Editing Oscar Hammerstein II (section)

==Rodgers and Hammerstein==
{{main|Rodgers and Hammerstein}}
[[File:Hammerstein.jpg|thumb|right|Hammerstein watching an audition at the [[St. James Theatre]] on [[Broadway (Manhattan)|Broadway]], 1948]]

Hammerstein's most successful and sustained collaboration began when he teamed up with Rodgers to write a musical adaptation of the play ''[[Green Grow the Lilacs (play)|Green Grow the Lilacs]]''.<ref>{{harvnb|Fordin|1995|p=184}}</ref> Rodgers' first partner, [[Lorenz Hart]], originally planned to collaborate with Rodgers on this piece, but his alcoholism had spiraled out of control, rendering him incapacitated.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last=Castleden|first=Rodney|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cefwDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT99|title=Creative Encounters: That Changed the World|date=July 1, 2020|publisher=Canary Press eBooks|isbn=978-1-908698-43-8|pages=99}}</ref> Hart was also not certain that the idea had much merit, and the two therefore separated.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Carter |first=Tim |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=5RP0DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA40|title=Oklahoma!: The Making of an American Musical, Revised and Expanded Edition |date=July 31, 2020 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-066522-7 |pages=39}}</ref> The adaptation became the first Rodgers and Hammerstein collaboration, titled ''[[Oklahoma!]]'', which opened on Broadway in 1943.<ref name=":0" /> It furthered the revolution begun by ''[[Show Boat]]'', by thoroughly integrating all the aspects of musical theater, with the songs and dances arising out of and further developing the plot and characters.<ref name="history" />

William A. Everett and Paul R. Laird wrote that this was a "show, that, like ''Show Boat'', became a milestone, such that subsequent historians writing about important moments in twentieth-century theater began to identify eras according to their relationship to ''Oklahoma!''"<ref>Everett, William A. and Laird, Paul R. (2002), ''The Cambridge Companion to the Musical'', Cambridge University Press, p. 124, {{ISBN|0-521-79639-3}}</ref> After ''Oklahoma!'', Rodgers and Hammerstein were the most important contributors to the musical-play form—with such masterworks as ''[[Carousel (musical)|Carousel]]'', ''[[The King and I]]'' and ''[[South Pacific (musical)|South Pacific]]''. "The examples they set in creating vital plays, often rich with social thought, provided the necessary encouragement for other gifted writers to create musical plays of their own".<ref name=history/>

The partnership went on to produce not only the aforementioned, but also other Broadway musicals such as ''[[Allegro (musical)|Allegro]]'', ''[[Me and Juliet]]'', ''[[Pipe Dream (musical)|Pipe Dream]]'', ''[[Flower Drum Song]]'', and ''[[The Sound of Music]]'', as well as the musical film ''[[State Fair (1945 film)|State Fair]]'' (and its [[State Fair (musical)|stage adaptation of the same name]]), and the television musical ''[[Cinderella (Rodgers and Hammerstein musical)|Cinderella]]'', all featured in the [[revue]] ''[[A Grand Night for Singing]]''. Hammerstein also wrote the book and lyrics for ''[[Carmen Jones]]'', an adaptation of [[Georges Bizet]]'s opera ''[[Carmen]]'', with an all-black cast that became a 1943 Broadway musical and [[Carmen Jones (film)|a 1954 film]], starring [[Dorothy Dandridge]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=Camara |first1=Jorge |title=GOLDEN GLOBE WINNERS OF YESTERYEAR – CARMEN JONES |url=https://www.goldenglobes.com/articles/golden-globe-winners-yesteryear-%E2%80%93-carmen-jones |website=GoldenGlobes.com |publisher=[[Hollywood Foreign Press Association]] |date=April 20, 2011 |quote=The winner of the Golden Globe for the Best Comedy/Musical Picture of 1954 was Carmen Jones. The film, an adaptation of the Broadway musical of the same name, which in turn was an adaptation of Georges Bizet's famous opera "Carmen," respected the music, but used a script and new English lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein of Rodgers and Hammerstein musical fame.|access-date=August 22, 2020}}</ref>