Greetings from East Arlington, MA — just outside of Boston in the USA!
Today I am featuring a beautiful song with lyrics by Lorenz Hart and music by Richard Rodgers.
As this TIME Magazine cover attests, they were a very potent musical and cultural force in the early-middle 20th century.
And I am very happy that a recent movie — BLUE MOON (made by the wonderful director Richard Linklater and starring Ethan Hawke as Larry Hart) — has renewed interest in Hart’s life and musical legacy.
Here’s a link to a great article in The Hollywood Reporter about making the film if you are curious.
It turns out that BLUE MOON was a decade-long labor of love which was filmed on a beautifully re-created version of Sardi’s — a famous bar/restaurant in Manhattan’s theatre district.
Reading the article brought tears to my eyes.
You can also click here to read a blog post I wrote about Larry Hart exactly ten years ago if you are even more curious.
And I once wrote a blog post about two of his and Rodgers’ hit songs — “You Took Advantage Of Me” and “I Could Write A Book” — which you can read by clicking here.
Not mentioned in the BLUE MOON movie is how devoted Hart was to his mother — with whom he lived his entire life.
Hart’s mother died around the same time that OKLAHOMA (the first musical his decades-long collaborator Rodgers created with another lyricist — their mutual friend Oscar Hammerstein II) opened on Broadway.
So he was grieving this huge familial loss simultaneously with the at-least-partial loss of his friendship AND professional relationship with Rodgers.
Deep breath in.
Deep breath out.
And I had forgotten (until I re-read my blog post from ten years ago) that Mr. Hart had also begun a collaboration about underground freedom fighters in France with a composer who had recently escaped from Nazi-occupied Europe.
So, as an American-born Jew whose parents had emigrated to NYC in the late 19th century from Germany, he also may have also been feeling a significant amount of grief, rage, despair, terror, and “there but for the grace of G-d” empathy for the millions of Jews still remaining in Europe.
And let’s not forget that American Nazis were holding huge rallies at places like Madison Square Garden during this time as well!
Yet another deep breath in.
And deep breath out.
I don’t know how much it was public knowledge that LGBTQ folks were being sent to Nazi death camps, but I am guessing that theater people — such as composer Kurt Weill, who had managed to escape from Berlin to Paris to Manhattan — had plenty of heart-breaking anecdotes to share about the fates of their previous artistic partners who happened to be LGBTQ and/or Jewish and/or Roma.
All of this was also not mentioned in BLUE MOON. although Mr. Hawke and Mr. Linklater and some of the other actors such as Andrew Scott apparently did a lot of research before they began filming the movie — so I am guessing that they had most/all of this information influencing the subtexts of their acting performances.
And another deep breath in.
And deep breath out.
There are certainly some powerful parallels with what was happening leading up to Larry’s death in 1943 and what is currently unfolding here in the USA.
One thing I wrote about in my blog post from ten years ago — and which BLUE MOON does explore — is the paradox of Larry Hart (a somewhat closeted gay man) falling in love with and proposing to women.
And the song “Falling In Love With Love” may illuminate some of Hart’s thoughts and feeling on this topic/phenomenon/tendency.
What do YOU think?
Thank you to Doug Hammer for his exquisite piano playing and comprehensive production skills.
Thank you to John Childress (and his collaborator at the time named Laurel, I think…) for taking this photo many years ago when I still had plenty of hair.
Thank you to Stephen C. Fischer for his lovely graphic design work.
And thank YOU for reading and listening to another one of my blog posts.
You can click here to stream “Falling In Love With Love” on Pandora, YouTube, Apple Music, etc. if the spirit moves you.
And you are also always welcome to visit my website: WillSings.com.
There’s all sorts of info and music there — and you could join my email list of you are so inclined.
amusicalifeonplanetearth 
Good morning, Will! It’s a beautiful song. The movie has been on my list since before it came out, but I haven’t managed to see it yet. They had to make Ethan Hawke look about 7 inches shorter than he is.
You ask some thoughtful questions. I imagine, as you said, that some people, particularly theater people in NYC (and Philadelphia, Boston, LA), people with ties to resistance groups, etc, had at least heard whispers. As to your wondering about love and marriage–matters of the heart can be very complex, can’t they? And we can love in so many different ways.
Yes. Matters of the heart can indeed be very complex! And yet another challenge for dear Mr. Hart was that he was very short (whereas Mr. Hawke is 5′ 10″ according to ye olde internet). Societal expectations for LGBTQ people until quite recently were so negative and unsupportive and at times terrifying (gay bashing, being expelled from one’s family and community) that I certainly understand how/why someone would attempt to pursue a more hetero life path… I hope you like BLUE MOON when you finally see it. I thought it portrayed both Hart and Rodgers very empathetically. It must have been extremely challenging and heart-breaking for Rodgers to attempt to collaborate with someone who was less and less reliable/available (due to alcoholism and self-loathing and guilt about how much money he made from writing lyrics and g-d only knows what else…) Rodgers, as you well know, went on to have an extraordinary career with Hammerstein, and then outlived Hammerstein as well. So Rodgers (and his press agents) had three decades in which to spread his own version of how things unfolded/unraveled with Hart. I feel like this movie helps in a small way to give Hart a voice and regain some of his (much-deserved) stature in Broadway history.
