"The wool from the black sheep is just as warm."

Today in 1959, when this city was still something to be extraordinarily proud of. When the Theater District was not owned by Disney and fucking wheelies, The Sound of Music staring Mary Martin opened up on Broadway.

 

Nine months after the opening, Oscar Hammerstein II passed away. And I feel like the happiness that came from his musicals, even when dealing with the darkest situations, was not picked up quite as well by anyone who came after him. 

Rogers and Hammerstein musicals found the art in focusing on a character and the way they find happiness, while keeping the story line interesting, as well. 

"If the 1950s was the decade that promised a continuation of the musical's crucial place in the culture, it was at least partly because the Rodgers and Hammerstein revolution of the 1940s urged the musical to seek beyond typical fare for stories based on realistic character development: to become drama. Thus, the 1940s introduced the notion and the 1950s exploited it."

- Ethan Mordden, Coming Up Roses: The Broadway Musical in the 1950s 

I love this photo of Rodgers, Berlin, Hammerstein, and Annie Get Your Gun choreographer Helen Tamiris.