Oscar Hammerstein II Mathias by his first wife, and James Hammerstein by his second wife, with whom he also had a stepdaughter, Susan Blanchard. Hammerstein was one of the most important "book writers" in Broadway history – he made the story, not the songs or the stars, central to the musical and brought musical theater to full maturity as an art form. According to Stephen Sondheim, "What few people understand is that Oscar's big contribution to the theater was as a theoretician, as a Peter Brook, as an innovator. People don't understand how experimental "Show Boat" and "Oklahoma!" felt at the time they
James Hammerstein "Oklahoma!" (London and Australia), "The King and I" (Tel Aviv, US and UK tours), and "Carousel". For many years he directed staged readings of notable playwrights, such as Jeff Wanshel, Ron Cowan, and Werner Liepolt as "American Triptych," under the auspices of George White and Lloyd Richards' National Playwrights Conference at the O'Neill Memorial Theater Center in Waterford, Conn. Hammerstein was nominated for the 1997 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Musical Revue for "I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change" (as producer) and the 1990 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director of a Musical for "The Sound of Music". Hammerstein