Rodgers and Hammerstein Rodgers and Hammerstein Rodgers and Hammerstein refers to composer Richard Rodgers (1902–1979) and lyricist-dramatist Oscar Hammerstein II (1895–1960), who together were an influential, innovative and successful American musical theatre writing team. They created a string of popular Broadway musicals in the 1940s and 1950s, initiating what is considered the "golden age" of musical theatre. Five of their Broadway shows, "Oklahoma!", "Carousel", "South Pacific", "The King and I" and "The Sound of Music", were outstanding successes, as was the television broadcast of "Cinderella" (1957). Of the other four that the team produced on Broadway during their lifetimes, "Flower Drum Song" was
Rodgers and Hammerstein yet another television version in 1997 on ABC, produced by Walt Disney Television, starring Brandy, Whitney Houston, Bernadette Peters, and Whoopi Goldberg. Stage versions were also presented in London and elsewhere, and the musical finally was given a Broadway production, with a revised book by Douglas Carter Beane, and incorporating four songs from the Rodgers and Hammerstein catalogue, in 2013. Based on a 1957 novel by C. Y. Lee, "Flower Drum Song" takes place in San Francisco's Chinatown in the late 1950s. The original 1958 production was directed by dancer/singer/actor Gene Kelly. The story deals with a young Chinese woman