Blue Moon

On March 31, 1943, Lorenz Hart slips away from the opening night of Oklahoma!, the Broadway sensation created by his former partner Richard Rodgers in collaboration with Oscar Hammerstein II. He arrives at Sardi’s, a late-night heartbeat for the city’s theater crowd, where preparations are already underway for the post-show celebration.

Hart is talkative, sharply witty, and newly sober, holding court with the restaurant’s bartender, Eddie, who scrambles to keep him from reaching for a drink, and with Morty Rifkin, the lively piano player Morty Rifkin. The room buzzes with the giddiness of Oklahoma!’s overwhelming success—a success Hart had once helped shape but chose not to write—while his own career feels unsettled and fragile. In the glow of the night, Hart openly declares himself omnisexual and lets his gaze linger on Elizabeth Weiland, a Yale art student and aspiring production designer Elizabeth Weiland. After months of correspondence and an unconsummated weekend with the 20-year-old, the 47-year-old Hart believes this is the moment to win her heart.

Elizabeth arrives amid the clamor, and Hart plans a night of grand gestures—a cascade of gifts, a card trick, and a chorus of well-wishers. Yet the party unfolds with a different, quieter current running through it. Hart spots E. B. White, the famed writer, and seeks out his thoughts as another voice in the world of letters. The conversation turns to White’s own work, including a children’s book idea, and White asks Hart to name a character who might inhabit his pages. Hart muses about a mouse who keeps returning to a 19th-floor apartment, and White presses further, suggesting a name, to which Hart offers the playful possibility of “Stuart,” a moment that hints at the way Hart’s own imagination had fueled others’ titles and stories.

As the night gathers momentum, Rodgers arrives with Hammerstein and a crowd that mirrors the old magic of their early collaborations. Hart pulls Richard Rodgers aside, pitching a bold new idea—an epic revival of one of their earlier shows and, more ambitiously, a grand musical about Marco Polo. But the cracks in their longstanding partnership are visible: Hart’s battle with alcohol and his own mounting depression strain a bond that had endured for more than two decades. In a private moment in a restroom, Hart shares with Morty the heartbreak of a failed proposal to someone he once cared for deeply—an admission that sheds light on the personal costs behind his artistic fire.

The night unfolds with Hart trying to bridge the gap between old love and present loyalty. He introduces Elizabeth to his former partner, hoping to place her story within the circle of Broadway’s brightest, yet he is swiftly reminded of the distances that have grown between them. Rodgers, ever practical and perceptive, gives Elizabeth his private number and invites her to join him at his own party, a move that cuts Hart to the quick and underscores the ache of unrequited passion. Hart watches her go with a mix of longing and resignation, his pride tempered by a deep-seated sadness that his own life seems to spin off in a separate orbit from the one he once shared with his collaborators.

Left alone as the restaurant winds down, Hart retreats into the solitary space where his stories still spark warmth and humor for the few who remain. Morty stays to keep him company, and Eddie remains a steady, if wary, confidant—a rare moment of kinship in a night fueled by memories, performances, and the unresolved tensions of a life lived at the edge of its own brilliance. When the last notes fade and the staff close the doors, Hart’s gaze lingers on what might have been, as he accepts the distance between his desires and the world that keeps moving forward.

The story moves forward in time to a days-later future without Hart, seven months after that night when a combination of loneliness, alcohol, and grief takes a heavy toll. Hart collapses in the street, his life ending under the weight of his unfulfilled yearnings and artistic restlessness. In the wake of his passing, Rodgers and Hammerstein’s partnership endures, evolving into a cornerstone of Broadway history that continues to cast a long shadow over the American musical theater. The film’s portrait is not only of a genius undone by his own demons but also of the resilience and brilliance that can emerge from the same circle of creators who shaped Oklahoma!, leaving behind a lasting legacy that outlives Hart in the art they built together.

Last Updated: December 04, 2025 at 15:32