Richard Rodgers

Oscar Hammerstein and his musical, "Oklahoma!" at the Paramount Theatre in Chicago, Illinois was nominated for a 2016 Joseph Jefferson (Equity) Award for Large Musical Production.

Oscar Hammerstein and his musical, "The King and I" at the Marriott Theatre in Chicago, Illinois was nominated for a 2015 Joseph Jefferson Equity Award for Large Musical Production.

Lorenz Hart and his musical, "Pal Joey, "at the Porchlight Music Theatre in Chicago, Illinois was nominated for a 2013 Equity Joseph Jefferson Award for Midsize Musical Production.

Oscar Hammerstein and his musical, "The Sound of Music" at the Drury Lane Oakbrook Theatre in Oakbrook, Illinois was nominated for a 2012 Equity Joseph Jefferson Award for Musical Production (Large).

Oscar Hammerstein and his musical, "The King and I," at the Porchlight Music Theatre in Chicago, Illinois was nominated for the 2011 Equity Joseph Jefferson Award for Musical Production (Midsize).

His musical, "South Pacific" in a Lincoln Center Theater production at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles, California was awarded the 2010 Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle McCulloh Award for (Shows Written between 1920 and 1980).

Oscar Hammerstein and his musical, "The King and I" at the Marriott Theatre in Chicago, Illinois was awarded the 2001 Equity Joseph Jefferson Award for Musical Production.

"The King and I" was performed at the London Palladium in 2000 and was nominated for Outstanding Musical Production at the Laurence Olivier Theatre Awards in 2001.

His musical "Oklahoma!" was awarded the 1998 London Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Musical.

"Carousel" was awarded the 1996 Drama Logue Award for Production in the Royal National Theatre production at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles, California.

Oscar Hammerstein and his musical, "The King and I" at the Marriott Theatre in Chicago, Illinois was nominated for a 1987 Equity Joseph Jefferson Award for Musical Production.

Broadway's 46th Street Theater was renamed the Richard Rodgers Theater in 1980. This was somewhat ironic, in that none of Rodgers' major shows ever played at that theater.

Won a 1979 Lawrence Langner Tony Award (New York City) and for a distinguished life in the American theater.

Won a 1972 individual Special Tony Award (New York City).

In addition to their phenomenal success as writers of their own shows, Rodgers and Hammerstein produced shows by other writers, as well, most notably Irving Berlin's "Annie Get Your Gun" and John Van Druten's "I Remember Mama." The latter, incidentally, became the basis for Rodgers' last completed show. Written in collaboration with Martin Charnin and starring Liv Ullmann, Rodgers' "I Remember Mama" was one of the most notorious Broadway flops of the 1970s, running only a few months in 1979, largely on advance ticket sales. Rodgers died shortly after it closed. Most agreed that it was a sad end to an otherwise distinguished career.

Served as Managing Director of the Music Theater of Lincoln Center, 1964-1969. During this period, the Music Theater, whose productions were given at the New York State Theater, presented three successful revivals of Rodgers and Hammerstein shows: "The King and I" with Risë Stevens, Darren McGavin and Frank Porretta in 1964; "Carousel" with John Raitt and Edward Everett Horton in 1965 and "South Pacific" with Florence Henderson and Giorgio Tozzi in 1967.

Won a 1961 Special Tony Award (New York City) for his work with young people in the theater and putting the orchestra on the stage in his production "No Strings.".

