Blue Moon

Okay so honestly I hadn’t even seen a trailer for this film before deciding to watch it. The synopsis was enough for my little theatre nerd heart. Also seeing the cast list was enough to hook me. Blue Moon is about Lorenz Hart dealing with Richard Rodgers Oklahoma! opening. As a certified theatre kid who watched Hugh Jackman in Oklahoma! so often my brother knows the words, I was truly looking forward to immersing myself into the lore of the relationship before Rodgers and Hammerstein took over musical theatre.

Rodgers and Hart were huge which I am assuming is what made Rodgers and Hammerstein being so successful so devastating. It’s not like Rodgers was struggling before Hammerstein came along.

Hart shitting on Oklahoma! is the funniest thing in the world because it is STILL an incredible show. Right now, today still an incredible musical. It is to this day one of my favorite musicals.

Now the film is doing a good job with the historical facts. Hart was originally on the project but he had a hard time writing for the show and left. Hammerstein came in later and it did end up being the biggest hit at the time.

The film also seems to be a decent job of letting us know who Lorenz Hart was. He was an insecure, closeted, alcoholic who was extremely bitter when Rodgers moved on and became more successful with someone else then he ever was with Hart.

Margaret Qualley is the most beautiful woman. She is so talented. She has such an incredible way of disappearing into her characters completely while also retaining her own personal charm and charisma.

Andrew Scott is Rodgers??? Great casting decision that man is so charismatic, literally perfect.

Rodgers was a professional with the ability to work with anyone and Hart didn’t have what it took to actually last in American musical theatre. He couldn’t work on a schedule, he wasn’t capable of writing when he needed to write, he only wanted to write when he wanted to write.

Ethan Hawke has done such an incredible job of disappearing into Hart. He is unrecognizable. He genuinely does such an incredible job.

I am going to nerd out a bit. Oklahoma! was incredibly groundbreaking. Not just because it was Rodgers and Hammerstein’s first project together but because of specifically Laurie’s dream ballet. It was the first time a stage musical had used dance in a narrative way. It literally changed how stories were told in musical theatre. Sure other shows had dance numbers but none that had actually aided in telling the story. Okay I’m done.

I also love how this film takes place over a single night. Just a party. It's an incredible way to show someone’s mental state. We are stuck with one person the entire film. It really is an incredible character study. We are watching Lorenz Hart go through about 1000 different emotions and it's great to watch. He’s sad, he’s lonely, he feels rejected, he feels loss, and we see him go through all of this in waves.

We see so much jealousy and resentment from Hart towards Rodgers. The film ending with Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Sardi’s portraits is diabolical.

The film does such an incredible job of making you feel the history. Not only was it accurate in the major events and the impact of Oklahoma! and all of that. But it also did an incredible job of capturing the emotions of Hart and how his life was changed by his writing partner working with someone else. And it also makes it clear that his downfall was his own fault. It was a great movie, I loved it, 8/10.