WE'LL HAVE MANHATTAN: THE EARLY WORK OF RODGERS & HART By Dominic Symonds 

"We'll Have Manhattan: The Early Work of Rodgers & Hart" from Oxford University Press will be available in stores on March 4, 2015. 

Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart - the precursors to Rodgers and Hammerstein - collaborated on over 40 shows before Hart's death, producing popular favorites such as "Manhattan", "The Lady is a Tramp", and "Bewitched". In We'll Have Manhattan, musical theater historian Dominic Symonds illuminates the unexamined years of this dynamic partnership from their first meeting in the spring of 1919 to their decision in the early 1930s to try their luck in Hollywood.

Tapping into extensive archival research from the United States and the United Kingdom, Symonds leads readers through the duo's early formative years in New York City to the successes and disappointments they experienced in the musical theater scene in both Manhattan and London. Throughout We'll Have Manhattan, much focus is placed on:

·      The exploration of how a song works within a narrative

·      The business side of theater and the impact of media, economics, and audiences

·      How musical theater serves as an authentic voice for personal and national identity

We'll Have Manhattan serves as not only a historical study of the first 12 years of Rodgers and Hart's collective work but it also provides an analytical commentary on their professional development and its influence on the changing landscape of the American musical.

About the Author: Dominic Symonds is Reader in Drama at the University of Lincoln and founding editor of the journal Studies in Musical Theatre. He is also a director and writer for musical theatre. Symonds currently resides in Lincoln, England.