There are three books I am 99 percent sure my beloved John has in his library: The Joy of Music by Leonard Bernstein; Apple of My Eye by Helene Hanff; and Instrumentally Speaking by Robert Russell Bennett, orchestrator of the music of Richard Rodgers. Bennett was the primary orchestrator for the following Rodgers & Hammerstein stage musicals, all now part of the foundation of modern American musical theater:
- Oklahoma, 1943
- Carousel, 1945 (entracte above)
- Allegro, 1947
- South Pacific, 1949
- The King and I, 1951
- Cinderella, 1957 (entire show here)
- Flower Drum Song, 1958
- The Sound of Music, 1959
…which pretty much makes him the true architect of “The Broadway Sound”. The sonic lines of his work can still be heard in every screen enhancement and stage revival of these classics, no matter how offbeat or “reimagined” the productions—listen to Daniel Kluger’s clever but correct re-orchestration of the title song for 2019 Broadway’s Oklahoma!
As you probably know, faithful readers, John previously recorded Oklahoma! a couple years ago and won some sort of award for it…so of course it was only a matter of time before he got on to R&H’s second classic score. Whether this means that the powers-that-be intend for my bonny to conduct the entire R&H+Bennett catalog I do not know. Personally, since he’s already batting 3 for 3 when it comes to his performance repertoire and my old boss Rouben Mamoulian‘s classic stage productions, I’d love to hear his complete George Gershwin opera, Porgy and Bess.
Actually, what I’d REALLY love, John, is a new recording of a work that even Richard Rodgers himself admitted was 10 percent Rodgers and 90 percent Robert Russell Bennett—Victory at Sea! Oh, I’d sooo love to hear you do something with this:
EXTRA! Some tunes from Carousel covered elsewhere on this blog:
- “June Is Bustin’ Out All Over” John and his JWO on Chandos
- “You’ll Never Walk Alone” John and his JWO on Chandos by request
- “You’ll Never Walk Alone” on Cheers, season 1 episode 15 my favorite
- “Soliloquy” from The Ed Sulllivan Show (1952) which includes the “when I have a daughter” bridge
"I'll Be Dead Before You Break My Heart" 
“[1]Bennett was the original orchestrator for the following Rodgers & Hammerstein stage musicals….[2] The sonic lines of his work can still be heard in every screen enhancement and stage revival of these classics”
Re “Carousel,” there’s a teeny bit of truth in [1], but I’d want your readers to understand clearly that its (stage) orchestrations were overwhelmingly Don Walker’s work.
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Re “Victory at Sea”: if only Rodgers had been so honest! Imagine his (ghostwritten) “Musical Stages” saying, “me, I only wrote twelve tunes—a dozen minutes of music. For sixteen of the episodes, I didn’t hand Russell Bennett anything new at all,” then *that* would’ve fully credited RRB, rather than the vague nonsense about a “a series of tunes” and that Russell “made my music sound better than it was.”
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BTW, _Beneath_ the Southern Cross…..(and VAS wasn’t concerned only with WWII’s Pacific theater). “Victory at Sea” is quite a story—Rodgers and Bennett and otherwise—told in detail in the new book.
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Victory at Sea description corrected. Thanks!
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