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Parting ways from the better-known colleague in a showbiz duo is a hazardous affair. Larry David experienced it. So did Andrew Ridgeley. Currently, this humorous and heartbreakingly sad chamber piece from scriptwriter the writer Robert Kaplow and helmer the director Richard Linklater recounts the all but unbearable tale of Broadway lyricist the lyricist Lorenz Hart just after his split from Richard Rodgers. His role is portrayed with flamboyant genius, an notable toupee and fake smallness by actor Ethan Hawke, who is frequently digitally shrunk in stature – but is also occasionally filmed standing in an off-camera hole to look up poignantly at heightened personas, facing the lyricist's stature problem as José Ferrer in the past acted the small-statured Toulouse-Lautrec.

Layered Persona and Elements

Hawke achieves substantial, jaded humor with Hart’s riffs on the concealed homosexuality of the movie Casablanca and the overly optimistic musical he just watched, with all the rope-spinning ranch hands; he acidly calls it Okla-gay. The sexuality of Lorenz Hart is complex: this movie clearly contrasts his queer identity with the heterosexual image fabricated for him in the 1948 musical the musical Words and Music (with Mickey Rooney acting as Lorenz Hart); it cleverly extrapolates a kind of dual attraction from the lyricist's writings to his protégée: college student at Yale and aspiring set designer Weiland, played here with heedless girlishness by actress Margaret Qualley.

As a component of the renowned musical theater lyricist-composer pair with composer Rodgers, Lorenz Hart was in charge of unparalleled tunes like the classic The Lady Is a Tramp, Manhattan, My Funny Valentine and of course Blue Moon. But frustrated by Hart's drinking problem, inconsistency and melancholic episodes, Rodgers severed ties with him and teamed up with Oscar Hammerstein II to create Oklahoma! and then a multitude of live and cinematic successes.

Sentimental Layers

The picture conceives the deeply depressed Hart in Oklahoma!’s premiere Manhattan spectators in 1943, observing with covetous misery as the production unfolds, loathing its insipid emotionality, abhorring the exclamation mark at the finish of the heading, but heartsinkingly aware of how devastatingly successful it is. He understands a hit when he sees one – and perceives himself sinking into unsuccessfulness.

Even before the interval, Hart sadly slips away and heads to the pub at Sardi’s where the rest of the film occurs, and expects the (unavoidably) successful Oklahoma! troupe to appear for their following-event gathering. He is aware it is his performance responsibility to compliment Richard Rodgers, to act as if all is well. With polished control, the performer Andrew Scott acts as Richard Rodgers, obviously uncomfortable at what each understands is Hart's embarrassment; he offers a sop to his ego in the appearance of a short-term gig composing fresh songs for their ongoing performance the show A Connecticut Yankee, which just exacerbates the situation.

• Actor Bobby Cannavale acts as the barkeeper who in conventional manner listens sympathetically to Hart’s arias of vinegary despair
• The thespian Patrick Kennedy acts as writer EB White, to whom Lorenz Hart accidentally gives the idea for his kids' story Stuart Little
• The actress Qualley plays Weiland, the impossibly gorgeous Ivy League pupil with whom the picture conceives Lorenz Hart to be intricately and masochistically in affection

Hart has already been jilted by Rodgers. Undoubtedly the cosmos couldn't be that harsh as to have him dumped by Weiland as well? But Qualley mercilessly depicts a young woman who wishes Lorenz Hart to be the laughing, platonic friend to whom she can confide her adventures with young men – as well of course the Broadway power broker who can advance her profession.

Standout Roles

Hawke demonstrates that Hart somewhat derives voyeuristic pleasure in learning of these guys but he is also genuinely, tragically besotted with Weiland and the picture tells us about something seldom addressed in movies about the world of musical theatre or the cinema: the dreadful intersection between occupational and affectionate loss. However at a certain point, Hart is defiantly aware that what he has attained will persist. It’s a terrific performance from Hawke. This may turn into a theater production – but who shall compose the songs?

The film Blue Moon screened at the London movie festival; it is released on October 17 in the United States, November 14 in the United Kingdom and on January 29 in the land down under.