The collaboration of composer Richard Rodgers (1902-1979) and lyricist/librettist Oscar Hammerstein II (1895-1960) began in 1943 with their landmark musical Oklahoma! Each man had already enjoyed a long and impressive career in musical theater. Hammerstein had worked with some of the most famous composers writing for Broadway and Hollywood: Vincent Youmans, Rudolf Friml, Sigmund Romberg, George Gershwin, and, most notably for Hammerstein's own colleague, Jerome Kern, with whom Hammerstein wrote the stunning Show Boat in 1927 and whose music Rodgers greatly admired. By 1943, Rodgers had written nearly 30 shows with his previous partner Lorenz Hart (1895-1943), including musicals, film versions of musicals, and original film music. The Rodgers and Hammerstein partnership produced a series of critically and commercially acclaimed musicals, beginning with Oklahoma! and ending with The Sound of Music in 1959. Rodgers and Hammerstein also excelled in the business aspects of musical theater, establishing a music...