ABSTRACT
The fourteen-year-old Richard Rodgers "researched" Jerome Kern's style by seeing Very Good Eddie over and over again, carefully scrutinizing his own work to see if he met Kern's standards. Rodgers and Lorenz Hart soon felt ready to show off their portfolio. Long before Rodgers and Hart came on the scene, musical theater had quoted classical music. Rodgers and Hart set to work on The Garrick Gaieties, named for the Guild's theater. Nevertheless, Jumbo was the first time that George Abbott directed a musical, and it was Abbott's first collaboration with Rodgers and Hart. Rodgers and Hart then asked Abbott for some help with the book for On Your Toes. Rodgers and Hart began to pull their audience away from mindless entertainment by using intriguing rhyme schemes and word play, complex harmonies and musical forms, plot-enhancing dance, and storylines that challenged the audience.
