.
").
At the freshman mixer ("Freshman Dance"), the audience finally sees Joe onstage. He marvels at his new world, in which he is a loner ("A Darn Nice Campus"). Joe serves ineffectively as a cheerleader ("The Purple and the Brown"), rooting for the Wildcats, whose star player is Joe's freshman classmate Charlie Townsend. Both are pre-medical students and soon become close friends. The friendship helps both; Joe gains entrance to Charlie's fraternity and social circles, while Charlie is allowed to copy Joe's conscientious schoolwork.
While Joe is at college, Jenny remains at home, and her wealthy father, Ned Brinker, who disapproves of Joe for spending so many years in school before earning a living, encourages her to find other boyfriends. Jenny does not bother to conceal these romances in her letters; Joe is finally fed up, and goes on a double date with Charlie and two girls. Beulah, Joe's date, is initially enthusiastic about the budding romance ("So Far
") but walks away in disgust when Joe, who is unable to keep thoughts of Jenny from his mind, falls asleep after a passionate kiss. Jenny breaks up with the boy that Joe was afraid would marry her, and she is waiting for Joe when he returns home ("You Are Never Away"). Marjorie Taylor is convinced that Jenny is the wrong girl for Joe, and after a confrontation with Jenny when she tells her this, Marjorie dies of a heart attack. Despite the disapproval of both families ("What a Lovely Day for a Wedding"), Joe and Jenny marry, a wedding observed by the unhappy ghosts of Marjorie and Grandma ("Wish Them Well").
Joe accepts the job, and sadly leaves his father. He soon finds himself ministering to hypochondriacs; he is required to spend time at cocktail parties marked by useless conversation ("Yatata, Yatata, Yatata"). Charlie is also part of the practice, but the former football star has turned to drink. Joe himself is becoming careless due to the distractions; one mistake is caught by his nurse, Emily, who greatly admires the physician Joe could be ("The Gentleman is a Dope"). Denby congratulates Joe on his skills, both medical and social. The elder doctor has less time for a nurse, Carrie Middleton who has worked at his hospital for thirty years and once dated him, but who is involved in a labor protest—Denby orders her fired at the request of Lansdale, an influential trustee and soap manufacturer. Charlie, Joe and Emily comment on the frenetic pace of the Chicago world in which they live ("Allegro").
Joe has become increasingly disillusioned by his life in the city, and worries about his former patients in his home town. He learns that Jenny is having an affair with Lansdale. As Joe sits, head in hands, his late mother and a chorus of the friends he left behind appeal to him to return ("Come Home"). Joe has been offered the position of physician-in-chief at the Chicago hospital, replacing Denby, who is taking an executive position, or as the elder doctor terms it, being "kicked upstairs". At a dedication of a new pavilion at the hospital, Joe has a revelation and shifts the path of his life; as he does so, Grandma appears and calls for Marjorie to come watch, an echo of the scene in which he learned to walk. Joe refuses the position, and will return to his small town to assist his father, accompanied by Emily and Charlie, but not by Jenny (Finale: "One Foot, Other Foot" (reprise)).
Act II
Allegro opened on Broadway
at the Majestic Theatre on October 10, 1947. It starred John Battles
as Joseph Taylor, Jr., Annamary Dickey as Majorie Taylor, William Ching
as Dr. Joseph Taylor, Roberta Jonay as Jenny Brinker, Lisa Kirk
as Emily, and John Conte
as Charlie Townsend. A special performance the afternoon of the opening for friends and associates generated wild applause; the audience at the official opening that evening clapped little. As de Mille's husband, Walter Prude, put it, Allegro went over "like a wet firecracker".
The mixed reviews prompted ongoing discussions of the play's merit, continuing well after the first night. Some of the news that the show generated had nothing to do with its worth—de Mille had dancer Francis Rainer fired, and Rainer alleged that the dismissal was due to her union activism. After Actors Equity became involved, Rainer was rehired. More bad publicity came when the producers proposed to dismiss several orchestra and chorus members to cut costs so the show might continue through the summer of 1948, and the fired performers also alleged dismissal for union involvement. The show closed before the summer, and in the fall, a national tour began. The national tour ran eight months, much shorter than that of Oklahoma! or Carousel. No London production was mounted. According to Thomas Hischak in his The Rodgers and Hammerstein Encyclopedia, the show made a small profit; other sources state that the show lost money.
The show was popular in the 1950s among amateur drama societies, because of the large cast with no star and the bare stage. It has rarely been revived professionally: the St. Louis Municipal Opera presented it in 1955; Goodspeed Musicals
presented it in Connecticut in 1968. An abridged version was presented Off-Off-Broadway
in 1978 by Equity Library Theatre.
In March 1994 a staged concert version was presented by New York City Center Encores!
, with a cast that included Stephen Bogardus
(Joseph Taylor, Jr.), Karen Ziemba
and Jonathan Hadary
. Christopher Reeve
was the narrator, and the concert was directed by Susan H. Schulman
. A revised version of Allegro, re-written by Joe DiPietro
, who was a protege of Oscar's son James Hammerstein
, was produced at the Signature Theatre (Arlington, Virginia) in January 2004. This version cut the musical in size and scale. The cast was cut with some characters being combined; the original, lavish orchestrations were simplified.
calls Rodgers's technique "the deconstruction of theatre music, to match the show's deconstruction of traditional theatre design".
Rodgers's music is more subtle than in his previous musicals, and his melodies more muted. The key changes are less dramatic than in other musicals of that time. Rodgers did not intend for the songs to become hits; instead they were designed to draw the audience into the action, as onstage events were described subjectively in song.
