Richard Rodgers Composer Hammels Station, New York, June 28, 1902; New York City, June 29, 1979. When he was six years old, he was taken to see The Pied Piper, a children’s show composed and written by Manuel Klein and R. H. Burnside. The show was significant only because it sparked Rodgers’s fascination with the theater. Soon after, he was taken to his first Broadway show, Little Nemo, based on the cartoon characters of Windsor McKay and featuring music by Victor Herbert. Although the score…