Book contents
- The Cambridge Companion to Rodgers and Hammerstein
- Cambridge Companions to Music
- The Cambridge Companion to Rodgers and Hammerstein
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Musical Examples
- Contributors
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Chronology
- Part I Before Rodgers and Hammerstein
- Part II Being Rodgers and Hammerstein
- Part III The Musicals of Rodgers and Hammerstein
- 7 Oklahoma! A Musical for Its Times
- 8 State Fair and Us
- 9 How Do You Solve a Problem Like Carousel?
- 10 Allegro: A Musical Tale of a Medical Everyman
- 11 Minor Feelings about South Pacific
- 12 The King and I: Beyond Performing Geopolitics
- 13 Me and Juliet: Innovative Metatheatrical Musical Comedy
- 14 Pipe Dream: Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Zeitoper?
- 15 Cinderella on Television: The Transformational Power of Adaptive Dramaturgy
- 16 The Bridges of Flower Drum Song
- 17 ‘Climb Ev’ry Mountain’: Places, Mobilities and Identities in The Sound of Music
- Part IV Legacies
- Select Bibliography
- Index
14 - Pipe Dream: Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Zeitoper?
from Part III - The Musicals of Rodgers and Hammerstein
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 08 August 2026
Edited by
Book contents
- The Cambridge Companion to Rodgers and Hammerstein
- Cambridge Companions to Music
- The Cambridge Companion to Rodgers and Hammerstein
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Musical Examples
- Contributors
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Chronology
- Part I Before Rodgers and Hammerstein
- Part II Being Rodgers and Hammerstein
- Part III The Musicals of Rodgers and Hammerstein
- 7 Oklahoma! A Musical for Its Times
- 8 State Fair and Us
- 9 How Do You Solve a Problem Like Carousel?
- 10 Allegro: A Musical Tale of a Medical Everyman
- 11 Minor Feelings about South Pacific
- 12 The King and I: Beyond Performing Geopolitics
- 13 Me and Juliet: Innovative Metatheatrical Musical Comedy
- 14 Pipe Dream: Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Zeitoper?
- 15 Cinderella on Television: The Transformational Power of Adaptive Dramaturgy
- 16 The Bridges of Flower Drum Song
- 17 ‘Climb Ev’ry Mountain’: Places, Mobilities and Identities in The Sound of Music
- Part IV Legacies
- Select Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Pipe Dream (1955), though a commercial and (according to its creators) artistic failure, nonetheless has many innovative features. More a Zeitoper than an optimistic Broadway musical, its picaresque characters include a female romantic lead who in the source material is a sex worker. Based on two novels by John Steinbeck, Cannery Row and Sweet Thursday, the musical’s lyrical style was at odds with the social commentary inherent in the plot. Although Hammerstein softened the hardest-hitting aspects of Steinbeck’s novels, the characters were still too atypical for what audiences (and critics) expected from Rodgers and Hammerstein. Playing Fauna, who runs the local brothel, was opera singer Helen Traubel. Rodgers and Hammerstein hoped that by casting an opera singer in this role, it would give the character additional gravitas. With Pipe Dream, Rodgers and Hammerstein continued their legacy of expanding what a musical could be and do.
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- The Cambridge Companion to Rodgers and Hammerstein , pp. 220 - 232Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2026
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