Breaking Barriers with Composer Mary Rodgers and Playwright Marsha Norman

Mary Rodgers, one of the first female composers to find commercial theatrical success with hits like "Once Upon a Mattress" and "Freaky Friday," chats with playwright and screenwriter Marsha Norman about forging her own path and opening doors for future female dramatists in this episode of "Legacy Project," presented by the Dramatists Guild Foundation.
Produced by the Dramatists Guild Foundation, the Legacy Project is a series of interviews featuring prominent contemporary American playwrights, lyricists, and composers. Each interview offers an intimate look into the lives and creative process of these writers of the theater.
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The Legacy Project was originally conceived by Jonathan Reynolds. Producers include Nancy Ford, Carol Hall, Peter Ratray and Jonathan Reynolds. The interviews are filmed and directed by Jeremy Levine and Landon Van Soest of Transient Pictures. The Dramatists Guild Fund’s Media Advisor is Leonard Majzlin.

[@AuntieMamie]

The interviewer said it it all: Mary Rodgers is an American treasure and true icon. The best part is she wrote, among her many legacies, a great autobiography, “Shy.” It’s as if she’s still alive and just talking to you. She is soooo special indeed.

[@1trschaefer78]

What a wonderful woman! Just finished her memoir "Shy - The alarmingly outspoken memoirs of Mary Rodgers". It was one of those books where you NEVER wanted it to end!

[@Jonathanbroder]

I agree. A MUST read for lovers of the golden age of Broadway.

[@rexlex1736]

Rodgers is spelled with a "D."

[@NFNJP]

I am reading it for the second time. I so miss the old guard. The style alone is such a magnetic draw.

[@paules3437]

Me too! Just finished it a couple of weeks ago. Could you believe how kinda horrible so many people in her world were... and yet probably wonderful in some ways. Still, alcohol sure wreaked a lot of havoc in her life, not least with her son Adam Guettel, who has now written the musical version of "Days of Wine and Roses" which apparently reflects his own struggles with addiction... and yet his "Light in the Piazza" was genius.

[@jauntydamemusic]

I'm listening to the audiobook for a second time. Bracing!

[@ronroc]

Extraordinary woman. Extraordinary personality. My mother introduced me to Freaky Friday when I was 13. I saw the movie with Jodie Foster and Barbara Harris. Then when I was a Disney Writing Fellow years later, I talked to the writer of the remake and saw clips from that version as we discussed the timeless quality she fought to preserve from the original book. Also, met Marshall Brarer @ Broadway On Sunset in the '90's and he brought up Once Upon A Mattress.

[@billbrimmer7047]

Mary Rodgers is a wonderfully engaging individual. She does share with her father a great intelligence and intellectual curiosity. She is one of those people you wish you had known along the way. A wonderful interviewer and interview. Thank you.

[@leerobb7733]

I really enjoyed this.I had no idea who Mary Rodgers was and now I do.Thank you.

[@Druezer]

I do wish they would date these videos.

[@bobzeschin3154]

Fascinating interview. I can't wait to read "Shy" for the unexpurgated version of Growing Up Rodgers.

[@esmeephillips5888]

Out now. She makes her dad sound every bit as 'difficult' as others have said. Latterly h4is alcoholic intake was crazy. Not surprised that after he lost Hammerstein, a patient and tolerant guy, Rodgers was at sea. Sondheim could not last a day with him. Rodgers could only write to a lyric, and he could not find another collaborator to get him fired up. Mary seems to have had the human warmth her dad lacked.

[@stephencowley3661]

she was a wonderful woman so knowledgeable about her father music I was fortunate to send her a critique of her father's and Oscar Hammerstein's collaboration which is my avocation and she send me a lovely reply.

[@TomIdelson]

Once again, a brilliant conversation by two brilliant humans. Thank you! (when was this filmed?)

[@captdavec590]

I worked at Tamiment as a musician from 1975-1985

[@kendramalm8811]

I don't think there's anyone who's done high school or community musical theater that hasn't done "Mattress" at one time in their career!

[@mairimccormick5143]

That isn’t Linda Rodgers, in that childhood photo of her at the piano. That’s Zoe Hyde-Thompson.

[@paydeemanoopgrama9800]

Fun, but Rodgers is misidentified in the photo w Sondheim at the Westport playhouse. She is seen on the far right of the second row.

[@simonshackleton1647]

And before Turnabout there was Vice Versa by F Anstey in 1882

[@SSNT4]

What year is this interview?

[@Twentythousandlps]

2011. Marsha Norman is a great interviewer - doesn't interrupt.