Lorenz Hart | |
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.jpg) Hart in 1936 | |
| Background information | |
| Born | Lorenz Milton Hart (1895-05-02)May 2, 1895 New York City, U.S. |
| Died | November 22, 1943(1943-11-22) (aged 48) New York City, U.S. |
| Genres | Musical theatre |
| Occupation | Lyricist |
| Years active | 1919–1943 |
Lorenz Milton Hart (May 2, 1895 – November 22, 1943) was an American lyricist and half of theBroadway songwriting teamRodgers and Hart. Some of his more famous lyrics include "Blue Moon"; "The Lady Is a Tramp"; "Manhattan"; "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered"; and "My Funny Valentine".
Hart was born inHarlem, New York City, the elder of two sons, to German Jewish immigrant parents, Max M. and Frieda (née Isenberg) Hart. Through his mother, he was a great-grandnephew of the German poetHeinrich Heine.[1] His father, a business promoter, sent Hart and his brother to private schools. (His brother, Teddy Hart, also went into theatre and became a musical comedy star. Teddy Hart's wife, Dorothy Hart, wrote a biography of Lorenz Hart.)[2]
Hart’s exposure to theater began through his parents who took him to Yiddish and German theater productions in New York. When they were old enough, Hart and his brother Theodore (Teddy) attended the theater on their own. Precociously well read, he published poems and fiction in student publications and at summer camp wrote comedic revues for fellow campers.[3]
Hart received his early education fromColumbia Grammar School and enteredColumbia College in 1913 and graduated in 1918.[4] From 1914 to 1916, he also spent two years atColumbia University School of Journalism.[2][5][6] While he had no special interest in becoming a journalist, he was drawn to the school's steady requirement of writing. While at Columbia, he also took a class in dramatic technique.[7]
By 1918, Hart was working for theShubert brothers, partners in theatre, translating German play songs into English.[2] In 1919 a friend introduced him toRichard Rodgers, and the two joined forces to write songs for a series of amateur and student productions.[2] That year, his and Rodgers' song "Any Old Place With You" was included in the Broadway musical comedyA Lonely Romeo. In 1920, six of their songs were used in the musical comedyPoor Little Ritz Girl, which also had music bySigmund Romberg. They were hired to write the score for the 1925Theatre Guild productionThe Garrick Gaieties, the success of which brought them acclaim.
Rodgers and Hart subsequently wrote the music and lyrics for 26 Broadway musicals during a partnership of more than 20 years that ended shortly before Hart's death. Their "big four" wereBabes in Arms,The Boys from Syracuse,Pal Joey, andOn Your Toes. The Rodgers and Hart songs have been described as intimate and destined for long lives outside the theater.[8] Many of their songs are standard repertoire for singers and jazz instrumentalists. Hart has been called "the expressive bard of the urban generation which matured during the interwar years".[2] But the "encomiums suggest[ing] that Larry Hart was a poet"[9] caused his friend and fellow writer Henry Myers to state otherwise. "Larry in particular was primarily a showman. If you can manage to examine his songs technically, and for the moment elude their spell, you will see that they are all meant to be acted, that they are part of a play. Larry was a playwright."[9]
Rodgers and Hart wrote music and lyrics for several films, includingLove Me Tonight (1932),The Phantom President (1932),Hallelujah, I'm a Bum (1933), andMississippi (1935).[5] With their successes, during theGreat Depression Hart was earning $60,000 annually, and he became a magnet for many people. He gave numerous large parties. Beginning in 1938, he traveled more often and suffered from his ongoingdrinking.[10] Nevertheless, Rodgers and Hart continued working together through mid-1942, with their final new musical being 1942'sBy Jupiter.
The New York Times reported on July 23, 1942: "TheTheatre Guild announced yesterday thatRichard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart andOscar Hammerstein II will soon begin work on a musical version ofLynn Riggs's folk-play,Green Grow the Lilacs, which the Guild produced for sixty-four performances at theGuild Theatre in 1931." Rodgers had brought Hammerstein onto the project due to Hart's skepticism that the play could be adapted into a musical. Hart would admit he had difficulty writing a musical for such a rural setting as Oklahoma.[11] He wasn't alone in this assessment.Jerome Kern who'd also been offered it as a musical project, was equally doubtful that the play, which had run only 64 performances, would succeed as a musical. Disappointed at Hart's refusal, Rodgers turned to Oscar Hammerstein.[12] Complicating this was Hart's worsening mental state and the exhaustion he felt following his work on the showBy Jupiter.[13] This left an eager Hammerstein to complete what would eventually becomeOklahoma!.[14]Rodgers and Hammerstein would continue collaborating for 16 years (ending in Hammerstein's death in 1960), a partnership that made the duo one of the most successful composing teams of the 20th century.
