Biography

Wrote over 1,500 songs (at least 85 regarded as standards) and 42 musicals, 19 of which were transferred to film.

He was one of the pioneers, along with Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II, in the creation of a less frivolous type of musical theater than had been the case, in which musicals were adapted from well-known plays or novels, and featured dialog taken directly from those plays and/or novels, as well as believable, realistic characterizations, with dramatic storylines which sometimes contained tragedy and did not necessarily follow the usual formulas. His first musical using an unusual storyline and characters was "Pal Joey" , written with Lorenz Hart and produced in 1940, based on short stories by John O'Hara, about an unprincipled but sympathetic nightclub hoofer who does not reform. It was not very successful in its first run, but became a hit in 1952 (and was unfortunately watered down in its 1957 film version). The musicals Rodgers wrote, beginning in 1943 with Oscar Hammerstein II, overthrew many of the usual musical theater formulas of the time and continued the path begun by Hammerstein and Kern in their 1927 "Show Boat". The Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals sometimes used ballet sequences to reveal what was happening in the mind of one of the characters, the lead characters were not necessarily admirable people (i.e "Carousel"'s Billy Bigelow), one or more characters were sometimes killed off in the storylines, the hero and heroine did not necessarily fall in love or have a love scene (as in "The King and I"), and very often subjects which were then considered taboo in musicals were used. The songs in most of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals (with the exception of some of the musical numbers in "The Sound of Music") developed the storyline and the characters, and could not be removed from the shows without seriously damaging them.

Family name was originally Rojazinsky, becoming Rodgers when his father changed the family name to a more Americanized one sometime in the 1880s.

In addition to their phenomenal success as writers of their own shows, Rodgers and Hammerstein produced shows by other writers, as well, most notably Irving Berlin's "Annie Get Your Gun" and John Van Druten's "I Remember Mama." The latter, incidentally, became the basis for Rodgers' last completed show. Written in collaboration with Martin Charnin and starring Liv Ullmann, Rodgers' "I Remember Mama" was one of the most notorious Broadway flops of the 1970s, running only a few months in 1979, largely on advance ticket sales. Rodgers died shortly after it closed. Most agreed that it was a sad end to an otherwise distinguished career.

Father of writer Mary Rodgers and Linda Rogers Melnick.

[Defending his songs and style in a changing world] What's wrong with sweetness and light? It's been around quite awhile.

Whenever I get an idea for a song, even before jotting down the notes, I can hear it in the orchestra, I can smell it in the scenery, I can see the kind of actor who will sing it, and I am aware of an audience listening to it.

[Referring to Oscar Hammerstein II and the song "It Might As Well Be Spring"] He gave me a lyric. And when he gives me a lyric, I write music.

Frank Loesser as a man is a book in himself. He was happy; he was strong; he had enormous peaks and frightening depths. This is only to say that he was intensely human. With it all, he was a living refutation of the theory that composers are not very bright. Frank was a first-rate businessman without ever having to resort to tricks. He knew his own value, and he recognized the value of others.

The well-tempered songwriter creates his own sort of "scherzo"--not necessarily fast, but surely joyous. It is difficult to listen to "Standing on the Corner" without wanting to giggle at, not just at the words, but at the music. This gifted man [Frank Loesser] could wander off the conventional 32-bar reservation without getting lost. Thus, "I Believe in You" is a full-fledged operatic aria with a beat. It is also a statement of self-faith. Was Frank singing to himself? He was entitled to do it.