About the work
Allegro is a musical by Richard Rodgers (music) and Oscar Hammerstein II (book and lyrics), which premiered on 10 October 1947 at the Majestic Theatre on Broadway. Direction and choreography were both by Agnes de Mille, making her the first choreographer to also direct an entire Broadway musical.
Plot
The show follows the life of the doctor Joseph Taylor Jr. from birth into midlife, torn between his idealistic calling as a small-town physician and the temptations of career and wealth in the big city, embodied by his ambitious wife Jennie.
Cultural significance
With a bare stage, projections and a Greek-chorus-like commentator voicing Joe's inner thoughts, Allegro is regarded as a forerunner of the later "concept musical". Despite its innovative form and mixed reviews, it ran for 315 performances and remained a one-off in the Rodgers and Hammerstein canon.