Hart, meanwhile, was much affected by his mother's death in late April 1943. Regrouping somewhat, Rodgers and Hart teamed a final time in the fall of 1943 for a revival ofA Connecticut Yankee. Six new numbers, including "To Keep My Love Alive", were written for this reworked version of the play; it would prove to be Hart's last lyric.
According to Thomas Hischak, Hart "had a remarkable talent for polysyllabic andinternal rhymes",[15] and his lyrics have often been praised for their wit and technical sophistication.
Writer, composer and critic,Anthony Burgess singled out Hart as among the first to use polysyllabic rhyme not to be humorous but as a source of wit and insight: "wit in the service of frustration or neurosis."[16] In Burgess' view, Hart was also among the early practitioners of a more colloquial, conversational style of lyric writing for musical theater: "The effect is of a very conversational declaration, which by the happiest of accidents, has rhymes in it."[16]
According toThe New York Times music criticStephen Holden, "Many of Hart's ballad lyrics conveyed a heart-stopping sadness that reflected his conviction that he was physically too unattractive to be lovable."[17] Holden also noted that "In his lyrics, as in his life, Hart stands as a compellingly lonely figure. Although he wrote dozens of songs that are playful, funny and filled with clever wordplay, it is the rueful vulnerability beneath their surface that lends them a singular poignancy."[8]
Hart lived with his widowed mother Frieda. He was an alcoholic, and would sometimes disappear for weeks at a time on drinking binges.[2]
Hart experienced depression and sadness throughout his life. His erratic behavior was often the cause of friction between him and Rodgers and led to Rodgers teaming with lyricistOscar Hammerstein II in 1942. On March 31, 1943, Hart attended the Broadway premiere of Rodgers and Hammerstein'sOklahoma!. Then Hart put in a brief appearance at the opening night party atSardi's where he told Rodgers, "This is one of the greatest shows I've ever seen, and it'll be playing twenty years from now!" He left with his mother immediately afterwards, saying she was tired.[18][19]
In April 1943, Hart was devastated by the loss of his mother and did not recover emotionally.[20]
Many of Hart's contemporaries who knew him socially have stated he was a discreet homosexual, with a reputation as avoyeur, though his friends did not go into detail about people he watched or mention their genders.[19]
Robert Gottlieb wrote in the April 2013 edition ofThe Atlantic magazine,
There were rumors about Larry [Lorenz Hart] while he was alive, but nothing about his sexuality ever appeared in print. One night in Los Angeles, in 1933, someone from a Hollywood trade magazine approached Dick [Richard Rodgers] at a party and said, "I've got to ask you something about Larry ... Is it true Larry's a fairy?" Dick grabbed him by the collar, [biographer Gary] Marmorstein recounts, and said, "I never heard that. And if you print it, I'll kill you."[19]
Though Richard Rodgers became celebrated for his music forOklahoma! in 1943, later that year he decided that he and Hart should reunite and create a revival ofA Connecticut Yankee, their successful musical from 1927.[19] Hart composed new lyrics for many of the songs in anticipation of the revival's November 17, 1943, premiere at the Martin Beck Theatre.[19]
At the theater on opening night, Hart showed up drunk in the audience.[19] His condition was noticed by his sister-in-law.[19] She persuaded him to accompany her to her Manhattan home.[19] Sometime after they arrived, Hart left, venturing into cold weather to resume drinking.[19] A friend of Hart's found him sitting on the curb in front of a bar that he favored on Manhattan's Eighth Avenue.[21] Hart was shivering, and his friend accompanied him to a hospital,[19] where it was determined that Hart had developedpneumonia from exposure. On November 22, 1943, approximately four days after admission to the hospital, Hart died.[20][19]
Hart is buried inMount Zion Cemetery inQueens County, New York.[22][23]
The circumstances of Hart's life were heavily altered and romanticized in the 1948MGM biopicWords and Music, with fictitious personal details such as changing his sexual orientation and attributing his erratic behavior and depression to an obsession with a woman, played byBetty Garrett, who turns down his marriage proposal.[24]
In 2025, the filmBlue Moon was released. It is set during Hart's last days, mostly aroundSardi’s Restaurant on March 31, 1943, on the opening night ofOklahoma!. Written byRobert Kaplow, the film is directed byRichard Linklater and starsEthan Hawke as Hart, alongsideMargaret Qualley,Bobby Cannavale, andAndrew Scott as Rodgers.[25] The film had its world premiere at the main competition of the75th Berlin International Film Festival, on 18 February 2025, where it won theSilver Bear for Best Supporting Performance for Scott. It received two nominations forBest Actor in a Motion Picture – Comedy or Musical for Hawke andBest Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy at the83rd Golden Globe Awards.[26]Blue Moon received a widespread release on October 24, 2025.[27]
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