"All of my professional life I have been intimately associated with the
American musical theatre. I think I know it as well as anyone. And yet I
never get over the first-time thrill of hearing a good Broadway show song,
whether it's brand new or an old favorite, my own or someone else's. ...

"A song distills ideas and events into a few bars of music, a simple lyric
line that has the power later to evoke its original sentiment even when it
is played out of context. ...

"The true greatness of the American Musical Theatre lies in its ability to
deal with so many sides of life in so many ways. There is the whirlwind romp
seeking only to entertain and the 'serious' work that makes its audience
stop and think. But all of its vitality comes from its capacity to absorb
the music and the message of the times, and to become in its turn a part of
the ethos of the country. Oscar Hammerstein once put it quite simply: he
said, 'There is really only one element that a musical must have. It must
have music. And there is only one thing that it has to be. It has to be
good.'"

-- Richard Rodgers, foreword to The Best of Broadway: Eighty Great Songs of
the American Musical Theatre.


Submitted by ALEX R. COHEN