Original caricature by Jeff York of Margaret Qualley and Ethan Hawke in BLUE MOON (copyright 2025)
You’re probably aware that SPRINGSTEEN: DELIVER ME FROM NOWHERE opened in theaters this weekend, but you may not know that another biopic about a musical legend premiered as well. It’s BLUE MOON and songwriter Lorenz Hart is the subject. This one isn’t about the rise of an artist but rather, the fall, and star Ethan Hawke and director Richard Linklater pour their heart into the presentation. Here, Hart is presented as the legendary lyricist that he was, the man who cowrote My Funny Valentine, Bewitched, Bothered & Bewildered, The Lady is a Tramp, and Blue Moon, among many others, with composer Richard Rodgers. Hart is also shown to be mercurial, jealous, a problem drinker, and a painfully insecure man about everything from his looks to his closeted bisexuality to his reputation. Yet, despite being a study of the artist as a self-saboteur, this film is a spritely done comedy of manners, albeit one with drama around its edges.
BLUE MOON tells of the 1943 evening that everything changed between Rodgers and Hart as the success of the musical OKLAHOMA! which Rodgers wrote with new partner Oscar Hammerstein II closed the door on Hart’s chances of getting back together with his 20-year composing partner. It starts with Hart retreating to Sardi’s bar in the Manhattan theater district to avoid watching the hit show receive a standing ovation on its opening night. He derides the musical as too corny and overly sentimental to his Sardi’s audience of his favorite bartender Eddie (Bobby Cannavale) and piano player Morty (Jonah Lees). Soon enough, the OKLAHOMA! entourage will show up for the after-party and present a host of new problems for Hart. He’s smart to realize that the show will run for years, but he’s a hater because it signals a new era for Rodgers and Hammerstein. Can Hart talk Rodgers into returning, despite the new musical phenomenon? That is Hart’s main objective for the night and when Rodgers (Andrew Scott) shows up, the composer’s reticence suggests Hart has his work cut out for him.
Hart was often late, lazy, and erratic during their partnership and you can see in the way Rodgers reacts to him, he doesn’t want to go back. Hart though is easily distracted is also interested this evening in cozying up to a comely young production designer he wants to mentor and bed. She is Elizabeth Wieland, and as played by the invaluable Margaret Qualley, you can see why Hart comments that everyone falls in love with her. Hart will try to impress other Broadway movers and shakers in his midst, and the entire evening becomes one big audition to stay in the game with numerous players.
Even with those stakes, Hart finds it difficult to hold his sarcastic tongue, stay away from boozing, and keep his lies and stories straight. Hawke does a marvelous job of playing all the contradictory parts of Hart’s personality from cockiness to childishness, chattiness to sulking. Hawke is charming enough to keep his Hart in the audience’s good graces even when the lyricist is deriding his competitor Hammerstein (Simon Delaney) or badgering Eddie constantly to keep refilling his glass. Hawke is walking a similar tightrope as Hart does in the film and it’s one of this year’s most accomplished performances.
The script by Robert Kaplow is extremely clever, one that is chock full of humor, Broadway in-jokes and references that only historians or mega-fans would get, but his presentation of an artist struggling with self-doubt and worries plays as universal. Who cannot relate to nagging insecurities? Linklater is clearly a fan of this Manhattanite world as well, despite being known as a famed filmmaker for decades. His presentation actually feels more like a filmed play than something wholly cinematic, but it works to the story’s advantage as everything is quite theatrical from top to bottom.
All the supporting performances are top-notch, including Patrick Kennedy as wry writer E.B. White and Cillian Sullivan as a precociously strident Stephen Sondheim of 13. Scott won Best Supporting Actor a few weeks back at the Silver Bear Film Festival in Berlin and it’s easy to see why as he shrewdly blends wit, pride, and exasperation into his Rodgers character. Still, the film belongs to Hawke whose empathy comes through even though he’s wearing a wig, padded suit, black contacts to disguise his baby blues, and is shot to appear as Hart’s height of merely 5 feet in most every scene.
Bruce may be the boss and it will likely make more money than BLUE MOON, but this one is a truly special funny valentine to Hart, the industry and artists everywhere. It may be more of a delicate chamber piece, but make no mistake, it’s a cinematic gem.
