One Night Only: Author Todd Purdum at Drury Lane

Enjoy a three-course dinner while learning about Broadway revolutionaries Rodgers and Hammerstein, followed by a magical performance of South Pacific, and then take home a free signed copy of the book!

About Todd:  Todd S. Purdum, a native of Macomb, Illinois, understands the continued popularity of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s work and presents a dual biography in his just-published “Something Wonderful: Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Broadway Revolution.”

While he acknowledges an ingrained ubiquity to Rodgers and Hammerstein in American culture, Purdum argues that “we take them for granted and forget how revolutionary so much of their work was.”

“It’s hard to remember that nothing about their collaboration was a foreordained success,” Purdum said. “In the opening of the book, I talk about how late in life Oscar Hammerstein and Richard Rodgers would play a game in which they imagine what it would have been like if ‘Oklahoma!’ had been a failure.”

“It’s hard to put ourselves back on that night on March 31, 1943, when it all started,” said Purdum about the Broadway opening of “Oklahoma!” “Tickets were going begging and producers had struggled to raise the budget for the show.”

“Oklahoma!” is now held up as the show that became the template for subsequent “integrated musicals” to seamlessly weave together story, song and dance. Yet this approach to a simple story of a farm girl courted by a cowboy was a huge risk.

“The show explores the innermost thoughts and feelings of the characters in a revelatory way that lets audiences see into them and their motivations,” Purdum said. “They weren’t just characters concocted as an excuse to string out 15 hit songs.”

About South Pacific: More timely than ever, this Rodgers & Hammerstein landmark musical proves that even the backdrop of a tropical paradise cannot shelter its residents from the prejudices of World War II. South Pacific is the winner of the 1950 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and ten Tony Awards including Best Musical.

Please be advised that this interpretation includes sexual content, provocative clothing and absurd scenes that make sense in a dreamlike setting.

Music by: RICHARD RODGERS
Lyrics by: OSCAR HAMMERSTEIN II
Book by:OSCAR HAMMERSTEIN II and JOSHUA LOGAN
Adapted from the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel TALES OF THE SOUTH PACIFIC by JAMES MICHENER
Directed by:VICTOR MALANA MAOG
Runtime: 2 hours and 25 minutes with a 15 minute intermission