, sales were poor; Victor did not reissue it on LP during the rapid transition from 78s to long-playing records in 1949–1950, when most record companies were hastily transferring their entire catalogues onto the new medium. The recording was made available briefly in simulated stereo in the 1960s, and was reissued in the 1970s in the original mono. The original cast recording was released on compact disc in 1993.
A studio recording of the complete score was made in 2008, with Patrick Wilson
as Joe, and Nathan Gunn
and Audra McDonald
as his parents. The album, produced by Sony Masterworks Broadway, was released on February 3, 2009. According to musical theatre author John Kenrick
, "this all star studio cast glorifies all that is right with this melodious and sometimes adventurous score".
critic Brooks Atkinson
opined that Rodgers and Hammerstein had "just missed the final splendor of a perfect work of art". Robert Coleman of the New York Daily Mirror
stated that "Allegro is perfection", and added that it was "a stunning blending of beauty, integrity, intelligence, imagination, taste and skill ... it lends new stature to the American musical stage". Ward Morehouse of The Sun wrote that Allegro was "distinguished and tumultuous. It takes its place alongside of Oklahoma! and Carousel as a theatrical piece of taste, imagination, and showmanship."
However, Wolcott Gibbs
of The New Yorker
called the musical "a shocking disappointment". Robert Garland, in the New York Journal American
suggested that Rodgers and Hammerstein "had confused allegro[which means at a fast pace] with, say, lento, which means 'slow', 'unhurried', and even downright 'serious'". Critic George Jean Nathan
, in a special piece in the Journal American, decried "such hokum mush as the familiar wedding scene and the ghost of a mother who returns at intervals to keep her son from error, but a cocktail party chatterbox number paraphrased from an old Noël Coward
movie, a college number dittoed from an earlier George Abbott
one, and various other elements hardly rivaling the daisy in freshness". In Theatre Arts, Cecil Smith called Allegro "acceptable only as an exercise in stagecraft, not as a work of art ... Allegro fails where Our Town succeeded ... Joseph Taylor, Jr.'s life has little or nothing to tell us about our own lives." Louis Kronenberger
of New York P.M. called the show "an out-and-out failure."
De Mille's direction and choreography were reviewed generally positively; Cecil Smith applauded her for the "ease and flawless design with which Miss de Mille brings mobility to these non-dancing[singing and speaking choruses] ... no previous musical has approached Allegro in consistency of movement, expertness of timing and shapeliness of visual patterns. Times dance critic John Martin
stated, "Allegro has definitely made history" for de Mille's giving "form and substance to material with little of either". Dance Magazine
praised her for creating "the illusion of space and depth far beyond the confines of the proscenium".
As the disagreement continued past the opening night, Wayne Abrams wrote in the Chicago Sun-Times
, "Nobody is neutral about Allegro. The Hammerstein-Rodgers-de Mille musical play is either nigh unto perfection or a dismal flop. There's that much room for disagreement."
According to Frederick Nolan, in his book about the pair's music, "Reexamined today, Allegro' s main fault seems to have been that it was ahead of its time, the integration of story and music far too advanced even for audiences now becoming accustomed to musicals which actually had stories." Sondheim noted, "Allegro was an attempt to use epic theatre in contemporary musical theatre. It used a Greek chorus, and tried to tell the story of a life, not through events but through generalities. This is now what would be called a Brechtian
approach."
A decade after Allegros premiere, after learning of his fatal cancer, Hammerstein returned to the musical, hoping to correct its flaws, but he did not complete the project. While recording an oral history
tape for Columbia University
, Hammerstein stated, "I intended Dick to write music for it[the chorus in Allegro] but we wound up reciting the chorus instead ... I'm not blaming anyone, because we all accepted it, we all collaborated ... but it was a mistake." Rodgers later stated that the show was "too preachy, which was the one fault that Oscar had, if any," and "[n] othing to be ashamed of, certainly". Rodgers further defended the play, "The comments we made on the compromises demanded by success, as well as some of the satiric side issues—hypochondria, the empty cocktail party—still hold."
The relative failure of Allegro reinforced the team's determination to have another hit. Author James Michener recalled his meeting with the duo over the possibility of converting his book Tales of the South Pacific
into a musical. "They were inwardly burning because of the reception accorded to Allegro. Those fellows were so mad I was fairly certain that they could make a great musical out of the Bronx telephone directory." That project would become South Pacific
and be a tremendous hit.
Hischak ties the failure of Allegro to a change in the pair's style:
Richard Rodgers
Richard Charles Rodgers was an American composer of music for more than 900 songs and for 43 Broadway musicals. He also composed music for films and television. He is best known for his songwriting partnerships with the lyricists Lorenz Hart and Oscar Hammerstein II...
(music) and Oscar Hammerstein II
Oscar Hammerstein II
Oscar Greeley Clendenning Hammerstein II was an American librettist, theatrical producer, and theatre director of musicals for almost forty years. Hammerstein won eight Tony Awards and was twice awarded an Academy Award for "Best Original Song". Many of his songs are standard repertoire for...
(book and lyrics), their third collaboration for the stage. Opening on Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
on October 10, 1947, the musical centers on the life of Joseph Taylor, Jr.—Joe follows in the footsteps of his father as a doctor, but is tempted by fortune and fame at a big-city hospital.
After the immense successes of the first two Rodgers and Hammerstein
Rodgers and Hammerstein
Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II were a well-known American songwriting duo, usually referred to as Rodgers and Hammerstein. They created a string of popular Broadway musicals in the 1940s and 1950s during what is considered the golden age of the medium...
musicals, Oklahoma!
Oklahoma!
