With 60+ tunes, this is a much better collection than the new Illustrated Rodgers and Hammerstein, which has only 30 tunes and lots-o-pictures.

The only way to get more songs is to buy folios from individual shows or track down one of the out-of-print Rodgers and Hammerstein Songbooks from the '60s.

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!

I'm basing this review on the hardcover edition of this book.

This could have just been a coffee-table book with beautiful photos but a negligible text. Fortunately, someone had the excellent idea of asking Ethan Mordden to write the text.

The result is that a very informative, insightful, well-written text accompanies the beautiful photos.

If you love Rodgers and Hammerstein, you probably will get great pleasure from this book.

One tiny quibble, though: Mordden is wrong when he says that Hammerstein invented the lyric form used in "I Am Going to Like It Here."

If you're interested in this, then don't hesitate to get it! This Vocal Score contains all music from the show (from the Overture to bows and exit music). The PIPE DREAM Vocal Score is one of R&H's thickest Vocal Scores. (...)

I read that book many years ago while at VICTORIA,B.C.where my sister lives.I had pick it up at a local library.It was actually the first real account of RODGERS and HART and their collaboration of twenty-three years(1920-1943),apart from DICK RODGERS's autobiography published the year before.Several passages of this book are about LARRY HART and his bout with booze that finally killed him at age 47.The story of how the show I MARRIED AN ANGEL was created is really something to read.Apparently,LARRY wrote half the lyrics of that show in one single night.If you like RODGERS and HART,you'll enjoy reading that book.There is only one problem:it was never reedited.Local librarys or used book stores are your alternatives.

Being a self-proclaimed R&H buff, I was always scouting for this book and that. I found _Some Enchanted Evenings_ in a used bookstore. Besides amazing detail on both of the men and their previous works (before each collaborated with the other), there are fantastic pictures that I'd never seen before. I was highly impressed. Best of luck to anyone looking for this book--it's a wonderful addition to anyone's collection.

This is a very good book. I suggest you buy it!

Frederick Nolan tells the story of Rodgers and Hammerstein both as a team and as separate people. Indeed there is a good deal of space allotted to their careers BEFORE they ever worked together. But after they team up the narrative becomes more lively and a real page turner, at least partly because Nolan's style is graceful and charming in itself. He seems to have read everything written about them, even going so far as to watch TV kinescopes of them from the 1950s, and he talked to many people who knew them, worked with them.

It's the backstage stories that make the book sing. Practically every page has a at least one fascinating anecdote. And he doesn't sugar-coat their personalities--Rodgers's curtness, even cruelty, and Hammerstein's insecurity, tendency to swallow his pride.

It's hard to read the book without singing to yourself. My God, what songs these two wrote! But more than that, what dramatists they were; they broke convention again and again and mostly successfully.

Pull out your recordings of Oklahoma!, Carousel, South Pacific and start reading!

Recently, my high school's performing arts department played this musical. It was fun, despite our long practice hours and unfriendly performance times. The lyrics and the general "feel" of the music is, of course, humorous. The first time we ran through it, the pit went hysterical. The only thing at fault with it is that at certain locations in the score, it contains errors.

I was the pianist for my high school's performance of this musical, and when I heard the music (the 1997 CD), I fell in love immediately. As the rehearsal pianist, I played through this book three hours a day for two months, but the original appeal has not faded! In fact, since I have to return the book (it's a rental), I plan on purchasing it as soon as the show's over.

I am in this play at a Performing Arts Group that I am in, and I think that this is one of the most hillarious plays I have ever done. This book is hightly recommened.

As a musical theatre performer, I found this score to be complete and a wonderful tool for auditions (especially the not-so-well-known songs that didn't appear in the movie version).

I'm not a great fan of the music, but it is fun to play. It is a nice combination of music.

If you're interested in this, then don't hesitate to get it! Other places online are selling it for (more money) now, but not Amazon.com! That's why I love them! This Vocal Score contains all music from the show (from the Overture to bows and exit music). (...)