The 1956 West German film "The Trapp Family" - about the von Trapp family, and its 1958 sequel "Die Trapp-Familie in America" became the most successful films in West Germany during the post-war years. The two films popularity extended throughout Europe and South America. In 1956, Paramount Pictures purchased the United States film rights, intending to produce an English language version with Audrey Hepburn as Maria. The studio eventually dropped their option; but one of the Paramount film studio's directors involved in preliminary development of the film, Vincent J. Donehue, proposed the story as a stage musical for his friend Mary Martin. Broadway producers Leland Hayward and Richard Halliday (Mary Martin's husband) agreed and secured the rights. Originally envisioned as a non-musical play, they hired playwrights Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse, who had won the Pulitzer Prize for "State of the Union," with the play featuring songs from the repertoire of the Trapp Family Singers. Developing the property, Mary Martin agreed with the production team to ask Richard Rogers to add an original song or two by Rogers and Hammerstein. Soon, agreed with the composers Rogers and Hammerstein, the two styles of traditional Austrian folk songs and their two song compositions would not work together. Rogers and Hammerstein offered to write a complete new score for the entire production if the producers were willing to wait while they completed work on "Flower Drum Song." Rogers and Hammerstein based their fictionalized musical on the memoir of Maria Augusta von Trapp, "The Story of the Trapp Family Singers" - published in 1949 by J.B. Lippincott Company of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The original multiple Tony Award-winning Broadway musical by Richard Rogers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II and a book by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse - "The Sound of Music" - starring Mary Martin (at age 46) and Theodore Bikel (at age 35), opened on Broadway at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre on November 16, 1959, moved to the Mark Hellinger Theatre on November 6, 1962 and closed on June 15, 1963 after 1,433 performances. The director was Vincent J. Donehue, and the choreographer was Joe Layton. The original cast included Mary Martin as Maria, Theodore Bikel as Captain Georg von Trapp, (Rodgers and Hammerstein wrote the song "Edelweiss" specifically for him to perform), Patricia Neway as Mother Abbess, Kurt Kaszner as Max Detweiler, Marion Marlowe as Elsa Schrader, Brian Davies as Rolf and Lauri Peters as Liesl. Sopranos Patricia Brooks and June Card were ensemble members in the original production. The show tied for the Tony Award for Best Musical with "Fiorello!." Other awards included Martin for Best Actress in a Musical, Neway for Best featured Actress, Best Scenic Design (Oliver Smith) and Best Musical Direction (Frederick Dvonch). Bikel and Kasznar were nominated for Tony acting awards, and Donehue was nominated for his direction. The entire children's cast was nominated for Best Featured Actress category as a Tony single nominee, even though two children were boys. Mary's understudy Renee Guerin performed the 'Maria' role with Theodore Bikel during the Broadway run when Mary vacationed from the show. Martha Wright replaced Martin in the role of Maria on Broadway in October 1961, followed by Karen Gantz in July 1962, Jeannie Carson in August 1962 and Nancy Dussault in September 1962. Jon Voight, who eventually married co-star Lauri Peters, was a replacement for Rolf. The national tour starred Florence Henderson as Maria and Beatrice Krebs as Mother Abbess. It opened at the Grand Riviera Theater, Detroit, on February 27, 1961 and closed November 23, 1963 at the O'Keefe Centre, Toronto. Henderson was succeeded by Barbara Meister in June 1962. Theodore Bikel was not satisfied playing the role of the Captain because of the role's limited singing; Bikel did not like to play the same role over and over again. In his autobiography, he writes: "I promised myself then that if I could afford it, I would never do a run as long as that again." The original Broadway cast album sold three million copies. The musical premiered in London's West End at the Palace Theatre on May 18, 1961, and ran for 2,385 performances. It was directed by Jerome Whyte and used the original New York choreography, supervised by Joe Layton, and the original sets designed by Oliver Smith. The cast included Jean Bayless as Maria, followed by Sonia Rees, Roger Dann as Captain von Trapp, Constance Shacklock as Mother Abbess, Eunice Gayson as Elsa Schrader, Harold Kasket as Max Detweiler, Barbara Brown as Liesl, Nicholas Bennett as Rolf and Olive Gilbert as Sister Margaretta. "The Sound of Music" was the final musical written by Rodgers and Hammerstein. Oscar Hammerstein II died of cancer nine months after the Broadway premiere (b: July 12, 1895-to-d: August 23, 1960, at age 65).

Won eleven Tony Awards: three in 1950 for "South Pacific" for his music as part of the Best Musical win; as Best Composer; and as Best Producers (Musical), shared with Oscar Hammerstein II, Leland Hayward and Joshua Logan; one in 1952, for his music with Hammerstein's book and lyrics as part of a Best Musical win for "The King and I"; two in 1960, for his music as part of a Best Musical win for "The Sound of Music" in a tie with "Fiorello!, and as Best Composer, in a tie with Jerry Bock for "Fiorello!"; two in 1962, as Best Composer for "No Strings" and a Special Tony Award "for all he has done for young people in the theatre and for taking the men of the orchestra out of the pit and putting them on stage in 'No Strings';" one in 1972, another Special Tony Award; and one in 1979, the Lawrence Langner Memorial Award for Distinguished Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre. He was also Tony-nominated five other times: in 1956, for his music and as a co-producer of Best Musical nominee "Pipe Dream"; in 1959 for his music for Best Musical nominee "Flower Drum Song;" in 1962 for his music and lyrics and as co-producer of Best Musical nominee "No Strings;" in 1972 for Best Composer and Lyricist with collaborator Stephen Sondheim for "Do I Hear a Waltz?;" and in 1996, posthumously, for Best Original Musical Score, music only for designated songs that were original and not in the previous film version of State Fair (1945).

Along with his lyricist-partner Oscar Hammerstein II, he made more than ten appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show (1948), Ed Sullivan's television show. They are probably the only American musical play creators to have made that many personal appearances on one television series.

He was one of the pioneers, along with Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II, in the creation of a less frivolous type of musical theater than had been the case, in which musicals were adapted from well-known plays or novels, and featured dialog taken directly from those plays and/or novels, as well as believable, realistic characterizations, with dramatic storylines which sometimes contained tragedy and did not necessarily follow the usual formulas. His first musical using an unusual storyline and characters was "Pal Joey" , written with Lorenz Hart and produced in 1940, based on short stories by John O'Hara, about an unprincipled but sympathetic nightclub hoofer who does not reform. It was not very successful in its first run, but became a hit in 1952 (and was unfortunately watered down in its 1957 film version). The musicals Rodgers wrote, beginning in 1943 with Oscar Hammerstein II, overthrew many of the usual musical theater formulas of the time and continued the path begun by Hammerstein and Kern in their 1927 "Show Boat". The Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals sometimes used ballet sequences to reveal what was happening in the mind of one of the characters, the lead characters were not necessarily admirable people (i.e "Carousel"'s Billy Bigelow), one or more characters were sometimes killed off in the storylines, the hero and heroine did not necessarily fall in love or have a love scene (as in "The King and I"), and very often subjects which were then considered taboo in musicals were used. The songs in most of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals (with the exception of some of the musical numbers in "The Sound of Music") developed the storyline and the characters, and could not be removed from the shows without seriously damaging them.

Studied at the Institute of Musical Art in New York from 1921 to 1923.

Richard Rodgers was born on June 28, 1902 in Arverne, Queens, New York City, New York, USA as Richard Charles Rodgers. He was married to Dorothy Rodgers.

Family name was originally Rojazinsky, becoming Rodgers when his father changed the family name to a more Americanized one sometime in the 1880s.