New York City
Set in Bavaria and Munich, Music in the Air was the transitional piece in Oscar Hammerstein II’s career between his early operettas and his modern musicals written with Richard Rodgers. Although it retains an operetta-like setting, it is a musically and emotionally sophisticated romance, combining wit, elegance and melancholy in a manner reminiscent of the films of Ernst Lubitsch. It tells of an aging rural music teacher, his naively charming daughter and their misadventures trying to break into the cynical, world-weary theatre scene in the big city. Songs include “I’ve Told Ev’ry Little Star” and “The Song Is You”.