O.K. Chorale: an English take on Rodgers and Hammerstein.(The Theatre)

In 1959, when Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II were beginning work on "The Sound of Music" -- the story goes -- their co-producer Richard Halliday, who was also the husband and manager of the show's star, Mary Martin, came to them with a great idea for her first entrance: she would be discovered in a tree and, as she climbed down, catch her bloomers on a branch. Rodgers and Hammerstein rejected the idea out of hand. Halliday was incensed. "You know what's wrong with you guys?" he said, stalking out. "All you care about is the show!"

In that joke lies the essence of Rodgers and Hammerstein's revolution in musical storytelling, which began in 1943, with ...