Robert Russell Bennett - Orchestrator and American Master

From Steve Morgan, Orchestra Conductor for SOUTH PACIFIC:

Robert Russell BennettThis production of South Pacific celebrates the work of several “American Masters”: the storytelling of the young James Michener, the lyrical genius of Oscar Hammerstein, and the musical imagination of Richard Rodgers. Those of us working on the instumental end of this show are proud to be bringing to life the work of another certified Master: the greatest orchestrator/arranger in the history of  musical theatre: Robert Russell Bennett.

The names of the great composers: Kern, Gershwin, Berlin, Porter, Rodgers.... are part of American culture. But we often forget that these composers usually left it to others to “fill in the blanks”, to harmonize and arrange, and to select those orchestral colors which brought the music and the stories to life. And it’s not just about choice of instrumen-tation: the “voicing” of a particular chord, the path of a bass line, the underlying rhythmic groove, and the subtle way a countermelody insinuates itself into the texture... all these are choices and creations of the orchestrator/ arranger. Beginning in the 20’s and right up into the 1960’s, Bennett was the towering figure in that tradition.

The list of classic musicals orchestrated by Bennett is staggering: Jerome Kern’s Showboat; Gershwin’s Girl Crazy, Of Thee I Sing, and Porgy and Bess; Cole Porter’s Anything Goes and Kiss Me Kate; Berlin’s Annie Get Your Gun; for Lerner and Loewe, both My Fair Lady and Camelot; and virtually the entire catalogue of Rodgers and Hammerstein blockbusters: Oklahoma (1943),  South Pacific (1949), The King and I (1951), Flower Drum Song (1958), and The Sound of Music (1959). When you listen to the original cast recordings (and, more often than not, the revivals) of these shows... remember, you’re hearing the musical ideas of the composers; but the sound and the color and the  atmosphere... are those of Bennett.

For those whose idea of a great musical might be Chicago or Rent or Wicked, Bennett’s kind of writing might seem quaint or even dated. It probably is. But it is emblematic of an era and mindset in musical theatre that is indelibly part of America’s cultural heritage. Savor and enjoy the wonderful contribution that Robert Russell Bennett made to South Pacific.

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