Oklahoma! is the first musical written by composer Richard Rodgers and librettist Oscar Hammerstein II. The musical is based on Lynn Riggs' 1931 play, Green Grow the Lilacs. Set in Oklahoma Territory outside the town of Claremore in 1906, it tells the story of cowboy Curly McLain and his romance...
and Carousel
Carousel
A carousel , or merry-go-round, is an amusement ride consisting of a rotating circular platform with seats for riders...
, the pair sought a subject for their next play. Hammerstein had long contemplated a serious work which would deal with the problems of the ordinary man in the fast-moving modern world. He and Rodgers sought to create a work which would be as innovative as their first two stage musicals. To that end, they created a play with a large cast, including a Greek chorus
Greek chorus
A Greek chorus is a homogenous, non-individualised group of performers in the plays of classical Greece, who comment with a collective voice on the dramatic action....
. The production would have no sets; props and projections served to suggest locations.
After a disastrous tryout in New Haven
New Haven, Connecticut
New Haven is the second-largest city in Connecticut and the sixth-largest in New England. According to the 2010 Census, New Haven's population increased by 5.0% between 2000 and 2010, a rate higher than that of the State of Connecticut, and higher than that of the state's five largest cities, and...
, Connecticut
Connecticut
Connecticut is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and the state of New York to the west and the south .Connecticut is named for the Connecticut River, the major U.S. river that approximately...
, the musical opened on Broadway to a large advance sale of tickets, and very mixed reviews. Agnes de Mille
Agnes de Mille
Agnes George de Mille was an American dancer and choreographer.-Early years:Agnes de Mille was born in New York City into a well-connected family of theater professionals. Her father William C. deMille and her uncle Cecil B. DeMille were both Hollywood directors...
, the choreographer of Rodgers and Hammerstein's previous Broadway productions, both directed and choreographed the work. The show was viewed as too moralistic, and the Broadway run ended after nine months; it was followed by a short national tour. It had no West End
West End theatre
West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End. Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English speaking...
production, and has rarely been revived. Allegro has been recorded twice, the original cast album and a studio recording released in 2009.
Inception
Oscar Hammerstein II had always wanted to write a serious drama, one which would address the problems of life confronting ordinary people. By early 1946, four years after his partnership with Richard Rodgers commenced, the duoRodgers and Hammerstein
Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II were a well-known American songwriting duo, usually referred to as Rodgers and Hammerstein. They created a string of popular Broadway musicals in the 1940s and 1950s during what is considered the golden age of the medium...
had two hits (Oklahoma!
Oklahoma!
Oklahoma! is the first musical written by composer Richard Rodgers and librettist Oscar Hammerstein II. The musical is based on Lynn Riggs' 1931 play, Green Grow the Lilacs. Set in Oklahoma Territory outside the town of Claremore in 1906, it tells the story of cowboy Curly McLain and his romance...
and Carousel
Carousel (musical)
Carousel is the second stage musical by the team of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II . The work premiered in 1945 and was adapted from Ferenc Molnár's 1909 play Liliom, transplanting its Budapest setting to the Maine coastline...
) on Broadway, and had success as producers of musicals others had written. In March, Hammerstein approached Rodgers with the idea for a play with two men as the central characters, rather than the usual "boy and girl" format. Over the following weeks, the two discussed it, and the concept evolved into a musical about one man, a doctor's son. The concept appealed to Rodgers, the son and brother of doctors. By September, the general theme for the story had been established: the struggle of the main character to avoid compromising his principles as he progresses in life.
Hammerstein had thought of writing a play about a man, from birth to death. However, having just killed his leading male character, Billy Bigelow, onstage in Carousel, he was reluctant to kill off another. In the end, he took his protagonist from birth to age 35. He envisioned a simply staged work like Our Town
Our Town
Our Town is a three-act play by American playwright Thornton Wilder. It is a character story about an average town's citizens in the early twentieth century as depicted through their everyday lives...
which after its initial run would lend itself to college productions. Allegro was conceived as taking place in an open space, using props and projections to convey scenery to the audience. In addition to the customary singing chorus, there would be a speaking chorus, in the manner of a Greek chorus
Greek chorus
A Greek chorus is a homogenous, non-individualised group of performers in the plays of classical Greece, who comment with a collective voice on the dramatic action....
, which would comment on the action, and speak to both characters and audience.
Hammerstein did background research about the medical profession by interviewing his own doctor. He wrote a few pages of the book before embarking with his wife for Australia to visit his mother-in-law; when his ship arrived in Brisbane
Brisbane
Brisbane is the capital and most populous city in the Australian state of Queensland and the third most populous city in Australia. Brisbane's metropolitan area has a population of over 2 million, and the South East Queensland urban conurbation, centred around Brisbane, encompasses a population of...
he mailed Rodgers part of the remainder. On receiving the packet, Rodgers, who did not compose until his lyricists supplied him with the words, immediately sat down and composed three songs. Hammerstein put a good deal of his own experiences into the play. According to his son, William, "Most of the first act was based on his own memories of his own childhood. He had always been intrigued by it, you know; his mother died when he was twelve. I always felt his songs came out of his feelings about her."
Hammerstein spent a year writing and polishing the first act, taking infinite pains over the wording. The second act was more rushed; under a deadline, Hammerstein completed it only a week before rehearsals began. Stephen Sondheim
Stephen Sondheim
Stephen Joshua Sondheim is an American composer and lyricist for stage and film. He is the winner of an Academy Award, multiple Tony Awards including the Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre, multiple Grammy Awards, a Pulitzer Prize and the Laurence Olivier Award...
