Rodgers & Hart

Rodgers & Hart

Artist

Please include the individual credits for both members on all songs Rodgers & Hart is attributed to.

The composer and lyricist duo Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart met in 1919 through a mutual friend, when Rodgers was 16 and Hart was 23.

The first song they wrote was “Any Old Place With You” which was eventually interpolated into the show A Lonely Romeo. Their first musical was Fly With Me, an undergraduate varsity show at Colombia University. Through the show, they met Lou Fields, who used Rodgers & Hart’s score as a basis for his production Poor Little Ritz Girl, making it their first professional show.

The partnership began to deteriorate during the early 1940s due to the Hart’s alcoholism, which caused him to be unreachable for periods of time. The breaking point came in 1943 when Rodgers gave Hart the ultimatum to stay and work on Green Grow The Lilacs (which would become Oklahoma) or else he would work with Oscar Hammerstein II. Hart died later that year.

Ultimately, the duo yielded more than 500 songs in 28 stage musicals, including On Your Toes, Babes in Arms, and Pal Joey.

After Hart’s death, Rodgers would enter into successful partnership with lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II, and continue to compose musicals until his death.