BLUE MOON
Review by Pat Frickey
The film opens with a stumbling drunk, a broken man collapsing in a back alley on the rainy streets in New York City. Flash backwards eight months to …
March 31, 1943, to see the same man, Lorenz“ Larry” Hart( Ethan Hawke), alive and well, prematurely exiting a Broadway theater. Hart makes his way to Sardi’ s, the Broadway-goers beloved hangout … and waits and waits. All the while, the witty raconteur entertains the genial bartender Eddie( Bobby Cannavale) and other customers with an acerbic wit that barely masks his profound sadness. This is the story of a breakup, and Hart can barely stand the pain.
March 31, 1943, is a devastating night for Hart. As the clever half of the successful Broadway songwriting team Rodgers and Hart, he had collaborated with Richard Rodgers( Andrew Scott) for more than twenty years. They had composed songs for more than twenty-six musicals, including classics such as The Lady Is a Tramp; Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered; My Funny Valentine … and of course Blue Moon, which gave this film its title. The problem is, Hart has been ditched by his partner, Rodgers, who then teamed up with Oscar Hammerstein II( Simon Delaney) to collaborate on Oklahoma! Though Hart had left Oklahoma! early on opening night and spoke disparagingly of the play with an exclamation point in its title and a song with the lyric“ corn is as high as an elephant’ s eye,” he sensed that Rodgers would have an enormous hit on Broadway, without him. Not that Rodgers had dropped Hart on a whim. Hart had been asked to collaborate on Oklahoma! but couldn’ t get inspired to write lyrics for a musical set in the heartland
© SONY PICTURES GERMANY
BLUE MOON
USA 2025 OPENING MARCH 26, 2026
DIRECTED BY RICHARD LINKLATER
WRITING CREDITS: ROBERT KAPLOW
PRINCIPAL ACTORS: ETHAN HAWKE, BOBBY CANNAVALE, ANDREW SCOTT, MARGARET QUALLEY
CURRENTS 51