The Theatre Guild, "Carousel", and the cultural field of American musical theatre (Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein II).

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

In the late 1930s Theresa Helburn of the Theatre Guild sought to produce a musical show with Kurt Weill. Helburn's ideas included a musical version of Molnár's <italic>Liliom</italic>, and various other plays by Shaw and O'Neill, but none came to fruition. Her efforts illustrate how the quest for prestige drives artistic endeavors. In the 1920s the Theatre Guild had been considered to be America's premiere producer but had lost this reputation by the mid-1930s. Helburn was seeking to reseat the Theatre Guild in its former position of dominance by producing an integrated musical show. While most musical show producers adhered to a profitable formula in hopes of producing a hit, it took an organization committed to dramatic integrity, such as the Theatre Guild, to risk breaking the mold. In eventually doing so with <italic>Oklahoma!</italic> in 1943, the Theatre Guild earned the praise of the drama critics, who regularly reviewed musical shows and routinely complained about the poor quality of the books (librettos) and the resultant lack of dramatic cohesion. Like <italic>Oklahoma!, Carousel</italic> was created to capitalize on the developments in the field, namely, cultural nationalism and a greater integration of music, dance, and drama. Rodgers and Hammerstein refashioned the Hungarian setting of <italic>Liliom</italic>, the play on which <italic>Carousel</italic> is based, to create an authentic New England setting and crafted longer continuously musical scenes than they had in <italic> Oklahoma!</italic>.
After working with Rodgers and Hammerstein on their next show <italic> Allegro</italic>, The Theatre Guild never produced another musical show. However, the Guild played a large part in the genesis of <italic>My Fair Lady</italic>, which it developed conceptually with Lerner and Loewe in 1952. After several months of working on the project, Lerner ran into insurmountable problems with the book, however, and the project was dropped. When Lerner solved the book problem in 1954, he took the project to another producer. A pitched battle was waged on all sides for the rights to the play, which Lerner eventually won. The 1956 Broadway production of <italic>My Fair Lady</italic> subsequently ran for 2,717 performances, topping <italic>Oklahoma!</italic>'s record run of 2,248.