Introduction
From Depression to Dreamscapes. Join us as Cinema Scholars starts a journey that documents the rise and times of one of the most epic cinematic partnerships in history. Let us go back in time to Broadway before Rodgers & Hammerstein.
Before Rodgers & Hammerstein revolutionized the American musical with Oklahoma! in 1943, the world of Broadway was forged in the crucible of the Great Depression. Between the crash of 1929 and the eve of World War II, theatre became both a mirror of hardship and an escape from it.
Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart dazzled audiences with songs that carried a bittersweet blend of romance and melancholy. At the same time, Oscar Hammerstein quietly honed his vision for musicals as vehicles of storytelling and sincerity. These years of economic struggle, artistic adaptation, and cultural resilience shaped the creative DNA that Rodgers and Hammerstein would later fuse into a partnership that changed Broadway and Hollywood forever.
Need to Escape
Broadway in the years between the Wall Street Crash of 1929 and the onset of World War II was a place of contradictions. On the one hand, the Great Depression devastated the American economy, shuttered theatres, and reduced disposable income for millions of ordinary citizens. On the other hand, the theatre, like the cinema, offered an escape from hardship, a few hours in which audiences could laugh, dream, and be transported beyond breadlines and unemployment.
Musicals of the early 1930s often doubled down on lightheartedness, offering choruses of high-kicking dancers, witty banter, and glittering visions of wealth that stood in stark contrast to the realities outside the theatre doors.
It was into this landscape that Rodgers & Hart produced some of their sharpest work. Their brand of urbane sophistication resonated with Depression-era audiences precisely because it seemed to conjure a world untouched by economic ruin. Songs like “Blue Moon” or “Isn’t It Romantic?” were imbued with a longing that felt universal, even as their characters inhabited chic Manhattan apartments or glamorous Parisian nightclubs.
Rodgers’ melodies carried a buoyant optimism, while Hart’s lyrics, by turns playful and melancholic, reflected the era’s tensions. Beneath the sparkling wit, one could often detect a weariness, an acknowledgment of dreams deferred or romances soured. This duality mirrored the mood of Depression America: escapist on the surface, yet shadowed by disillusionment.
Changing Times
The theatre industry itself adapted pragmatically. Broadway houses lowered ticket prices to attract patrons who otherwise could not afford the luxury of live entertainment. Touring productions proliferated, bringing shows to audiences across the country, desperate for diversion. Revues like the Ziegfeld Follies, though costly to produce, still managed to dazzle with spectacle, while book musicals experimented cautiously with more substantial narratives.
For Rodgers, working with Hart during this period enabled him to refine his ability to match musical sophistication with commercial accessibility. It was a skill that would later prove invaluable when Broadway musicals began migrating to Hollywood screens.
Oscar Hammerstein’s trajectory during the Depression years was more uneven. While Rodgers & Hart were in demand, Hammerstein struggled to find consistent success. The appetite for operetta, once his stronghold with works like Rose-Marie, had waned. Audiences seemed less willing to embrace lush, old-world romance when their daily lives were defined by scarcity.
What Hammerstein sought to create — musical dramas that married grandeur with sincerity — often found little purchase in a cultural climate that demanded either dazzling escapism or the brisk cynicism of modern wit. His projects during this time, including collaborations with Sigmund Romberg, lacked the spark to cut through Broadway’s financial and cultural uncertainties.
Hammerstein continued to cultivate his belief that musicals could be more than a diversion. Studying dramatic literature and narrative construction, he maintained faith in the integrated form that had borne fruit with Show Boat. While the commercial returns were often disappointing, these “wilderness years” helped shape his artistic philosophy. Hammerstein’s persistence through the Depression ensured that, when the right opportunity emerged, he would be ready to seize it.
The Rise of the Studios
The Depression also affected Hollywood, which was rapidly becoming the dominant force in American popular culture. The talkies of the late 1920s had given rise to a new genre: the film musical. Studios like Warner Bros. and MGM embraced musicals as both morale boosters and showcases for the new technology of sound.
Busby Berkeley’s kaleidoscopic choreography in films such as 42nd Street (1933) and Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933) created a uniquely cinematic language for musical performance. While Rodgers & Hart had their songs adapted for film, and Hammerstein occasionally dabbled in Hollywood projects, both men remained tied to Broadway. Still, the cross-pollination between stage and screen during the Depression years set the groundwork for the later cinematic triumphs of Rodgers & Hammerstein as a duo.
The cultural resilience of Broadway during the Great Depression cannot be overstated. Against a backdrop of soup kitchens and unemployment lines, audiences still flocked to the theatre, often saving precious pennies for a ticket. In doing so, they affirmed the power of live performance to uplift the human spirit.
Rodgers, with Hart at his side, provided melodies and lyrics that resonated with the audience. They were songs that simultaneously offered escape and mirrored the bittersweet realities of life. Hammerstein, though less commercially visible during these years, remained steadfast in his conviction that musicals could grapple with weightier themes.
Preparing for War
By the early 1940s, as America prepared for war, both Rodgers and Hammerstein were seasoned veterans of a Broadway that had weathered economic storms and artistic transitions. Rodgers had proven his ability to craft songs that captured the zeitgeist, while Hammerstein had developed a vision of musicals as vehicles for storytelling and social commentary.
The Depression era, far from being a period of stagnation, had been a crucible that sharpened their respective gifts. When their paths converged on the project that became Oklahoma!, they carried with them the lessons of a decade in which art had to prove its relevance against the harshest of backdrops.