, who served as a $25-a-week gofer
Gofer
A gofer or go-fer is an employee who is often sent on errands. "Gofer" reflects the likelihood of instructions to go for coffee, dry cleaning, or stamps, or to make other straightforward or familiar procurements. The term gofer originated in North America...
on the production, stated,
Years later, in talking over the show with Oscar—I don't think I recognized it at the time—I realized he was trying to tell the story of his life ... Oscar meant it as a metaphor for what had happened to him. He had become so successful with Oklahoma! and Carousel that he was suddenly in demand all over the place. What he was talking about was the trappings, not so much of success, but of losing sight of what your goal is.
Rehearsals and tryouts
The duo hired choreographerChoreography
Choreography is the art of designing sequences of movements in which motion, form, or both are specified. Choreography may also refer to the design itself, which is sometimes expressed by means of dance notation. The word choreography literally means "dance-writing" from the Greek words "χορεία" ...
Agnes de Mille to direct—a move between two theatre functions which was unusual at the time. De Mille had been the choreographer for the dances in Oklahoma! and Carousel, designing ballets which disclosed the characters' psychological states to the audience. She had been concerned about the cohesion of the script as she received it from Hammerstein. When a few days before rehearsals began, she asked Hammerstein what the show was about, the lyricist replied, "It's about a man not being allowed to do his own work because of worldly pressures." De Mille answered, "That's not the play you've written. You haven't written your second act." Hammerstein replied, "But we're already committed to the theatre in New York."
De Mille faced an immense task. Instead of conventional sets, locations were suggested by platforms, images projected onto backdrops, and lighting—there were 500 lighting cues, at the time a Broadway record. There were forty stagehands, needed to shift sixty partial sets, with objects moved onto the stage by a semicircular track hidden by an elaborate series of curtains. According to de Mille biographer Carol Easton, "Allegro was a leviathan of a show, on a scale exceeding the grasp of any individual."
Rehearsals took place in three New York locations, for principals, singers, and dancers. The production contained 41 principals and over a hundred dancers. De Mille also choreographed the dances, which were both extremely complicated and provided the framework for the scenes which made up the show. During the dances, Joe learns to walk, falls in love, goes astray, and then gets back on the proper track. De Mille used adults in children's clothes for the dances when Joe is a child; since there were no actual children on stage to provide scale, the illusion worked. The dance which accompanied "One Foot, Other Foot" was based on de Mille's own experiences in watching her own son Jonathan learn to walk.
Sondheim later expressed his view of de Mille's directing, calling her "a horror. She treated the actors and singers like dirt and treated the dancers like gods ...
The first tryout, in New Haven, Connecticut
New Haven, Connecticut
New Haven is the second-largest city in Connecticut and the sixth-largest in New England. According to the 2010 Census, New Haven's population increased by 5.0% between 2000 and 2010, a rate higher than that of the State of Connecticut, and higher than that of the state's five largest cities, and...
, did not go to plan. During the first act, William Ching, playing Joseph Taylor, Sr., was singing "A Fellow Needs a Girl" when the scenery wall began to collapse, forcing him to hold it up until the stagehands noticed. Dancer Ray Harrison caught his tap in a track in the stage, and tore the ligaments in his knee. He was carried from the stage, screaming. Lisa Kirk
Lisa Kirk
Lisa Kirk was an American actress and singer noted for her comic talents and rich contralto .-Career:...
, the first Emily, fell into the orchestra while singing "The Gentleman is a Dope". She was catapulted back onto the stage with no pause in her singing, to great applause by the audience. Sondheim remembered,
Next day in the New York Herald Tribune ... Billy RoseBilly RoseWilliam "Billy" Rose was an American impresario, theatrical showman and lyricist. He is credited with many famous songs, notably "Me and My Shadow" , "It Happened in Monterey" and "It's Only a Paper Moon"...
, of all people was saying, "A star is born." Next night she comes back, came to the same point in the song, and starts to fall, and the entire audience gasps because they'd all read the Herald Tribune. She recovers quickly, they all sigh, and she gets another ovation. Oscar came backstage at the end and said, "You do that a third time and you're fired."
The disasters of the New Haven opener concluded during "Come Home", a song near the end the play—the quiet urgings of the chorus and Joe's mother to entice him to return to his small town. A false fire alarm went off, and the audience began to push towards the exit. Joshua Logan
Joshua Logan
Joshua Lockwood Logan III was an American stage and film director and writer.-Early years:Logan was born in Texarkana, Texas, the son of Susan and Joshua Lockwood Logan. When he was three years old his father committed suicide...
, who was in attendance, loudly ordered the crowd to sit down, which it did. One of the Boston tryouts which followed New Haven was marked by boisterous behavior by conventioneers, until Hammerstein yelled, "Shut up!" and the audience subsided.
Act 1
The play opens with Marjorie Taylor in bed, in 1905. Wife of small town doctor Joseph Taylor, she has just had a son. The people of the town predict great things for Joseph Taylor, Jr., or Joe as he will come to be called (Musical number: "Joseph Taylor, Jr."). Joe learns what a baby learns: the comforting presence of his mother, the presence of another figure, who does not smell as nice, and who always leaves as soon as he picks up his black bag. Joe is seen as a baby and then not again as a child; the audience takes his perspective. Joe's Grandma notices him trying to walk, calls for Marjorie to witness the first steps, and once he takes them, as the chorus states, "the world belongs to Joe" ("One Foot, Other Foot"). Joe grows to school age, and loses his beloved Grandma. He is comforted by Jenny Brinker, a businessman's daughter. The two grow to high school age and date, though Joe lacks the nerve to kiss her, to Jenny's frustration. As Joe prepares to leave for college, Dr. Taylor hopes that his son will help him in his medical practice, and he and Marjorie wonder if Joe will marry Jenny ("A Fellow Needs a GirlA Fellow Needs a Girl
"A Fellow Needs a Girl" is a show tune written by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II for their 1947 musical Allegro. It has since become a standard, with recordings by many vocalists including Perry Como, Doris Day, Frank Sinatra and Bryn Terfel....
