Quote of the day:

A rich man is one who isn’t afraid to ask the salesperson to show him something cheaper.
—Jack Benny

It was 1942 and Richard Rodgers wanted get to work on Green Grow the Lilacs, a play that had failed on Broadway a decade earlier but in which he saw possibilities for a musical. Sadly, his longtime lyricist, the gay, erratic, alcoholic Lorenz Hart, was not interested in a homespun show set at the turn of the century and wanted something more modern. Besides, Hart was increasingly consumed by alcoholism and had become ever more unreliable as a writing partner.

Coincidentally, Oscar Hammerstein II was also interested in the same play, and when he learned that Rodgers was looking for a collaborator, he volunteered.

Thus in 1943 Oklahoma! opened to rave reviews and long lines at the box office. It seemed to be exactly what a country in the midst of a foreign war needed.

In Blue Moon, one of two current Richard Linklater films, we get to see an imagined Lorenz Hart reacting to the opening night of Oklahoma! at the famous Sardi’s restaurant.

Ethan Hawke plays Hart, and the filmmakers had to resort to tricks to make the six foot Hawke appear a foot shorter.

Andrew Scott plays Richard Rodgers, and there is also a brief appearance by Cillian Sullivan as a very young Stephen Sondheim, who I’m quite sure would not have been there, but so what?

In any case, like all other recent movies, I’ll be waiting for the blu-ray to be released, but in the meantime there are plenty of things to read and listen to.

For a review of the film, check out Blue Moon: Ethan Hawke’s Lorenz Hart is a haunted, dazzling presence in Richard Linklater’s Blue Moon—a film that sings, stumbles, and ultimately lingers like a last refrain.

Meanwhile, the Bowery Boys use the occasion to re-release their Rodgers and Hammerstein: Some Enchanted Broadway History.

Fresh Air’s Terry Gross interviews Richard Linklater: ‘Filmmaking Is Problem Solving’ They also discuss Linklater’s other new film, Nouvelle Vague, as well as his twenty year project to film the Sondheim/Furth show Merrily We Roll Along.

They mention Lorenz Hart’s self pitying attitude, and Terry quotes Hart’s lyric, although she conflates a couple lines. Here is what Hart wrote:

All alone, all at sea
Why does nobody care for me?
When there’s no love to hold my love
Why is my heart so frail?
Like a ship without a sail.
Out on the ocean,
Sailors can use a chart
I’m on the ocean
Guided by just a lonely heart
Still alone, still at sea
Still there’s no one to care for me
When there’s no hand to hold my hand
Life is a loveless tale
For a ship without a sail.

Linklater also mentions that most people prefer the songs that Hart wrote with Rodgers to the later ones that Rodgers wrote with Hammerstein. Well, I’m here to say that although I would not want to give up the Rodgers and Hart catalog, I vastly prefer the later Rodgers and Hammerstein songs, both as songs and for the way they are integrated into the shows. So there! 

 

For those who want to explore more of Hart’s life, there is A Ship Without A Sail: The Life of Lorenz Hart by Gary Marmorstein.

Here’s Barbara Cook performing “A Ship without a Sail”:

 

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