team had decided to produce the plays they had
written, and their agency has come to represent the
works of other writers as well.
"We are a privately held partnership owned by
the two families, and we actually have about 120
writers that we represent in music publishing, musi-
cal theater performance and concert performance,"
explains Fink.
The drama studies graduate of the State
University of New York oversees special projects for
the company and has developed and written its pub-
lications. On Broadway, he spearheaded the estab-
lishment of a Richard Rodgers Gallery in the
Richard Rodgers Theatre and a tribute to
Hammerstein on the 100th anniversary of his birth.
He has written liner notes for more than a dozen
cast recordings and edits the organization's newslet-
ter and Webzine.
"Whenever a musical of ours is presented —
whether on Broadway, in summer stock or at high
schools — it's licensed through our organization," says
Fink. "We license several thousand productions a year
in the U.S. and Canada so people will see the great
Rodgers & Hammerstein [collaborations], including
Oklahoma, The King and I and South Pacific."
The Sound of Music has a new focus with this
revival. It is the first production where the star is the
captain instead of Maria.
"The fact that the von Trapp family stood up for
honor, dignity and freedoms they felt were para-
mount to all peoples is part of what makes this story
so moving and part of the reason it is obviously
something for Jews to appreciate," says Fink.
"The von Trapps, devout Catholics, could have
safely stayed in their comfortable home, and the
captain could have accepted a prestigious and lucra-
tive position with the admiralty of the Third Reich.
Instead, they made enormous sacrifices for their
principles. The universal truths in The Sound of
Music have to do with freedom and living one's life
free from persecution."
Fink works with the children of both Rodgers
and Hammerstein and has learned a great deal about
the two theater giants and why they would address
the issue of Nazi persecution. While the team shared
a Jewish heritage, Hammerstein was not raised as a
Jew.
"Richard Rodgers was the son of a Jewish doctor
and his Jewish wife and was brought up in New York
City at the turn of the 20th century" says Fink, "My
sense from his family is that they were like the
German Jews of the late 19th and [early] 20th cen-
turies who were recognized as Jews and were honored
to be Jews but were not actively religious.
"We do have a picture of him in the late 1960s
with a menora conspicuously behind him, and I
know that in the mid-'60s he participated in fund-
raisers for Israel and was very supportive of the
Israeli Youth Orchestra.
"His daughter, Mary Rodgers, has made several
trips to Israel in the last couple of years, and her
mother, Dorothy Rodgers, actually bequeathed quite
an enormous sum of money to The Jewish Museum
in New York. [She] created an exhibit of the
Diaspora based on the Museum of the Diaspora in
Tel Aviv.
"Oscar Hammerstein's grandfather was the son of
observant Jews in Germany. Intermarriage was quite
common in the family, and he was a devout believer
in tolerance and humanity. My understanding from
his children is that they have been raised vaguely
Unitarian but really without an organized religious
background per se.
"Hammerstein was involved with world federal-
ism and was one of the founders of the Hollywood
Anti-Nazi League in the early '30s, when there were
many in Hollywood willing to work with the
German government and welcome the Nazis."
The Sound of Music is the only Rodgers &
Hammerstein musical for which Oscar
Hammerstein provided just the lyrics. The script
was written by Howard Lindsay and Russel
Crouse. Making the decision to bring it back to
the stage under the direction of Susan Schulman
were Mary Rodgers; William Hammerstein and
the late James Hammerstein, sons of the lyricist;
and Anna Crouse, the widow of Russel Crouse.
"The Sound of Music ran for 1 1/2 years on
Broadway, and the national tour is actually doing
even better," says Fink, who has spent a lot of time
in East Lansing, where he visited his great-uncle, Dr.
Fritz Herzog, a professor emeritus at Michigan State
University.
"Susan Schulman and her designers actually
spent time in Salzburg and did a great deal of
research to make costumes and scenic designs
inspired by the locale."
While Schulman kept the dialogue and the songs
intact, she did move some of the songs around and
used material written for the film. Fink knows the
moves well because he remembers watching the
movie with a grandmother from Austria, where she
was the second woman ever to be admitted to med-
ical school in Vienna.
"I do not publicize individual productions as
much as make sure people remember who wrote
them, and I think that's crucial," Fink explains.
"There's no question in my mind that
songs like 'Edelweiss' will be with us for
many, many years. But it's important to
us that people recognize that these songs
are part of a body of American literature
that needs to be celebrated the way we
celebrate the works of Mark Twain, John
Steinbeck and Tennessee Williams."
❑
. The Sound of Music runs through
May 21 at the Masonic Temple
Theatre. Evening performances are
at 8 p.m. through Saturday and
7:30 p.m. Sunday. Matinees are at
2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. $32-
$55. (313) 832-2232.
Top to bottom:
Composers Richard Rodgers, left, and Oscar
Hammerstein: –The Sound of Music' is the
most popular Rodgers & Hammerstein musical
internationally" says Fink, "and Israel is no
exception. I was tremendously moved by that."
"The von Trapps, devout Catholics, could
have safely stayed in their comfortable home.
Instead they made enormous sacrifices for their
principles, says Fink. "The universal truths in
`The Sound of Music' have to do with freedom
and living one life free from persecution."
Richard Chamberlain as Captain von Trap
and Meg Tolin as Maria in "The Sound of
Music,' "playing at the Masonic Temple T eatre
through Sunday. The beloved musical has a new
focus with this revival. It is the first production
where the star is the captain instead of Maria.
5/19
2000
85