Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/5/84; site ssc-vax.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!cbosgd!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxj!houxm!vax135!cornell!uw-beaver!ssc-vax!adolph
From: adolph@ssc-vax.UUCP (Mark Adolph)
Newsgroups: net.theater
Subject: Re: Musicals, specifically Rogers & Hammerstein
Message-ID: <301@ssc-vax.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 2-Jan-85 13:38:37 EST
Article-I.D.: ssc-vax.301
Posted: Wed Jan  2 13:38:37 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 3-Jan-85 23:45:59 EST
References: <274@pertec.UUCP>
Distribution: na
Organization: Boeing Aerospace Co., Seattle, WA
Lines: 27

*** YOUR MESSAGE ***

> What I'd like to discuss is what makes the R & H formula work?  I know
> in the back of my brain that I have been exposed to several of their
> works in the past, but I'm having trouble recalling, and some I'm
> afraid I may've mixed up with other playwrights/composers.  Does
> anyone have a list?  Which is your favorite, and why?  Have you
> seen different productions of the same play?  Working on Cinderella
> this fall was fun, but SoM is my all time favorite.  Unlike many
> productions, I like *all* the musical numbers, and with an adult's
> insight into the situation of Nazi-occupied Austria, I find the
> story more than merely entertaining.

A related question is whether The Sound of Music, if released today, would be 
as popular, or is it so listenable/watchable because the music is SO INCREDIBLY 
familiar.  I mean, although I really like "16 Going On 17", it really is quite 
a corny song when you get right down to it.

By the way, I saw a production of this several years ago in a dinner theater
in the round.  Very interesting the way they used such minimal set pieces,
none of which was more than a few feet tall so that no view would be blocked.
I think it worked quite well.

					-- Mark A.
					...uw-beaver!ssc-vax!adolph

	"We'll cross out that bridge when we come back to it later"