While teaching my course on the history of musical theater at the Boston Conservatory, I frequently point to Oscar Hammerstein II as the most important person in the history of musical theater. I genuinely believe that. Hammerstein was not only crucial for what he did, but also in whom he taught and inspired, namely one Stephen Sondheim.
To understand Hammerstein's immeasurable contributions, it's important to understand integration, one of the most important concepts in the evolution of musicals. Integration basically means the trend toward having every element of a show serve some dramatic purpose. As Richard Rodgers famously once said, the reason that Oklahoma worked as well as it did was because "the orchestrations sound the way the costumes look." This always surprises my students, but there was a time when songs in a musical didn't have much to do with the plot, and dance was mere decoration. And that time was basically B.H. (Before Hammerstein)
That's a gross simplification, of course, but Oscar Hammerstein was indeed an integration pioneer, starting with his work in operettas and musical comedy, continuing with the seminal Show Boat, and culminating in his work with Rodgers. Hammerstein didn't invent integration, but he did more than any other single person to make it come about, and the rest of musical-theater history rests squarely on his shoulders and accomplishments.
My admiration of Hammerstein got me thinking about which other people are responsible for the development of the musical-theater form, and since I've been a list-making mood lately, well, you can probably see where this is heading. Here then is my attempt to list the most influential people in the history of musical theater. Some of these names will be very well known, others not so much. I've included links for all the names, plus brief explanations for those I deemed it appropriate. I'm sure that there will be many people who feel that I've left someone out, or ranked someone too low or too high. If so, feel free to drop me a line.
- Oscar Hammerstein
- Stephen Sondheim
- Jerome Kern - composer of Show Boat, as well as the seminal Princess shows, which include Very Good Eddie and Oh, Boy!
- Harold Prince
- Richard Rodgers
- Jerome Robbins
- George M. Cohan - the do-it-all impresario showman, who not only wrote and starred in his own shows, but was also an integration pioneer
- Agnes de Mille - first female director/choreographer, key force behind Oklahoma and the integration of dance
- W.S. Gilbert /Arthur Sullivan - librettist/lyricist and composer, respectively
- George Gershwin
- Kurt Weill - composer of The Threepenny Opera, as well as such wonderful but underperformed shows as Lady in the Dark and Lost in the Stars
- Bob Fosse
- Arthur Laurents - librettist for West Side Story and Gypsy
- Florenz Ziegfeld - producer of the Ziegfeld Follies and the seminal Show Boat
- George S. Kaufman - librettist for Of Thee I Sing, Strike Up the Band, and key force behind Guys and Dolls
- Moss Hart - librettist for Lady in the Dark and As Thousands Cheer, and key force behind My Fair Lady
- Alan Jay Lerner - librettist/lyricist for Brigadoon, My Fair Lady, and Camelot
- Guy Bolton - librettist for the seminal Princess shows, among many others
- P.G. Wodehouse - lyricist for seminal Princess shows, among many others
- Irving Berlin
- Lorenz Hart - lyricist who worked with Richard Rodgers on many shows, including Pal Joey, The Boys from Syracuse, A Connecticut Yankee, and On Your Toes
- Ira Gershwin - lyricist who went on after his brother's death to create Lady in the Dark and A Star Is Born
- George Balanchine - first person to receive the credit "choreography by" versus "dances by"
- Frederick Loewe - composer of Brigadoon and My Fair Lady
- Cole Porter
- John Kander/Fred Ebb
- Lehman Engler - conductor, composer, and founder of the BMI Musical Theater Workshop
- Frank Loesser
- Ethel Merman
- Marc Blitzstein - composer lyricist of The Cradle Will Rock and Juno
- Peter Stone - librettist of 1776, Titanic, and Woman of the Year
- Noel Coward
- James Lapine - director and librettist in collaboration with Stephen Sondheim and William Finn
- Chita Rivera
- Michael Stewart - librettist of 42nd Street, Bye Bye Birdie, Carnival!, and Hello, Dolly!
