In 1920, Oscar Hammerstein II—fresh from the modest success of his debut musical Always You—was eager to write the show for Frank Tinney that his uncle Arthur was to produce. As Hugh Fordin wrote, “Arthur, confident of his nephew's ability but aware that he needed to learn more about his craft, brought in Otto Harbach to collaborate on the book and lyrics.” The two men joined forces on that show—Tickle Me—and went on to write such classics as Rose-Marie (1924, Rudolf Friml & Herbert Stothart), Sunny (1925, Jerome Kern), and The Desert Song (1926, Sigmund Romberg). After working with Harbach (Fig. 1), Hammerstein would venture on his own and write Show Boat, Oklahoma!, and be credited as having ushered in a new era of musical theatre, chiefly defined by his success at “integration.” As literary scholar Scott McMillin writes, the conventional idea of integration is that “all elements of a show—plot, character, song, dance, orchestration, and setting—should blend together into a unity, a seamless whole.” In popular commentary, this development is often attributed to Rodgers & Hammerstein's 1943 musical Oklahoma!, as seen in John Kenrick's claim that “[t]hroughout the show, every word, number, and dance step was an organic part of the storytelling process. Instead of interrupting the dialogue, each song and dance continued it. For the first time, everything flowed in an unbroken narrative line from overture to curtain call.” Other historians and critics are more tempered, touting the success of Oklahoma! while insisting that its integration must be seen as part of a broader historical arc. Andrew Lamb, for example, celebrates Oklahoma! by noting that it was the realization of “[w]hat Kern and Gershwin had experimented with as far back as the 1920s—a piece that was not just a collection of catchy numbers, but a fusion of drama, song, and dance.” In a 1962 article, Stanley Green notes that the creators of Oklahoma! “blended all the theatrical arts with such skill tha[t] many accepted it as a revolution in the theatre,” but he argues that their accomplishment was actually “more evolutionary than revolutionary. Rather than inaugurating any trend toward the well-integrated show, what it did achieve was a perfection in technique of a development that had been going on ever since the second decade of the century.” While Green cites the Princess Theatre musicals of Bolton, Wodehouse, and Kern as the earliest examples of integration, this lineage goes back further—further than Hammerstein, further than Gershwin, further than Kern. To understand the history of the idea of “integration” in musical theatre, we must go back to the artist whose 1910 musical Madame Sherry, hailed as the “musical comedy rage of a generation,” was celebrated by critics for the way its “entertaining elements” were “cleverly interwoven into a consistent whole,” for the innovative ways that “the songs, lyrics, and ensemble numbers . . . are directly related to the story of the comedy, and there is a plausible excuse for every musical interruption.” That artist—who not only developed an innovative approach to musical theatre but also articulated a coherent theory of it—was Otto Harbach.

1920 年，奥斯卡·汉默斯坦二世 (Oscar Hammerstein II) 刚从首部音乐剧《永远的你》( Always You ) 中获得微薄的成功，渴望为弗兰克·廷尼 (Frank Tinney) 撰写这部由他的叔叔亚瑟 (Arthur) 制作的节目。正如 Hugh Fordin 所写，“Arthur 对他侄子的能力充满信心，但也意识到他需要更多地了解他的手艺，于是请 Otto Harbach 来合作创作这本书和歌词。” 这两个人在那个节目中联手——Tickle Me——并继续创作了诸如Rose-Marie (1924, Rudolf Friml & Herbert Stothart)、Sunny (1925, Jerome Kern) 和The Desert Song (1926, Sigmund Romberg ) 等经典作品）。在与 Harbach 合作后（图 1），Hammerstein 将独自冒险并撰写Show Boat , Oklahoma！，并被认为开创了音乐剧的新时代，主要由他在“整合”方面的成功来定义。正如文学学者斯科特·麦克米林（Scott McMillin）所写，传统的整合理念是“节目的所有元素——情节、角色、歌曲、舞蹈、配器和场景——都应该融合成一个统一的、无缝的整体。” 在流行的评论中，这种发展通常归因于罗杰斯和汉默斯坦 1943 年的音乐剧俄克拉荷马！，正如约翰·肯里克所说的那样，“[t]在整个节目中，每个单词、数字和舞步都是讲故事过程的有机组成部分。每一首歌曲和舞蹈都没有打断对话，而是继续对话。第一次，从序曲到谢幕，一切都在一条完整的叙事线中流动。” 其他历史学家和评论家则更加温和，吹捧俄克拉荷马州的成功！同时坚持必须将其整合视为更广泛历史弧线的一部分。例如，安德鲁·兰姆 (Andrew Lamb) 庆祝俄克拉荷马州！注意到这是对“[w]Kern 和 Gershwin 早在 1920 年代就已经尝试过的东西的实现——这不仅仅是一个吸引人的数字的集合，而是戏剧、歌曲和舞蹈的融合。” 在 1962 年的一篇文章中，斯坦利·格林指出俄克拉荷马州的创造者！“将所有戏剧艺术与许多人认为是戏剧革命的技巧融合在一起，”但他认为，他们的成就实际上是“比革命更具进化性。它并没有开创任何走向集成良好的表演的趋势，而是实现了自本世纪第二个十年以来一直在发展的技术上的完美。” 虽然格林引用了博尔顿、伍德豪斯和克恩的公主剧院音乐剧作为整合的最早例子，但这一谱系可以追溯到更远的地方——比汉默斯坦、格什温、克恩更远。要了解音乐剧中“整合”理念的历史，我们必须回到 1910 年音乐剧《雪利夫人》的艺术家。被誉为“一代音乐喜剧风靡一时”的电影，因其“有趣的元素”“巧妙地交织成一个一致的整体”，以及“歌曲、歌词和合奏数字. . . 与喜剧的故事直接相关，每次音乐中断都有合理的借口。” 这位艺术家——他不仅开发了一种创新的音乐剧方法，而且阐明了一种连贯的理论——是奥托哈巴赫。