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| |  | Author: Meryle Secrest
Publisher: Publisher
Category: Book
Buy Used: $17.50
Avg. Customer Rating:  13 reviews
Media: Hardcover
ASIN: B001H0IN60
Publication Date: January 1, 2001
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 As cold as its subject November 18, 2002
2 out of 4 found this review helpful
An oddly cold biography. The author apparently has no particular love for her subject, his music, or for the musical theatre. She describes all three dispassionately, most likely getting her facts right and offering us occasional quotes from people who knew Rodgers. But the book itself never catches fire. I stayed with it to the end because I'm interested in the subject and not horrified by the fact that he may have been rather cold. But the book itself left me cold, which was a disappointment.
Disappointing with a capital "D" May 14, 2002
I'm in a good mood today, and feeling generous -- hence the two stars. Secrest learned that Rodgers could be a rotten person, that he drank and was a womanizer. She then proceeds to beat us over the head with it at great length. I didn't count the words, but it seemed like she spent more time on that then she did on Rodgers and Hammerstein -- not to mention the post-Hammerstein years. We learn nothing about how these shows came about and what happened to them beyond the most cursory; it's if her research there was limited to the notes on the cast albums. I've kept most of my theater books, except for this one. It went to the used book store.
 A Review on A Musical Giant from A Neophyte February 22, 2002
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
My knowledge of Richard Rodgers was limited to the fact that he wrote the music and Lorenz Hart wrote the words to a favorite song of mine entitled Manhattan. I wanted to learn more about the partnership of Rodgers and Hart and found them to be an odd couple of sorts. Hart was a genius in writing lyrics, but was a difficult man to work with due to his problem with alcohol. Rodgers finally had to find a new partner when Hart's health failed him and he could no longer be depended upon. Rodgers then hooked up with Oscar Hammerstein and the two of them gave the world Oklahoma, South Pacific, The King and I, The Sound of Music, and other treasured musicals. Rodgers also had an alcohol problem at this time when drinking alcohol and smoking cigarettes was common in society. I suppose it still is. Rodgers and his lifelong wife, Dorothy, did not have a very happy marriage although they did their best to keep their marital problems hidden from the public. One of their children, a daughter Mary, was often ridiculed by her father for being what he considered to be fat. Retirement was not something Richard Rodgers would consider for himself. He always wanted to write the next musical. Irving Berlin lived in fear that he would never be able to write another hit song. Rodgers lived in fear of not be able to come up with another musical. Both showed their insecurities in their line of work. I feel the author does an excellent job in researching her subject. I rate the book four stars, not because I feel the book is lacking in any respect, but because it is a subject I had no knowledge of and my interest was held to about a four star level.
 Almost - but not quite January 13, 2002
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
Meryrle Secrest's previous book, "Stephen Sondheim: A Life" was fantastic; every word was perfectly placed, every nuance was properly shaded (much like Sondheim himself). Unfortunately, this biography of one of the most complex and dissonant men to come out of the American Musical Theatre, Richard Rodgers, loses steam almost halfway through the narrative. It's as if the author lost interest in her subject between "Carousel" and "The King and I."
To give Secrest proper credit, her chapters concerning Rodgers' collaboration with the tempestuous Larry Hart are truly engrossing and very lively. However, the Hammerstein and Post-Hammerstein years seem to be written in haste, or with no care at all.
This book should be read by all devotees of the stage musical, just for its chapters on Rodgers and Hart. Otherwise, I strongly encourage that you read Ethan Mordden's book "Rodgers and Hammerstein" for a better view of the latter collaboration.
A skillful chronicle of an immeasurably important composer January 13, 2002
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
We can be grateful to Secrest for toiling on Rodgers with her usual thorougness and objectivity, and for doing so when many of Rodgers's friends and colleagues, not to mention his thoughtful daughters, are still here to contribute. If the result is not quite as good a read as her works on Bernstein and Sondheim, we have to blame the subject, not the author. Rodgers was not an easy man to get to know, and while his music was often original and sophisticated, his life was marked by a dull and distant anger. A lesser biographer might have added a larger dose of amateur psychoanalysis and squeezed more dramatic juice out of alcohol and infidelity, but Secrest knows that her job is to depict a life, not to make a sport of it. Given the scope of Rodgers's influence on 20th century culture, Secrest's book will no doubt be invaluable when this fascinating musical era is approached by future writers.
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