Jump to content
Main menu
Main menu
move to sidebar
hide
Navigation
Main page
Recent changes
Random page
Help about MediaWiki
Special pages
Niidae Wiki
Search
Search
Appearance
Create account
Log in
Personal tools
Create account
Log in
Pages for logged out editors
learn more
Contributions
Talk
Editing
South Pacific (musical)
(section)
Page
Discussion
English
Read
Edit
View history
Tools
Tools
move to sidebar
hide
Actions
Read
Edit
View history
General
What links here
Related changes
Page information
Appearance
move to sidebar
hide
Warning:
You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you
log in
or
create an account
, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.
Anti-spam check. Do
not
fill this in!
=== Inception === In the early 1940s, composer [[Richard Rodgers]] and lyricist [[Oscar Hammerstein II]], each a longtime Broadway veteran, joined forces and began their collaboration by writing two musicals that became massive hits, ''[[Oklahoma!]]'' (1943) and ''[[Carousel (musical)|Carousel]]'' (1945).<ref>Hyland, p. 167</ref> An innovation for its time in integrating song, dialogue and dance, ''Oklahoma!'' would serve as "the model for Broadway shows for decades".<ref>Hischak, p. 202</ref> In 1999, ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' magazine named ''Carousel'' the best musical of the century, writing that Rodgers and Hammerstein "set the standards for the 20th-century musical".<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20071125162947/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,993039-2,00.html "The best of the century"], ''Time'', December 31, 1999, accessed December 21, 2010</ref> Their next effort, ''[[Allegro (musical)|Allegro]]'' (1947), was a comparative disappointment, running for less than a year, although it turned a small profit.<ref>Hischak, pp. 5β7</ref> After this, the two were determined to achieve another hit.<ref name = "N173">Nolan, p. 173</ref> According to director [[Joshua Logan]], a friend of both theatre men, he and [[Leland Hayward]] mentioned Michener's best-selling book to Rodgers as a possible basis for the duo's next play,<ref name="Lovensheimer 46">Lovensheimer, p. 46</ref> but the composer took no action. Logan recalled that he then pointed it out to Hammerstein, who read Michener's book and spoke to Rodgers; the two agreed to do the project so long as they had majority control, to which Hayward grudgingly agreed.<ref>Fordin, pp. 259β260; and Logan, pp. 266β267</ref> Michener, in his 1992 memoirs, however, wrote that the stories were first pitched as a movie concept to [[MGM]] by [[Kenneth MacKenna]], head of the studio's literary department. MacKenna's half brother was [[Jo Mielziner]], who had designed the sets for ''Carousel'' and ''Allegro''. Michener states that Mielziner learned of the work from MacKenna and brought it to the attention of Hammerstein and Rodgers, pledging to create the sets if they took on the project.<ref>Lovensheimer, p. 47</ref> Hayward attempted to buy the rights from Michener outright, offering $500; Michener declined. Although playwright [[Lynn Riggs]] had received 1.5% of the box office grosses for the right to adapt ''[[Green Grow the Lilacs (play)|Green Grow the Lilacs]]'' into ''Oklahoma!'', Michener never regretted accepting one percent of the gross receipts from ''South Pacific''. As Rodgers and Hammerstein began their work on the adaptation, Michener worked mostly with the lyricist, but Rodgers was concerned about the implications of the setting, fearing that he would have to include ukuleles and guitars, which he disliked. Michener assured him that the only instrument he had ever heard the natives play was an emptied barrel of gasoline, drummed upon with clubs.<ref>May, p. 80</ref>
Summary:
Please note that all contributions to Niidae Wiki may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here.
You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see
Encyclopedia:Copyrights
for details).
Do not submit copyrighted work without permission!
Cancel
Editing help
(opens in new window)
Search
Search
Editing
South Pacific (musical)
(section)
Add topic