- David Merrick - controversial producer of such hits as Hello, Dolly!, Carnival, and Gypsy
- Victor Herbert - the first significant American composer to write an entire musical score himself (Babes in Toyland), versus group efforts and song interpolations. Also, invented American operetta
- Michael Bennett
- Robert Russell Bennett - orchestrator of Oklahoma!, My Fair Lady, Show Boat, Of Thee I Sing, and many others
- Gertrude Lawrence - star of Lady in the Dark and The King and I
- Al Jolson
- Bertie Williams - first African-American star
- Betty Comden
- Jerry Herman
- Sheldon Harnick/Jerry Bock - composer/lyricist team that wrote Fiorello, She Loves Me, and Fiddler on the Roof
- Gower Champion - director/choreographer of Bye Bye Birdie, Hello, Dolly, Carnival, and 42nd Street
- Leonard Bernstein
- Jonathan Tunick - orchestrator for many of Stephen Sondheim's shows, among many others
- Stephen Schwartz
- Adolph Green
- Mary Martin
- Ethel Waters - first female African-American star
- Otto Harbach - prolific lyricist and librettist of both musical comedies and operettas
- B.G. DeSylva/Ray Henderson/Lew Brown - creators of a successful series of shows in the 1920s, including Good News
- Gwen Verdon
- Michael Kidd - prolific and influential choreographer
- H.Y. "Yip" Harburg - known primarily as the lyricist for "The Wizard of Oz," but responsible for much more, including Finian's Rainbow
- George Abbott - producer, director, and librettist with a career spanning more than seven decades. Shows include Pal Joey, On the Town, and The Pajama Game
- Morrie Ryskind - known for his work with the Marx Brothers, but also worked with George S. Kaufman on Of Thee I Sing and Strike Up the Band
- Andrew Lloyd Webber
- Harry B. Smith - the most prolific writer in Broadway history, working on 122 separate shows, including...nothing you've ever heard of
- Carol Channing
- Bob Merrill - composer and lyricist who worked on such shows as Carnival and Funny Girl
- Sigmund Romberg - composer of numerous successful operettas, including The Student Prince, The Desert Song, and The New Moon
- Rudolph Friml - composer of numerous successful operettas, including Rose Marie and The Vagabond King
- Harvey Schmidt/Tom Jones - composer and lyricist of The Fantasticks, 110 in the Shade and others
- Joseph Papp - producer of Hair, The Pirates of Penzance, and A Chorus Line, among others
- Edward Harrigan/Tony Hart - creators of a series of popular and influential shows, including The Mulligan Guard Ball, in the 1800s. The first famous collaboration in the American musical theater
- Marilyn Miller - popular star of the musical theater in the 1920s and 1930s.
- Eubie Blake/Noble Sissle - authors of the first successful show created entirely by African Americans, Shuffle Along
- Dorothy Fields - first successful female lyricist and librettist, whose shows include Annie Get Your Gun and Sweet Charity
- Bernadette Peters
- Herbert Fields - librettist and lyricist, whose shows include Annie Get Your Gun and A Connecticut Yankee
- Tommy Tune
- Joseph Stein - librettist for numerous shows, including Fiddler on the Roof
- Victor Moore/William Gaxton - popular comic actors and frequent co-stars
- Arthur Schwartz/Howard Dietz - composer/lyricist team, whose shows include The Band Wagon, and The Gay Life
- Charles H. Hoyt - author of a number of farce comedies in the 1800s, including A Trip to Chinatown
- Harold Rome - composer/lyricist of such shows as Pins and Needles and I Can Get It for You Wholesale
- Kay Swift - first woman to score and entire musical, Fine and Dandy
- Rouben Mamoulian - director of Porgy and Bess, Oklahoma!, Carousel, and Lost in the Stars
- Onna White - choreographer of The Music Man, Mame, and 1776
- Joshua Logan - director of Knickerbocker Holiday, South Pacific, and Annie Get Your Gun
- Patti LuPone
- Howard Lindsay/Russell Crouse - librettists of The Sound of Music, Call Me Madam, and Anything Goes
- Cameron Mackintosh
- Tim Rice
- Jule Styne - composer of Gypsy, Funny Girl, and Bells Are Ringing
- Charles Strouse - composer of Bye Bye Birdie and Annie
- Neil Simon - librettist for Sweet Charity, Promises, Promises, and They're Playing Our Song, as well as script doctor for A Chorus Line
- William Finn - composer/lyricist for Falsettos, A New Brain, and The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee
- Thomas Meehan - librettist for Annie, The Producers, and Hairspray
- Cy Coleman - composer of Sweet Charity, On The Twentieth Century, and City of Angels
- Trevor Nunn - director of Les Misérables, Cats, Starlight Express and Sunset Boulevard
- John Weidman - librettist of Pacific Overtures, Assassins, and Contact
- Walt Disney - the company, not the man
- Jason Robert Brown - composer/lyricist of Parade, The Last Five Years, and 13
- Susan Stroman - director choreographer of Contact, The Producers, and Young Frankenstein
- Alan Menken/Howard Ashman - composer/lyricist pair responsible for Little Shop of Horrors and the Disney films The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, and Aladdin
- Ivor Novello - composer/lyricist of British shows, including Careless Rapture and The Dancing Years
- Michael John LaChiusa - composer/lyricist/librettist of Hello Again, Marie Christine, The Wild Party, and See What I Wanna See
- Claude-Michel Schönberg/Alain Boublil - composer and lyricist for Les Misérables and Miss Saigon