💙
This song and your voice are very moving Will. Thanks for the compassionate history about Mr. Hart and the many challenges he faced.
You are very welcome, Brad. Thank YOU as always for your time listening and reading and commenting. On the one hand, another blog post about Larry Hart seems a bit superfluous given the huge political challenges/stakes we are currently facing here in the USA (and elsewhere, too…) But then I was reminded that he, too, was living in very challenging times and attempting to make sense out of awful daily news. So then the blog post and his music seem a little less superfluous…
And as another blogger reminded me, we need to mix joy into life along with the activism. 😊
Yes, indeed!!! Let’s not forget joy and play as vital parts of the path going forward…
Thanks so much for this, Will, your song and the informative article. Have always loved his music, and now we’ll watch Blue Moon (hadn’t heard of it)!
Lorenz Hart as portrayed by Ethan Hawke talks a lot — interacting with a bartender as well as Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein, and a woman in whom he has taken a great interest. BLUE MOON is probably not everyone’s cup of tea, but for those of us who love what is called The Great American Songbook, it’s uplifting to see any interest in the folks who created this body of work!
Such a beautiful song. I’ve always liked it. And the situation in the musical (and in its the source, “Comedy of Errors,” is so poignant!
I need to familiarize myself with THE BOYS FROM SYRACUSE. Among other things, Rodgers & Hart wrote it for Hart’s brother Teddy to co-star in (If I am remembering correctly…) THANK YOU for listening!!! Today I am in the midst of an email exchange with Jill and Joe about our next musical visit to NC.
That’s good news! (PS The musical is based on A Comedy of Errors, a Shakespeare play that’s a great example of how sometimes comedy can get awfully close to tragedy.)
This is such a moving post, Will.
To start with, I love your performance of Falling in Love. Beautiful.
Secondly, I knew very little about Larry Hart.
So many creative persons suffer big setbacks and heartache.
Thirdly, your reference to the parallels between the the Nazis’ murder of LGBTQ people and what is happening in the United States: the US is on a very slippery slope. It’s also hard to believe that the descendants of Germans who came to the US decades ago have now, after rising to the highest offices in the US, are trying to repeat those same practices toward minority groups which Germany has so long tried to attone for.
THANK YOU for listening and commenting, Cynthia. Yes. We are sliding down a very slippery (often from blood!) slope here in the USA right now. So many people with unhealed wounds and/or mental illness are damaging everyone else with fear being the dominant theme rather than love/respect. Let’s see if we can hang on and help turn our country back in the direction of love and respect! I did read an email yesterday which reminded me that justice is being severed in South Korea and Brazil regarding previous leadership who wanted to take their countries in a more fascist direction. And the former Prince Andrew seems to be facing some consequences in Great Britain… We shall see! Deep breath in. Deep breath out.
I can’t imagine how painful it was for Hart when Oklahoma opened. And, even worse was the pain Jews and LGBTQ people faced. Growing up, fortunately with many wonderful Jewish friends and families who embraced me like their own, it didn’t take long to see that Jewish people were more than smart; they had a great appreciation for the arts, from music to museums. That’s how I became immersed in music (especially musicals) and art. More importantly, Jewish people had a strong family base. That strength carried them through. Apologies for my rambling, Will, but this is such a wonderful post.
Thank you for listening and reading and then rambling, Jennie! Yes, it must have been excruciating for Hart to see Rodgers begin to collaborate with another lyricist, even if it was an old friend whom they had known and collaborated with since their college days at Columbia… I love that Hart attended the opening of Oklahoma and attempted to be supportive and enthusiastic about it. I also wonder if a lyric Hammerstein wrote for the song “Many A New Day” in Oklahoma was a nod of respect to Hart (“Many a new day will dawn, many a red sun will set, many a BLUE MOON will shine before I do”) because BLUE MOON was Rodgers & Hart’s most financially successful hit song… These wonderful songs can stir up a lot of thoughts, associations, history and speculation!
I hadn’t thought about Hart being there for the opening of Oklahoma. Good for him, even though he had gone through so much. That was the right thing to do. It makes perfect sense that Hammerstein wrote “Many a New Day” for Hart. Really! Surely he felt he needed to do something, and he ‘did it right’. Will, I often think I grew up in the wrong music generation.
Me, too…
🙂
Beautiful song, Will.
Thank you for listening, Edward!!!
You’re very welcome.