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Separating from the more prominent partner in a entertainment duo is a hazardous endeavor. Comedian Larry David experienced it. The same for Musician Andrew Ridgeley. Now, this humorous and deeply sorrowful chamber piece from screenwriter the writer Robert Kaplow and helmer Richard Linklater tells the all but unbearable account of musical theater lyricist the lyricist Lorenz Hart just after his split from composer Richard Rodgers. The character is acted with campy brilliance, an dreadful hairpiece and simulated diminutiveness by Ethan Hawke, who is frequently digitally shrunk in stature – but is also at times shot positioned in an hidden depression to look up poignantly at heightened personas, facing Hart’s vertical challenge as actor José Ferrer in the past acted the small-statured Toulouse-Lautrec.

Multifaceted Role and Themes

Hawke gets big, world-weary laughs with the character's witty comments on the subtle queer themes of the classic Casablanca and the overly optimistic stage show he just watched, with all the rope-spinning ranch hands; he acidly calls it Okla-gay. The orientation of Hart is multifaceted: this picture effectively triangulates his queer identity with the heterosexual image invented for him in the 1948 stage show the musical Words and Music (with actor Mickey Rooney playing Hart); it intelligently infers a kind of bisexuality from the lyricist's writings to his protege: youthful Yale attendee and budding theater artist the character Elizabeth Weiland, portrayed in this film with heedless girlishness by actress Margaret Qualley.

Being a member of the legendary Broadway lyricist-composer pair with the composer Rodgers, Lorenz Hart was in charge of incomparable songs like the classic The Lady Is a Tramp, the number Manhattan, the beloved My Funny Valentine and of course the song Blue Moon. But annoyed at Hart’s alcoholism, inconsistency and depressive outbursts, Rodgers ended their partnership and joined forces with the writer Oscar Hammerstein II to write the musical Oklahoma! and then a multitude of theater and film hits.

Sentimental Layers

The film conceives the deeply depressed Hart in the show Oklahoma!'s opening night Manhattan spectators in the year 1943, looking on with envious despair as the show proceeds, loathing its insipid emotionality, abhorring the exclamation mark at the finish of the heading, but dishearteningly conscious of how lethally effective it is. He knows a hit when he views it – and perceives himself sinking into failure.

Before the intermission, Lorenz Hart miserably ducks out and heads to the tavern at the venue Sardi's where the rest of the film takes place, and expects the (inevitably) triumphant Oklahoma! company to appear for their after-party. He knows it is his showbiz duty to congratulate Richard Rodgers, to act as if everything is all right. With polished control, actor Andrew Scott plays Richard Rodgers, clearly embarrassed at what both are aware is Hart's embarrassment; he gives a pacifier to his ego in the guise of a short-term gig writing new numbers for their current production the musical A Connecticut Yankee, which simply intensifies the pain.

• Actor Bobby Cannavale plays the barman who in standard fashion listens sympathetically to Hart’s arias of acerbic misery
• Patrick Kennedy portrays author EB White, to whom Hart inadvertently provides the concept for his children’s book Stuart Little
• Qualley plays Weiland, the inaccessibly lovely Ivy League pupil with whom the film conceives Hart to be complicatedly and self-harmingly in affection

Hart has previously been abandoned by Rodgers. Undoubtedly the universe can’t be so cruel as to cause him to be spurned by Weiland as well? But Margaret Qualley ruthlessly portrays a young woman who wants Lorenz Hart to be the giggly, sexually unthreatening intimate to whom she can confide her exploits with guys – as well of course the Broadway power broker who can advance her profession.

Performance Highlights

Hawke shows that Lorenz Hart somewhat derives observational satisfaction in learning of these young men but he is also authentically, mournfully enamored with Weiland and the picture informs us of a factor seldom addressed in pictures about the world of musical theatre or the films: the terrible overlap between professional and romantic failure. Nevertheless at some level, Hart is boldly cognizant that what he has accomplished will endure. It's an outstanding portrayal from Ethan Hawke. This might become a live show – but who would create the tunes?

The film Blue Moon was shown at the London cinema festival; it is out on the 17th of October in the US, 14 November in the UK and on January 29 in the land down under.