Ruth Harcovitz, a local singer, has been said to be the Boston’s Julie Andrews.

Harcovitz performed on Tuesday at the Riddell Road community building.

The audience was very enthusiastic about her appearance.

Singer Ruth Harcovitz dances with Gordon Hatfield at Ridell Road on Tuesday.

  “I liked it very much,” said Carol Lovell. ‘I like this kind of thing.” Lovell is very into music, and events like this draw her in, she said.

Lovell said that Harcovitz was great and that she doesn’t drown out those trying to sing along.

Along with her singing performance Harcovitz also explained the stories of the songs. She was very successful in involving the audience in her musical program.

Harcovitz’s program was titled “a Celebration of Rogers and Hammerstein,” which included selections from “The King and I,” Oklahoma,” “South Pacific” and more.

Some of the hits that she sang included: “Getting to Know You,” “You’ve Got to be Careful Tonight,” “I’m Gonna Wash that Man Right Outa My Hair,” and the theme song of “Oklahoma.”

“Oklahoma” was the first collaboration by Rodgers and Hammerstein. They become one of the most successful and creative musical writing teams. They found their chemistry was just right. “Oklahoma” was opened with rave reviews, explained Harcovitz. It then started the trend for drama and plot within musicals. They did away with some of the musical conventions of the day, she said.

They also changed the tradition of opening a musical with girls singing and dancing, and instead might have a single woman churning butter while hearing voices of a lone cowboy.

The partnership also changed the process of musicals. Hammerstein would take somewhere from one to two weeks to come up with the lyrics, and it would take Rogers a half hour to two hours to write the song.

Lovell explained that the seniors knew all these songs word for word, because without a television, they would stand around a piano and sing songs.

‘I lack something essential to the role, I don’t know how to whistle,” Harcovitz said about “King and I.”

This program was sponsored by a grant from the East Bridgewater Cultural Council.