The music was tremendous in the form of cameo appearances by, among others, Lena Horne (Lady is a Tramp) and Mel Tormé (Blue Moon). Sadly, the storyline didn't match the music. It was fictionalised beyond the bounds of credibility. As one reviewer put it, Abbot and Costello would have been better suited to the lead roles!
No such problem with Blue Moon. Filmed on a single set depicting the bar of a plush hotel on Broadway, it depicts the decline and fall of Lorenz Hart, arguably the greatest lyricist of them all. Played by Ethan Hawke, he delivers, dare I say it? an Oscar winning performance depicting the demons and delusions of an artist watching on as his former songwriting partner Rodgers, played by Andrew Scott, is feted and fawned over by the cream of Gotham society after the triumphant first night of Oklahoma! Richard Rogers' first show with his new collaborator Oscar Hammerstein II.
Although it's heartrending, almost tear jerking, it isn't without humour. Hart's suggestion to Rodgers that they rewrite a song from Gershwin's Porgy and Bess sung by cannibals: Bess you is my dinner now! is priceless. However, in the main the humour is deprecating and delusional.
Hart being a lyricist, the music doesn't take centre stage yet nevertheless, it provides an important prop as a young GI played by Jonah Lees plays cocktail lounge piano throughout. Unintrusive it creates just the right ambience. Most of the tunes he plays, although well known, aren't Rodgers & Hart songs - it would have taken away their relevance to the setting if they had been.
Even if, God forsake, you'd never heard of Lorenz 'Larry' Hart, by the time the credits roll you will leave, like I did, feeling you'd shared the highs and lows of one of the 20th century's greatest poets, a master of rhyme and couplet.
Lorenz 'Larry' Hart died aged 48. Lance
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