").
At the freshman mixer ("Freshman Dance"), the audience finally sees Joe onstage. He marvels at his new world, in which he is a loner ("A Darn Nice Campus"). Joe serves ineffectively as a cheerleader ("The Purple and the Brown"), rooting for the Wildcats, whose star player is Joe's freshman classmate Charlie Townsend. Both are pre-medical students and soon become close friends. The friendship helps both; Joe gains entrance to Charlie's fraternity and social circles, while Charlie is allowed to copy Joe's conscientious schoolwork.
While Joe is at college, Jenny remains at home, and her wealthy father, Ned Brinker, who disapproves of Joe for spending so many years in school before earning a living, encourages her to find other boyfriends. Jenny does not bother to conceal these romances in her letters; Joe is finally fed up, and goes on a double date with Charlie and two girls. Beulah, Joe's date, is initially enthusiastic about the budding romance ("So Far
So Far (song)
"So Far" is a show tune from the 1947 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical Allegro.On July 28, 1947 , the song was recorded by Perry Como, and released by RCA Victor Records as a 78rpm single, catalog number 20-2402-A, with the flip side "A Fellow Needs a Girl". The song reached #11 on the Billboard...
") but walks away in disgust when Joe, who is unable to keep thoughts of Jenny from his mind, falls asleep after a passionate kiss. Jenny breaks up with the boy that Joe was afraid would marry her, and she is waiting for Joe when he returns home ("You Are Never Away"). Marjorie Taylor is convinced that Jenny is the wrong girl for Joe, and after a confrontation with Jenny when she tells her this, Marjorie dies of a heart attack. Despite the disapproval of both families ("What a Lovely Day for a Wedding"), Joe and Jenny marry, a wedding observed by the unhappy ghosts of Marjorie and Grandma ("Wish Them Well").
Act 2
It is the Depression. Joe makes a bare living as assistant to his father. Mr. Brinker's business has failed, and he lives with the couple, who are experiencing poverty for the first time in their lives. The poverty affects Jenny more than Joe—the new Mrs. Taylor dislikes life as an impoverished housewife ("Money Isn't Everything"). When she learns that Joe turned down a lucrative offer from a prominent Chicago physician, who is Charlie's uncle, Jenny at first rages. When she finds that is not effective, she gets him to change his mind through guilt—if he accepts Dr. Denby's offer, he can earn the money to start the small hospital of which his father dreams and they will have the money to bring up a child properly.Joe accepts the job, and sadly leaves his father. He soon finds himself ministering to hypochondriacs; he is required to spend time at cocktail parties marked by useless conversation ("Yatata, Yatata, Yatata"). Charlie is also part of the practice, but the former football star has turned to drink. Joe himself is becoming careless due to the distractions; one mistake is caught by his nurse, Emily, who greatly admires the physician Joe could be ("The Gentleman is a Dope"). Denby congratulates Joe on his skills, both medical and social. The elder doctor has less time for a nurse, Carrie Middleton who has worked at his hospital for thirty years and once dated him, but who is involved in a labor protest—Denby orders her fired at the request of Lansdale, an influential trustee and soap manufacturer. Charlie, Joe and Emily comment on the frenetic pace of the Chicago world in which they live ("Allegro").
Joe has become increasingly disillusioned by his life in the city, and worries about his former patients in his home town. He learns that Jenny is having an affair with Lansdale. As Joe sits, head in hands, his late mother and a chorus of the friends he left behind appeal to him to return ("Come Home"). Joe has been offered the position of physician-in-chief at the Chicago hospital, replacing Denby, who is taking an executive position, or as the elder doctor terms it, being "kicked upstairs". At a dedication of a new pavilion at the hospital, Joe has a revelation and shifts the path of his life; as he does so, Grandma appears and calls for Marjorie to come watch, an echo of the scene in which he learned to walk. Joe refuses the position, and will return to his small town to assist his father, accompanied by Emily and Charlie, but not by Jenny (Finale: "One Foot, Other Foot" (reprise)).
Musical numbers
Act I- "Joseph Taylor, Jr." – Ensemble
- "I Know it Can Happen Again" – Grandma Taylor
- "One Foot, Other Foot" – Ensemble
- "A Fellow Needs a GirlA Fellow Needs a Girl"A Fellow Needs a Girl" is a show tune written by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II for their 1947 musical Allegro. It has since become a standard, with recordings by many vocalists including Perry Como, Doris Day, Frank Sinatra and Bryn Terfel....
" – Dr. Taylor and Marjorie Taylor - "Freshman Dance" – Ensemble
- "A Darn Nice Campus" – Joe Taylor
- "The Purple and the Brown" – Ensemble
- "So FarSo Far (song)"So Far" is a show tune from the 1947 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical Allegro.On July 28, 1947 , the song was recorded by Perry Como, and released by RCA Victor Records as a 78rpm single, catalog number 20-2402-A, with the flip side "A Fellow Needs a Girl". The song reached #11 on the Billboard...
