I went to see Richard Linklater’s Blue Moon because I’m one of the extremely niche group of people still living who care about the life and work of lyricist Lorenz Hart. Hart was a scintillating talent and a tormented man who wrote the lyrics for the scores of many hit musical shows from the 1920s and ’30s with his longtime friend and songwriting partner, composer Richard Rodgers.
Just to give you an idea of the extent of my interest in this subject, when it comes to the Great American Songbook standards written by Rodgers and Hart and recorded by a rotation of top singers through the early 1960s, I have favorite versions of the songs. Here’s a partial rundown: “Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered” (Ella Fitzgerald); “My Funny Valentine” (Chet Baker); “Blue Moon” (Elvis Presley); “I Could Write a Book” (Frank Sinatra); “Little Girl Blue” (Judy Garland); “Lover” (Peggy Lee); and “The Lady Is a Tramp” (Lena Horne).
This movie’s gotten a remarkably wide release considering the fact that, when it comes to who its audience might be, there’s. . . me. And, y’know, a smattering of others.
Anyway, naturally I was there in an almost empty theater to see this film written by novelist-screenwriter Robert Kaplow (Me and Orson Welles) about the dark night of the soul for Lorenz Hart when Oklahoma! premiered on Broadway in 1943 and became the kind of landmark hit that redefined an entire stage genre. The score to Oklahoma! — or, as Hart calls it witheringly in Blue Moon, “Oklahoma-exclamation-point” — was written by Richard Rodgers and his new lyricist, Oscar Hammerstein II.
Rodgers and Hart had been friends and writing partners since 1919, and they were extremely successful young men from the mid-1920s on, with hits such as Babes in Arms, A Connecticut Yankee, The Boys from Syracuse, and Pal Joey. But Rodgers and Hammerstein went beyond mere success right out of the gate. Oklahoma! was immediately heralded as one for the ages….
Auteur: Eileen Jones
