Somewhere for Me: A Biography of Richard Rodgers

Rating:
Summary: Get a life
Review: I was thoroughly disappointed in this book, which I found to be a dull recitation of facts. The author has little interest in the artistic side of Rodgers, which is--I presume--the reason why we would want to know more about him in the first place. I have a huge shelf of musical theater books, but this one isn't going to end up there.

Rating:
Summary: As cold as its subject
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Almost - but not quite
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: A Review on A Musical Giant from A Neophyte
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: There's No Business---
Review: Richard Rogers is a hard nut to crack. Author Secrest does a workmanlike job of peeling back the layers, but can't quite reach the inner core that made Rogers the composer-genius he was. Rogers was urbane, witty, hypochondriacal, magnetizing, petty, alcoholic, competitive, gloomy, secretive, philandering and funny. How do all of these traits combine to bring about some of the most beautiful songs of the 20th century? Reading about Richard Rogers and then hearing -- say "You'll Never Walk Alone" from "Carousel" makes you exclaim (like Oprah), "How'd he DO that?"

Richard Rogers was born to a moderately wealthy Jewish family in New York City. He was composing music for the stage by the time he was seventeen. He had his first Broadway hit by the time he was 24, and after he partnered with Lorenz Hart produced one hit after another. In the meantime, he married the fragile beauty Dorothy, had two daughters and became increasingly wealthy. Sounds like a trip to the pinnacle, a stairway to the stars, doesn't it? Well, not exactly. Rogers and Hart broke up mainly because of Hart's alcoholism and mental fragility. But Rogers got the rap for "deserting" him and banning him from the theatre. This wasn't quite fair to Rogers, but it wasn't untrue either. Rogers' storybook marriage was complex also. Dorothy was a perfectionist and emotionally needy. Rogers' response was a parade of infidelity. And yet. I believe Rogers loved her all his life as much as he was able to love anyone, and she fulfilled some deep-seated need in him. As parents, they both were failures. The daughters were marginally fonder of Richard who they considered distant and savagely critical. Dorothy was seen as a selfish tyrant. The daughters' recollections are not kind. His last years were a combination of poor health, increasing alcoholism, and being out of touch with modern day musicals. Yet honors were heaped upon him and the money kept pouring in.

Ms. Secrest did a mountain of research, and it shows. She not only had the full cooperation of his daughters; they commissioned her to do the work. The book is well notated and indexed, and has a bibliography. She gives a fair and balanced accounting of a many-sided man. There are not many lighthearted moments, but Richard Rogers was not a lighthearted man.
-sweetmolly-Amazon Reviewer

Rating:
Summary: There's No Business---
Review: Richard Rogers is a hard nut to crack. Author Secrest does a workmanlike job of peeling back the layers, but can't quite reach the inner core that made Rogers the composer-genius he was. Rogers was urbane, witty, hypochondriacal, magnetizing, petty, alcoholic, competitive, gloomy, secretive, philandering and funny. How do all of these traits combine to bring about some of the most beautiful songs of the 20th century? Reading about Richard Rogers and then hearing -- say "You'll Never Walk Alone" from "Carousel" makes you exclaim (like Oprah), "How'd he DO that?"

Richard Rogers was born to a moderately wealthy Jewish family in New York City. He was composing music for the stage by the time he was seventeen. He had his first Broadway hit by the time he was 24, and after he partnered with Lorenz Hart produced one hit after another. In the meantime, he married the fragile beauty Dorothy, had two daughters and became increasingly wealthy. Sounds like a trip to the pinnacle, a stairway to the stars, doesn't it? Well, not exactly. Rogers and Hart broke up mainly because of Hart's alcoholism and mental fragility. But Rogers got the rap for "deserting" him and banning him from the theatre. This wasn't quite fair to Rogers, but it wasn't untrue either. Rogers' storybook marriage was complex also. Dorothy was a perfectionist and emotionally needy. Rogers' response was a parade of infidelity. And yet. I believe Rogers loved her all his life as much as he was able to love anyone, and she fulfilled some deep-seated need in him. As parents, they both were failures. The daughters were marginally fonder of Richard who they considered distant and savagely critical. Dorothy was seen as a selfish tyrant. The daughters' recollections are not kind. His last years were a combination of poor health, increasing alcoholism, and being out of touch with modern day musicals. Yet honors were heaped upon him and the money kept pouring in.

Ms. Secrest did a mountain of research, and it shows. She not only had the full cooperation of his daughters; they commissioned her to do the work. The book is well notated and indexed, and has a bibliography. She gives a fair and balanced accounting of a many-sided man. There are not many lighthearted moments, but Richard Rogers was not a lighthearted man.
-sweetmolly-Amazon Reviewer

Rating:
Summary: Somewhere for Me
Review: Secrest is a skilled biographer, witness her excellent Stephen Sondheim: A Life (CH, Mar'99). She now adds another musical theater leader to her list. This volume complements Rodgers's own autobiography, Musical Stages (CH, Feb '76), and supplements many other books about the composer, including William Hyland's Richard Rodgers (CH, Jan'99). Secrest benefited from the cooperation of Rodgers's daughters and the Rodgers and Hammerstein organization and from many interviews with Rodgers's colleagues; thus this new biography serves as a major source document on the composer's life. Its principal strength is in the details about Rodgers's early years, his family, his marriage, and his relations with his wife and two daughters. Basically he was a cold individual incapable of much empathy or care for others. Add to that alcoholism, womanizing, and mental problems. Still his artistic achievement was phenomenal. Though Secrest provides anecdotes on the production history of his shows, the book does not replace earlier works that have their own supply of stories. The photographs throughout excellently support the narrative, and the extensive notes function as a bibliography. For all collections.

Rating:
Summary: Impressive effort, especially regarding Rodgers' early days
Review: Secrest is an outstanding biographer. Once again she has brought her research skills, integrity, knowledge and compassion to the story of the life of an American musical genius. She presents a straightforward and unblinking account of a composer whose works are classics, whose productivity was astounding, and whose sadness as a person belied the upbeat and joyous tunes he bequeathed to us. I grew up with Rodgers' songs and have enjoyed many of his musicals over the years, on stage as well as in the movies. I feel grateful for the beauty he brought - and brings - into my life. I wish he had had a happier life. Secrest does a superb job in bringing the complexity of this man to the reader. Highly recommended!

Rating:
Summary: A skillful chronicle of an immeasurably important composer
Review: 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.