" – Beulah - "You Are Never Away" – Joe, Jenny Brinker and Ensemble
- "What a Lovely Day for a Wedding" – Ensemble
- "It May Be a Good Idea for Joe" – Charlie Townsend
- "To Have and to Hold" – Ensemble
- "Wish Them Well" – Ensemble
Act II
- "Money Isn't Everything" – Jenny and Other Wives
- "Hazel Dances" – Instrumental
- "Yatata, Yatata, Yatata" – Charlie and Ensemble
- "The Gentleman is a Dope" – Emily
- "Allegro" – Charlie, Joe, Emily and Ensemble
- "Come Home" – Marjorie
- Finale: "One Foot, Other Foot" (Reprise) – Ensemble
Production history
Given the outstanding success of Oklahoma! and Carousel, Allegro was anticipated with close interest by the theatre community and public. The musical attracted $750,000 in advance sales, at a time when the top price ticket for a Broadway musical was $6.Allegro opened on Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
at the Majestic Theatre on October 10, 1947. It starred John Battles
John Battles
John Battles was a musical and dramatic theater actor and a native of New York City, NY. Battles' breakout role and career highlight came in 1944 as Gabey in the original Broadway production of the hit musical comedy "On the Town." In 1947, he debuted as the lead in Rodgers' and Hammerstein's...
as Joseph Taylor, Jr., Annamary Dickey as Majorie Taylor, William Ching
William Ching
William Ching, also credited as William Brooks, Bill Ching and William Brooks Ching was a United States character actor who appeared in almost 20 films and on television during the later 1940s and throughout the 1950s...
as Dr. Joseph Taylor, Roberta Jonay as Jenny Brinker, Lisa Kirk
Lisa Kirk
Lisa Kirk was an American actress and singer noted for her comic talents and rich contralto .-Career:...
as Emily, and John Conte
John Conte (actor)
John Conte was a stage and film actor and television broadcaster.Conte was born in Palmer, Massachusetts. His Mother Maria migrated to the United States, from Calabria, with her lifelong friend Francesca Cuda, who moved to Los Angeles before the Conte family...
as Charlie Townsend. A special performance the afternoon of the opening for friends and associates generated wild applause; the audience at the official opening that evening clapped little. As de Mille's husband, Walter Prude, put it, Allegro went over "like a wet firecracker".
The mixed reviews prompted ongoing discussions of the play's merit, continuing well after the first night. Some of the news that the show generated had nothing to do with its worth—de Mille had dancer Francis Rainer fired, and Rainer alleged that the dismissal was due to her union activism. After Actors Equity became involved, Rainer was rehired. More bad publicity came when the producers proposed to dismiss several orchestra and chorus members to cut costs so the show might continue through the summer of 1948, and the fired performers also alleged dismissal for union involvement. The show closed before the summer, and in the fall, a national tour began. The national tour ran eight months, much shorter than that of Oklahoma! or Carousel. No London production was mounted. According to Thomas Hischak in his The Rodgers and Hammerstein Encyclopedia, the show made a small profit; other sources state that the show lost money.
The show was popular in the 1950s among amateur drama societies, because of the large cast with no star and the bare stage. It has rarely been revived professionally: the St. Louis Municipal Opera presented it in 1955; Goodspeed Musicals
Goodspeed Musicals
Goodspeed Musicals, a non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation and advancement of musical theater and the creation of new works, was formed in 1959 to restore the Goodspeed Opera House, located in East Haddam, Connecticut, to its original Victorian appearance. Each year, Goodspeed...
presented it in Connecticut in 1968. An abridged version was presented Off-Off-Broadway
Off-Off-Broadway
Off-Off-Broadway theatrical productions in New York City are those in theatres that are smaller than Broadway and Off-Broadway theatres. Off-Off-Broadway theaters are often defined as theaters that have fewer than 100 seats, though the term can be used for any show in the New York City area that...
in 1978 by Equity Library Theatre.
In March 1994 a staged concert version was presented by New York City Center Encores!
Encores!
Encores! Great American Musicals in Concert is a program that has been presented by New York City Center since 1994. Encores! is dedicated to performing the full score of musicals that rarely are heard in New York City...
, with a cast that included Stephen Bogardus
Stephen Bogardus
-Biography:Born in Norfolk, Virginia, Bogardus graduated from Choate Rosemary Hall in 1972 and Princeton University in 1976, where he was a member of the Princeton Nassoons and the Princeton Triangle Club.-Career:...
(Joseph Taylor, Jr.), Karen Ziemba
Karen Ziemba
Karen Ziemba is an American actress, singer and dancer, best known for her work in musical theatre.-Biography:Ziemba was born in St. Joseph, Michigan, and went on to attend the University of Akron , where she studied dance and joined the Ohio Ballet in her sophomore year.Her Broadway debut was in...
and Jonathan Hadary
Jonathan Hadary
Jonathan Hadary is an American actor.Born in Chicago, Illinois and raised in Bethesda, Maryland, Hadary arrived at Tufts University already an accomplished actor. He was promptly cast by every director at Tufts, both student and faculty. During his sophomore year, he became an understudy for the...
. Christopher Reeve
Christopher Reeve
Christopher D'Olier Reeve was an American actor, film director, producer, screenwriter, author and activist...
was the narrator, and the concert was directed by Susan H. Schulman
Susan H. Schulman
Susan H. Schulman is an American theater director.Intent on a career as an actress, Schulman studied drama at Hofstra University in Hempstead, Long Island, New York in the 1960s. She attended Yale University on a playwrighting fellowship, graduating with a Master's Degree...
. A revised version of Allegro, re-written by Joe DiPietro
Joe DiPietro
Joe DiPietro is an American playwright and author.Born in Teaneck, New Jersey, DiPietro grew up in nearby Oradell. Son of the banker Lou, and Jean DiPietro. He attended Oradell Public School and River Dell Regional High School. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Rutgers University in 1984 with a...
