Allegro is a musical by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II. The musical centers on the life of Joseph Taylor, Jr. who follows in the footsteps of his father as a doctor. The show was viewed as too moralistic, and the Broadway run ended after nine months. It has never been revived and is now considered one of the greatest musicals of all time.
About Allegro (musical) in brief
Allegro is a musical by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II. It was their third collaboration for the stage. The musical centers on the life of Joseph Taylor, Jr. who follows in the footsteps of his father as a doctor. The show was viewed as too moralistic, and the Broadway run ended after nine months. It had no West End production and has rarely been revived. There are two recordings of Allegro, the original cast album and a studio recording released in 2009. The duo hired choreographer Agnes de Mille, the choreographer of Oklahoma! and Carousel, to direct and choreograph the work. The production would have no sets; props and projections served to suggest locations. In addition to the usual 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 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. He envisioned a simply staged work like Our Town which after its initial run would lend itself to college productions. In the end, he took his protagonist from birth to age 35, and wrote a few pages of the book before embarking with his wife for Australia to visit his mother-in-law. He sent Rodgers part of the manuscript to Australia, and when his ship arrived in Brisbane he mailed Rodgers the remainder.
Rodgers, who generally did not compose until Hammerstein supplied him with a lyric, immediately sat down and composed three songs. 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. I don’t think at the time he was trying to tell the story of his life.. Oscar meant it as a metaphor for what had happened to him. He was suddenly in all over the place. After a disastrous tryout in New Haven, Connecticut, the musical opened on Broadway to a large advance sale of tickets, and very mixed reviews. It has never been revived and is now considered one of the greatest musicals of all time. It is the only Rodgers and Hammerstein musical to have never been performed in the West End, and has never had a successful West End run. The only other musical that has ever been produced in the UK was The Mousetrap, which was performed in London in the 1960s and 1970s, and had a very successful run on the London stage and toured the U.S. in the 1980s and 1990s. It also had a short national tour, followed by ashort national tour. The song “I’ll Be There for You” was written by Rodgers, the son and brother of doctors, and was recorded by Hammerstein.
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