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BLUE MOON · written by Robert Kaplow · 2025
Scene 15 of 26 · ≈ 10 min on screen · Act two
On the opening night of Oklahoma!, lyricist Lorenz Hart drinks through Sardi's while chasing one last renewal with Richard Rodgers and the young woman he adores, but both are already moving beyond him.
Hart leaves the show that displaced him for his Sardi's habitat, where wit and remembered greatness keep fear at bay.
Hart needs Elizabeth to choose him and Rodgers to need him, while drink offers the quicker form of consolation.
He admits White into his private mythology and steps into the Oklahoma! celebration to confront the people he cannot keep.
Morty's wartime songs lead Hart and White from mass death to artistic immortality before Hart reveals that he and Elizabeth shared one passionate weekend.
As Oklahoma!'s celebrants enter, Hart recounts touching Elizabeth at the Vermont cabin and convinces himself that tonight may be the 'another day' she promised.
Hart greets Rodgers and Hammerstein with extravagant praise, conceals his jealousy, and lets Rodgers pull him aside to discuss work.
This scene
PT 1:
Rodgers is pulling Hart towards a small table in the dining room.
RODGERS
So, Dwight Wiman and I have been
talking about bringing back _A
Connecticut Yankee._
HART
Terrific!
RODGERS
Yeah, I'm thinking of asking
Vivienne Segal.
HART
Mein Gott! It's gonna run longer
than Oklahoma! I'll buy fifty
seats myself. I've got a new
title: "Ohhhhhhh, Camelot!"
RODGERS
Well I think we're gonna stick with
A Connecticut Yankee.
HART
Camelot Exclamation Point?
RODGERS
OK, come on, I'm being serious
here.
HART
I'm always serious. That's why
people find me so funny.
RODGERS
So I was thinking, if you feel--up
to working, then maybe...
HART
I've never felt better in my life,
Dick.
GLADYS
Congratulations Dick. I don't want
to bother you, I just, we all just
loved it.
RODGERS
Oh, you did.
GLADYS
It's going to be a big hit.
HART
It is.
RODGERS
Thank you. Thank you. It's
Gladys, right?
GLADYS
Yes! Yeah.
RODGERS
Yes, nice to see you.
(to Larry)
Yeah, I was--I was thinking, not
just a revival, I was thinking a
whole new book. We were thinking
four or five new numbers.
HART
That I write?
RODGERS
Of course that you write - that we
write together. It's been 16
years, you know that, since we did
that show - it needs updating.
Don't you think?
HART
1927! The Vanderbilt!
RODGERS
Yeah, it can be the new Rodgers and Hart show for the fall. New gags. New songs.
HART
New references. We'll satirize the whole war. Rationing, rubber drives, nylon drives... A new number for Vivienne.
RODGERS
Go easy with the satire, Larry.
FAN #2
Very nice job. Very nice piece.
RODGERS
Appreciate it. Thank you.
HART
(rubs hands, improvising)
There came a lull,
then Cordell Hull
sent orders from above:
"I'm sorry, girls,
Put down your pearls.
'Cause now we're rationing love!"
RODGERS
And how do we get Cordell Hull into Camelot?
HART
Who cares! It's funny!
Langner, who's been on the phone getting information, interrupts.
LANGNER
Dick! From the New York Journal American: "as enchanting to the eye as Richard Rodgers's music is to the ear."
HART
Nice.
RODGERS
OK. That's good. Good start.
(back to Larry)
So, are you up for that? Are you feeling healthy, is that something you could take seriously...
HART
I'm on the wagon, Dick. I'm serious. Been drinking ginger ale all night. Well, except for this second. 'Cause this second we have to celebrate.
HART (CONT'D)
This is the greatest musical in the history of American theatre.
RODGERS
No, no. I'm not drinking with you Larry.
He snatches a bagel off a passing tray, at the same time calling over to the news photographer, WEEGEE.
HART
OK, OK, all right. Weegee! Weegee! Shoot this!
RODGERS
What? Oh, no. Larry I gotta...
HART
Rodgers and Hart: together again!
Larry puts his arm around Rodgers.
WEEGEE
All right, closer! C'mon, closer!
Weegee fires the flashbulb.
HART
I want ten copies of that.