, who was a protege of Oscar's son James Hammerstein
James Hammerstein
James Hammerstein was an American theatre director and producer. He was the son of Oscar Hammerstein II and his wife Dorothy ....
, was produced at the Signature Theatre (Arlington, Virginia) in January 2004. This version cut the musical in size and scale. The cast was cut with some characters being combined; the original, lavish orchestrations were simplified.
Musical treatment
Although Allegro is filled with music, the music is fragmented, as the characters often break into song briefly. The character of Joe was unusual for a male lead of the time in having relatively little to sing; Joe has only one solo number ("A Darn Nice Campus"). Important songs are given to minor characters, such as "So Far", given to Beulah, who only appears on the one date with Joe. Author and composer Ethan MorddenEthan Mordden
Ethan Mordden is an American author.-Biography:Mordden was raised in Pennsylvania, in Venice, Italy, and on Long Island, and is a graduate of Friends Academy in Locust Valley, New York, and the University of Pennsylvania...
calls Rodgers's technique "the deconstruction of theatre music, to match the show's deconstruction of traditional theatre design".
Rodgers's music is more subtle than in his previous musicals, and his melodies more muted. The key changes are less dramatic than in other musicals of that time. Rodgers did not intend for the songs to become hits; instead they were designed to draw the audience into the action, as onstage events were described subjectively in song.
Recordings
An original cast recording was released in 1947, heavily abridged. According to Hischak, only Lisa Kirk as Emily shines on the recording, which he calls "sad evidences of a very ambitious undertaking. Originally issued by Victor Records on five 78sGramophone record
A gramophone record, commonly known as a phonograph record , vinyl record , or colloquially, a record, is an analog sound storage medium consisting of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove...
, sales were poor; Victor did not reissue it on LP during the rapid transition from 78s to long-playing records in 1949–1950, when most record companies were hastily transferring their entire catalogues onto the new medium. The recording was made available briefly in simulated stereo in the 1960s, and was reissued in the 1970s in the original mono. The original cast recording was released on compact disc in 1993.
A studio recording of the complete score was made in 2008, with Patrick Wilson
Patrick Wilson (actor)
Patrick Joseph Wilson is an American actor and singer. Wilson has spent years singing lead roles in major Broadway musicals, beginning in 1996. In 2003, he appeared in the HBO mini-series Angels in America...
as Joe, and Nathan Gunn
Nathan Gunn
Nathan Gunn is an operatic baritone from the United States.He has appeared in many of world's well-known opera houses, including the Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Houston Grand Opera, Seattle Opera, Dallas Opera, Opera Company of Philadelphia, Pittsburgh Opera,...
and Audra McDonald
Audra McDonald
Audra Ann McDonald is an American actress and singer. She currently stars in the ABC television drama Private Practice as Dr. Naomi Bennett. She has appeared on the stage in both musicals and dramas, such as Ragtime and A Raisin in the Sun...
as his parents. The album, produced by Sony Masterworks Broadway, was released on February 3, 2009. According to musical theatre author John Kenrick
John Kenrick (theatre writer)
John Kenrick is an American author, teacher and theatre and film historian. Kenrick is an adjunct teacher of musical theatre history at New York University, Brind School – University of the Arts and The New School, and lectures frequently on the subject elsewhere...
, "this all star studio cast glorifies all that is right with this melodious and sometimes adventurous score".
Critical reception
The musical received mixed reviews following its opening night. The New York TimesThe New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
critic Brooks Atkinson
Brooks Atkinson
Justin Brooks Atkinson was an American theatre critic. He worked for The New York Times from 1925 to 1960...
opined that Rodgers and Hammerstein had "just missed the final splendor of a perfect work of art". Robert Coleman of the New York Daily Mirror
New York Daily Mirror
The New York Daily Mirror was an American morning tabloid newspaper first published on June 24, 1924, in New York City by the William Randolph Hearst organization as a contrast to their mainstream broadsheets, the Evening Journal and New York American, later consolidated into the New York Journal...
stated that "Allegro is perfection", and added that it was "a stunning blending of beauty, integrity, intelligence, imagination, taste and skill ... it lends new stature to the American musical stage". Ward Morehouse of The Sun wrote that Allegro was "distinguished and tumultuous. It takes its place alongside of Oklahoma! and Carousel as a theatrical piece of taste, imagination, and showmanship."
However, Wolcott Gibbs
Wolcott Gibbs
Wolcott Gibbs was an American editor, humorist, theatre critic, playwright and author of short stories, who worked for The New Yorker magazine from 1927 until his death. He is best remembered for his 1936 parody of Time magazine, which skewered the magazine's inverted narrative structure...
of The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
called the musical "a shocking disappointment". Robert Garland, in the New York Journal American
New York Journal American
The New York Journal American was a newspaper published from 1937 to 1966. The Journal American was the product of a merger between two New York newspapers owned by William Randolph Hearst: The New York American , a morning paper, and the New York Evening Journal, an afternoon paper...
suggested that Rodgers and Hammerstein "had confused allegro
George Jean Nathan
George Jean Nathan was an American drama critic and editor.-Early life:Nathan was born in Fort Wayne, Indiana...
