No Strings

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No Strings
Original Cast Recording
Music Richard Rodgers
Lyrics Richard Rodgers
Book Samuel A. Taylor
Productions 1962 Broadway
1963 West End
Awards Tony Award for Best Composer

No Strings is a musical drama with a book by Samuel A. Taylor and words and music by Richard Rodgers, his only score written without a collaborator.

After one preview, the Joe Layton-directed and choreographed production opened on March 15, 1962 at the 54th Street Theatre, where it ran for slightly more than six months before transferring to the Broadhurst, where it continued until August of the following year for a total of 580 performances. Diahann Carroll and Richard Kiley starred; Barbara McNair and Howard Keel replaced them later in the run.

In December 1963, an equally successful London production, starring Art Lund and Beverly Todd, opened at Her Majesty's Theatre.

Contents

[edit] Background

The issue of civil rights—voter registration for blacks, integration, and fairness and equality in the workplace—was starting to gain momentum in the United States in the early 1960s, but it was a topic largely absent on Broadway. Whether or not it was Taylor and Rodgers' intent to break new ground is unclear, since neither the book nor score make specific mention of race, nor does it impact upon any decisions made by the couple. Other than the model's reference to growing up north of Central Park (seemingly an allusion to Harlem), there is nothing in the script to suggest she's African-American. It was only in the casting of Carroll and Richard Kiley as the star-crossed lovers that the subject of interracial romance surfaced, but any production of the show easily could be cast with two leads of the same race without changing the content in any significant way. Nevertheless, the casting was socially progressive at the time.[citation needed]

[edit] Synopsis

Fashion model Barbara Woodruff, living in Paris, France, meets and falls in love with expatriate American David Jordan, a Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist who has suffered from an intense case of writer's block since his arrival in France. She attempts to restore his confidence in his creativity, but the easy life he's enjoying, flitting about Monte Carlo, Honfleur, Deauville and St. Tropez, is too much of a distraction. Concluding that he can work only if he returns home to Maine, he invites her to go with him but, realizing they have no future together, they part with "no strings" attached.

[edit] Song list

Act I
  • The Sweetest Sounds
  • How Sad
  • Loads of Love
  • The Man Who Has Everything
  • Be My Host
  • La La La
  • You Don't Tell Me
  • Love Makes the World Go
  • Nobody Told Me
Act II
  • Look No Further
  • Maine
  • An Orthodox Fool
  • Eager Beaver
  • No Strings
  • Maine (Reprise)
  • The Sweetest Sounds

In keeping with the title of the show, the score was arranged and orchestrated without string instruments.

[edit] Awards and nominations

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Awards
Preceded by
No Award Given		 Tony Award for Best Composer
1962		 Succeeded by
Oliver!
by Lionel Bart