The Theater: The Careful Dreamer

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Times Square lay in its nervous twilight of night and neon glow. The rubberneckers, the readers of the Daily Racing Form, the Liggett Romeos and the double-feature devotees opened a grudging path down 44th Street. From the cavalcade of tinny taxis and glossy limousines poured Broadway's first-nighters, their faces as rosy and bland as cherries in a Manhattan.

Five new shows opened on Broadway last week, but this was the opening night most filled with expectant excitement. About to be unveiled at the Majestic Theater was the latest show by Rodgers & Hammerstein, the most smashingly successful writing-composing-producing team now in show business. Across the street, the Rodgers & Hammerstein Oklahoma!, in its fifth year, was still playing to standees. Playing a few blocks away were three other big hits which the team produced (Annie Get Your Gun, Happy Birthday, John Loves Mary). As the first-night crowd, fully as conscious of its looks as an Agnes de Mille ballet, jostled into the theater, the faintly malicious question in almost everybody's mind was: Would the wonder boys do it again?

Curtain Up. Backstage, 140 actors, dancers, chorus girls, stagehands and all-purpose worriers went about their work in a state of controlled panic. In the dingy dressing rooms, the perfumed atmosphere was intolerably tense. A sudden gleam came into the dull eyes of 375 backstage spotlights. Almost imperceptibly, the curtain rustled up. On one side of the stage was a brass bed containing a mother & child. On the other side, a mixed chorus in turn-of-the-century costumes began to sing:

The lady in bed is Marjorie Taylor, Dr. Joseph Taylor's wife.

Except for the day when she married Joe This is the happiest day of her life!*

In the ninth row orchestra, way over on the right side of the house (permitting a dash backstage in case of a crisis), sat the man responsible for this unconventional musicomedy opening scene. Oscar Hammerstein II, a bulky man with a friendly, roughcast face, kept his bright blue eyes fixed on the stage. Could it be that Oscar Hammerstein was worried?

1,000 Songs. He had already survived many such moments. No living American has fashioned so many rhymes that are familiar to so many people. Oscar Hammerstein (rhymes with fine) is one of the highest-paid men in show business (one estimate places his yearly income at $500,000).* He has written book and lyrics for 30-odd musicals, including Rose Marie, Sunny, Desert Song, Show Boat, New Moon, Carmen Jones, Oklahoma!, Carousel. He has written the lyrics for nearly 1,000 songs (which has earned him a coveted AA rating by ASCAP), including such imperishables as Indian Love Call, Who, Ol' Man River, Only Make Believe, Why Do I Love You, Lover Come Back to Me, The Last Time I Saw Paris, Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin', The Surrey with the Fringe on the Top, People Will Say We're in Love, June Is Bustin' Out All Over, It Might As Well Be Spring.