WEEGEE
Great. Write me a check.
Weegee exits upstairs.
RODGERS
So, you think you're up to that?
HART
It's the best idea I've heard in 16 years. At the same time, I think we should be dreaming about something completely new. Don't you agree? New Rodgers and Hart! Something people haven't seen before. Something big!
RODGERS
Let's start with the revival first.
HART
Absolutely.
RODGERS
We'll take it one step at a time.
HART
But, hear me out.
RODGERS
Because I really think we can have a future together.
HART
Who doesn't think that?
RODGERS
But I want to be one of those composers who works with, you know, other lyricists.
HART
Like Arlen. Kern. You love Kern.
RODGERS
I love Kern. I wanted to be Kern. But we have to work like professionals, Larry.
HART
Since when haven't I worked like a professional?
RODGERS
I want to work at specific times in the morning, in my office. I want to adhere to a schedule.
HART
That's what we do.
RODGERS
I don't want to spend anymore time looking for you, Larry.
HART
Well, I'm right here! Small as life! Look!
RODGERS
You know what I mean. I don't want to be calling up your mother at nine o'clock in the morning, so that, maybe, you might roll out of bed at noon.
HART
Dick--
RODGERS
I just don't want to do what we did. That's all I'm saying. It's a business, that's all. Maybe I shouldn't bring it up tonight, but I don't know, I wanted--I wanted to...
HART
All I want is to--
FAN #3
That was your best one yet. Really.
RODGERS
All right, thank you.
(back to Larry)
Who is that?
HART
All I want is to write a show we both love.
RODGERS
Yeah, I feel the same way.
LANGNER
Dick! Burns Mantle just called it "the most thoroughly and attractively American musical comedy since Show Boat."
Rodgers takes this in, while still listening to Larry.
RODGERS
Since Show Boat? Wow. That's good.
FAN #4
Truly spectacular.
RODGERS
Thank you, nice to see you.
HART
I have to fall in love with a show, Dick. I have to want to right that show more than anything in the world, to be in that audience, sitting there not missing a single word.
RODGERS
All right, well we start with A Connecticut Yankee; four or five numbers, and we go from there--
Rogers starts to drift away. Hart follows.
HART
OK, Look. Here's what I'm thinking: The Adventures of Marco Polo.
FAN #5
Dick, Dick! Wonderful show.
RODGERS
Oh, thank you so much. Nice to see you.
HART
Just big. Bigger than Jumbo. Epic. A three-ring musical circus. The show lasts four hours with a dinner break! It's grand comic opera.
He guides him a little way through the dining room, just around the corner where Larry sits downs down on a bench and Rodgers stands in the divide between rooms.
HART (CONT'D)
And the stage set is the world! We satirize everybody. And you get to satirize them musically--we send up every national musical cliche there is. The France number, the Italian number; when they get to the Heart of Darkness, the cannibals are doing Porgy and Bess.
(talk-sings)
"Bess, you is my dinner now!"
RODGERS
Jesus, Larry. Come on.
HART
This show is going to have the scope of a novel. It will be the greatest challenge you've ever had as a composer. And what grounds it all, what lets the audience enter this story is the girl.
RODGERS
(interested, despite himself)
A girl?
HART
This ethereal girl whom Marco Polo has left behind. She's half his age, but it's the first time he's felt that inkling of love in years. Maybe ever. He swears in the first scene--we set this up like Benedick in Much Ado--he swears that he's beyond the reach of any woman. He scorns love: and we do a whole number satirizing love songs!
RODGERS
Larry, I want to write shows that have some emotional core to them, that's what I want...
FAN #6
Dick, great music, great show!
RODGERS
Hello! How are you? Thank you, I'll take that. You're a tough critic.
FAN #6
Oh, thank you.
RODGERS
Thank you.
HART
Remember, we established in the first scene that he's anti-love? Then he meets the girl. She's this sort of free-spirit, Scandinavian-looking with two freckles on her left cheek. It's absurd--
RODGERS
Don't do that.
HART
She lives, socially, psychologically, sexually, in another universe than he does--but he is slain. He stands there paralyzed in the light of her pale green eyes. This is the greatest explorer in the history of the world--and none of it means anything to him--unless it's a way to make her see him. That is the emotional core of the story. We take this legendary, larger-than-life man, and we make him bleed.
