Kirkus Reviews QR Code
WITH A SONG IN HIS HEART: RICHARD RODGERS by David Ewen

WITH A SONG IN HIS HEART: RICHARD RODGERS

By

Pub Date: Sept. 16th, 1957
Publisher: Henry Holt

The life of Richard Rodgers is cloyingly sweet with success, unrelieved by any personal tragedy or emotional deprivation -- a sombre prospect indeed for any biographer. But fortunately Rodgers' career, from his early association with Hart to his avatar with Hammerstein II parallels (if it doesn't outright embody) the growth of the musical comedy into a form of national opera, in fact into the most unique and communicative of native cultural products. The development of the musical theatre is the biography's most interesting feature, and surely deserved expansion even if it meant going afield from Mr. Rodgers. The entertainment world will welcome the book as is, but a wider audience may find it murderously melodious.