, in a special piece in the Journal American, decried "such hokum mush as the familiar wedding scene and the ghost of a mother who returns at intervals to keep her son from error, but a cocktail party chatterbox number paraphrased from an old Noël Coward
Noël Coward
Sir Noël Peirce Coward was an English playwright, composer, director, actor and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what Time magazine called "a sense of personal style, a combination of cheek and chic, pose and poise".Born in Teddington, a suburb of London, Coward attended a dance academy...
movie, a college number dittoed from an earlier George Abbott
George Abbott
George Francis Abbott was an American theater producer and director, playwright, screenwriter, and film director and producer whose career spanned more than nine decades.-Early years:...
one, and various other elements hardly rivaling the daisy in freshness". In Theatre Arts, Cecil Smith called Allegro "acceptable only as an exercise in stagecraft, not as a work of art ... Allegro fails where Our Town succeeded ... Joseph Taylor, Jr.'s life has little or nothing to tell us about our own lives." Louis Kronenberger
Louis Kronenberger
Louis Kronenberger was an American critic and author. He was a novelist and biographer, and wrote extensively on drama and the 18th century.-Biography:He studied at the University of Cincinnati from 1921...
of New York P.M. called the show "an out-and-out failure."
De Mille's direction and choreography were reviewed generally positively; Cecil Smith applauded her for the "ease and flawless design with which Miss de Mille brings mobility to these non-dancing
John Martin (dance critic)
John Martin became America’s first major dance critic in 1927. Focusing his efforts on propelling the modern dance movement, he greatly influenced the careers of dancers such as Martha Graham...
stated, "Allegro has definitely made history" for de Mille's giving "form and substance to material with little of either". Dance Magazine
Dance Magazine
Dance Magazine is an "influential" American trade publication for dance, currently published by the Macfadden Communications Group. It was first published in June 1927 as The American Dancer. William Como was its editor-in-chief from 1970 to his death in 1989. Wendy Perron became its editor-in...
praised her for creating "the illusion of space and depth far beyond the confines of the proscenium".
As the disagreement continued past the opening night, Wayne Abrams wrote in the Chicago Sun-Times
Chicago Sun-Times
The Chicago Sun-Times is an American daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois. It is the flagship paper of the Sun-Times Media Group.-History:The Chicago Sun-Times is the oldest continuously published daily newspaper in the city...
, "Nobody is neutral about Allegro. The Hammerstein-Rodgers-de Mille musical play is either nigh unto perfection or a dismal flop. There's that much room for disagreement."
Aftermath
Hammerstein was embittered by audience and critical reaction to his book, and felt they misunderstood it. Public perception was that Hammerstein had implied that small-town folk were good while their big-city cousins were neurotic and venal. The lyricist objected, pointing out that the worst character in the musical was a small-town girl, but according to Hammerstein biographer Hugh Fordin, "he knew it was his fault that the message was not clear." In a preface to the published script, issued in 1948, Hammerstein tried again to make his point:
It is a law of our civilization, that as soon as a man proves he can contribute to the well-being of the world, there be created an immediate conspiracy to destroy his usefulness, a conspiracy in which he is usually a willing collaborator. Sometimes he awakens to his danger and does something about it.
According to Frederick Nolan, in his book about the pair's music, "Reexamined today, Allegro
Bertolt Brecht
Bertolt Brecht was a German poet, playwright, and theatre director.An influential theatre practitioner of the 20th century, Brecht made equally significant contributions to dramaturgy and theatrical production, the latter particularly through the seismic impact of the tours undertaken by the...
approach."
A decade after Allegros premiere, after learning of his fatal cancer, Hammerstein returned to the musical, hoping to correct its flaws, but he did not complete the project. While recording an oral history
Oral history
Oral history is the collection and study of historical information about individuals, families, important events, or everyday life using audiotapes, videotapes, or transcriptions of planned interviews...
tape for Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
, Hammerstein stated, "I intended Dick to write music for it
The relative failure of Allegro reinforced the team's determination to have another hit. Author James Michener recalled his meeting with the duo over the possibility of converting his book Tales of the South Pacific
Tales of the South Pacific
Tales of the South Pacific is a Pulitzer Prize-winning book, which is a collection of sequentially related short stories about World War II, written by James A. Michener in 1946 and published in 1947...
into a musical. "They were inwardly burning because of the reception accorded to Allegro. Those fellows were so mad I was fairly certain that they could make a great musical out of the Bronx telephone directory." That project would become South Pacific
South Pacific (musical)
South Pacific is a musical with music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II and book by Hammerstein and Joshua Logan. The story draws from James A. Michener's Pulitzer Prize-winning 1947 book Tales of the South Pacific, weaving together characters and elements from several of its...
and be a tremendous hit.
Hischak ties the failure of Allegro to a change in the pair's style:
The failure of Allegro only partially tarnished the reputation of Rodgers and Hammerstein; after all, it was a very respectable flop. Yet the long-term repercussions were more serious. Never again would R&H experiment so boldly and risk losing their audience. They would continue to come up with surprising and wonderful things, but the days of radical and foolhardy innovation were over. From then on they would stick to the tried and true. Allegro marked the end of the R&H revolution.
Original Broadway production
| Year | Award Ceremony | Category | Nominee | Result | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1947 | Donaldson Award | Best Book of a Musical | Oscar Hammerstein II Oscar Hammerstein II Oscar Greeley Clendenning Hammerstein II was an American librettist, theatrical producer, and theatre director of musicals for almost forty years. Hammerstein won eight Tony Awards and was twice awarded an Academy Award for "Best Original Song". Many of his songs are standard repertoire for... |
||
| Best Lyrics | |||||
| Best Score | Richard Rodgers Richard Rodgers Richard Charles Rodgers was an American composer of music for more than 900 songs and for 43 Broadway musicals. He also composed music for films and television. He is best known for his songwriting partnerships with the lyricists Lorenz Hart and Oscar Hammerstein II... |
External links
- Allegro info page on StageAgent.com - Allegro plot summary & character descriptions