A couple approaches.
MAYOR
Mr. Rodgers. My name is Robert Hefner; I'm the mayor of Oklahoma City. Eve and I travelled all the way to New York just to see the show.
RODGERS
That's terrific.
Larry's not having it.
HART
Welcome to New York. We're finishing a conversation, he'll be with you in two minutes. Does that sound good?
RODGERS
Two minutes, I'll be right with you. Thank you. I hope it was worth it.
MAYER
It certainly was.
RODGERS
Good to see you. Thank you.
They walk away awkwardly.
RODGERS (CONT'D)
All right, so come on, come on, come on, come on. And they end up together? Come on.
HART
That's what the audience is waiting around to find out! That's the engine that's driving the whole story.
RODGERS
All right, well look, Larry, if you're willing to write it, really write it, and rewrite it, and rewrite it again, then, you know, it could work. But I'm not gonna beg you for this, Larry. You know? We work for fifteen minutes--you're out the door looking for a cigar store. It drives me--it drives me really crazy. I don't like it. I don't want to do it anymore.
HART
We've worked like that for 24 years.
RODGERS
That's exactly what we've done for 24 years.
INVESTOR WELL-WISHER
Congratulations Dick!
RODGERS
Thank you.
INVESTOR WELL-WISHER
It's about time the Guild had a Goddamned hit.
RODGERS
Yeah. You're absolutely, absolutely right.
(to Larry)
Anyway, I'm not gonna--I'm not gonna fight with you, Larry.
HART
Who's fighting?
RODGERS
I don't know...with a war on...do audiences really wants to watch cannibals singing Porgy and Bess.
HART
And what do audiences want to watch? Cowboys a-whoopin'-it-up at the box social?
RODGERS
Well, yes. Apparently.
HART
Oh, that's right, I forgot: Oklahoma Exclamation Point addresses the urgency of a nation at war.
RODGERS
I think every serviceman in that audience tonight thought about what we're fighting for, even for a second or two, he thought about it.
HART
And what is it we're fighting for, exactly - feisty little girls in gingham dresses who cain't say no?
RODGERS
OK, all right...
HART
Dick, Dick, Dick, come on, just between you and me, those characters are unrecognizable as human beings.
RODGERS
I think plenty of people recognized them. They recognized love.
PRODUCER
He needs rescuing, big time.
RODGERS
They recognized family. They recognized pride in their country.
HART
You're starting to sound like Yankee Doodle Dandy.
RODGERS
I think there's significantly more there to recognize, Larry, than a bunch of singing cannibals.
HART
But, cannibals are much funnier, admit it.
OSCAR (O.S.)
Dick, you want to come and read these!
RODGERS
Yeah, hang on! Hang on, be right there.
HART
OK, OK, OK, OK. I know exactly what you mean. Just tell me...what do you really want to write? What's your dream show?
RODGERS
My dream show? Oklahoma.
HART
I mean, next.
RODGERS
We're talking about getting the rights to Liliom.
HART
The Molnar play?
RODGERS
Yeah.
HART
That was cornball in 1909! You really want to write a musical about a carnival barker who beats up his girlfriend dies...
RODGERS
I think it'll work.
HART
Comes back. Yeah, and, at the end, all the dead people could take off their halos and go: "Ohhhhhhh--Purgatory!"
Look, I will do it if you force me to; it's just in my heart of--
RODGERS
I'm not forcing you to - Oscar's gonna do it.
Pause. A cheer, off-screen, from the well-wishers as they hear another review.
HART
And what does Oscar know about turn-of-the-century Budapest?
RODGERS
He's gonna Americanize it. He's gonna modernize it. We're going to to set it in Maine.
HART
Maine! Right, with all due respect, modernizing Molnar is a deeply misgui--
LANGNER
You gotta read this!
RODGERS
Is it the Times?
LANGNER
Burton Rascoe's World Telegram review - it's a rave.
RODGERS
Good.
LANGNER
We'll have the Times any moment.
RODGERS
OK. Larry, I've gotta go.
(exiting)
The Times is coming. Wish me luck.
HART
Mazel tov! As they say in Maine.
Hart wanders back to the bar.