Richard Rodgers

Geoffrey Block knows everything there is to know about Rodgers, but frustratingly this book is arranged on the lines of a patchwork quilt; if you're looking for something on a particular show (say FLOWER DRUM SONG) you're wasting your time here. Perhaps to see Rodgers through fresh eyes, Block narrows down his focus and his individual chapters pick up on very rarefied aspects of Rodgers' career. If there is just about nothing on FLOWER DRUM SONG or THE SOUND OF MUSIC, you'll find a learned monograph on the three versions of the TV project CINDERELLA. The learning's worn lightly and the writing is everywhere vivid and provocative.As in his previous book THE RICHARD RODGERS READER, Block attempts a giant salvage operation, making a serious case for the worthwhileness, indeed the greatness, of Rodgers' final five musicals. I don't know if anyone will be convinced that TWO BY TWO or REX are great works of musical theater, but it's entertaining, just as a dip into the Bacon-wrote-Shakespeare camp might be. This is a book that will start a hundred arguments among lovers of Richard Rodgers, and there's nothing wrong with that.

If any college plans to teach a course on Richard Rodgers, they need look no further than this book for the perfect text. Here is a collection of essays, book chapters, reviews, etc., dealing with Rodgers in each of his eras. They range from a Time magazine piece on Rodgers and Hart in the late 30s, to a Holiday magazine piece on Rodgers and Hammerstein in the late 50s. The collection helps give the reader an even better understanding of Richard Rodgers than he does in his own autobiography, because, as the editor notes, in the interviews that make up the final section, Rodgers is much more at ease and more glib. Some of the articles are a little technical in nature, with their study of Rodgers' musical compositions, but anyone familiar with his writings should be able to understand what they're referring to, by simply running the tune through your head as you analyze what's being discussed. The book is hardly a whitewash, and is amazingly fair in its presentation of articles both friendly and not so friendly. For example, there's a chapter from Diahann Carroll's autobiography that paints Rodgers in a very unflattering light. The collection is not only informative, but it's very entertaining. While this book is good for people just getting familiar with Rodgers, it's probably best suited for the well-versed scholar, who will enjoy this research packed together in a handy volume, eliminating the need to head to the library's microfilm collection. Also, the editor does a very good job of pointing the reader to other articles that were not included (usually because of the cost, as he mentions in the foreword)but present an opposing view or elaborate further on an idea.Great job!