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They created a string of popular Broadway musicals in the 1940s and 1950s, starting what is considered the "golden age" of musical theater. Five of their Broadway shows, Oklahoma!, Carousel, South Pacific, The King and I and The Sound of Music, were outstanding successes, as was the television broadcast of Cinderella.
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Even though he grew up in a very musical family, Oscar’s grandfather desperately wanted him to do anything other than theatre. So, he decided to be a lawyer. He attended Columbia University, in New York, as a law student; however, he couldn’t stay away from the stage. He began acting in the school’s Varsity Shows which were very similar to the Vaudeville acts his family had done.
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This week we have learned about Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein. We have learned that they were able to work together to become an influential, innovative, successful, American, musical theatre, writing team.
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“The Sound of Music” is based on the memoir of Maria von Trapp, and The Story of the Trapp Family Singers. Set in Austria on the eve of the Anschluss in 1938, the musical tells the story of Maria, who takes a job as governess to a large family while she decides whether to become a nun. She falls in love with the children, and eventually their widowed father, Captain von Trapp. He is ordered to accept a commission in the German navy, but he opposes the Nazis. He and Maria decide on a plan to flee Austria with the children.
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When the real Maria von Trapp popped up on an episode of The Julie Andrews Hour, she told Andrews that the actress was "absolutely wonderful" in the film, but her yodeling was not quite up to par—which led to this little duet.
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