Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II

The Broadway stage musical gained prominence in American culture throughout the 1940s and 1950s, largely thanks to the works of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II. Their Oklahoma!, from 1943, was the first musical to fully integrate songs and music into the play's story. The duo had further Broadway hits with 1951's The King and I and 1959's The Sound of Music.