· · ·
turning to page one
turning to page one
BLUE MOON · written by Robert Kaplow · 2025
Scene 18 of 26 · ≈ 2 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.
Rodgers offers a Connecticut Yankee revival, but Hart's Marco Polo pitch and refusal of professional discipline expose the partnership's fracture and Hammerstein's succession.
Hart admits to White that he has quietly entered life's 'for worse' years, inspires the name Stuart with his recurring mouse story, and retreats toward the men's room.
While rave reviews echo from upstairs, Eddie flirts with the cigarette girl and fails to remember Hart's borrowed joke.
This scene
PT 1
Morty Rifkin is washing his hands. Hart can't stop talking.
HART
You know, when Atkinson wrote that
review for Pal Joey--you remember
that? "Drab and mirthless" "Can
one draw sweet water from a foul
well?" I cried. That's how hurt I
was. I cried in Vivienne Segal's
arms. She hugged me and said,
"History is going to prove him
wrong, darling." Wasn't that the
sweetest thing in the world? And
she actually calls me darling.
Hart stands at the urinal and continues talking.
MORTY RIFKIN
Wow.
HART
Time magazine wrote, "For those who
can park their morals in the lobby,
Pal Joey is a wow." What kind of
piece-of-shit praise is that? I'm
talking about Pal Joey.
MORTY RIFKIN
Right. I didn't see that one.
Marty's trapped, not sure if he can leave the bathroom.
HART
Wolcott Gibbs--he loved the show.
He said it was "a song and dance
production with living three-
dimensional figures, talking and
behaving like human beings."
MORTY RIFKIN
See? There you go. You're still
going to introduce me to Rodgers
tonight, right?
We hear a flush. Larry emerges.
HART
Urination for me has turned into a
two-act play. With a brief
intermission. I love Vivienne.
God help me. Her compassion. Did
I tell you she calls me darling?
We were up at the Starlight Roof;
I turned to her and I said
"Vivienne, will you please marry
Right to her face. Can you imagine
having the courage to say that to a
woman?
MORTY RIFKIN
...I've never had the courage to
even dream of saying that.
HART
It was a moment. Let me tell you.
Two AM the band was playing "I've
Heard That Song Before." She said:
"I love you, darling, just not that
way." ...Not. That. Way. Three
little letters. Ten little letters.
That mean: Game over, schmuck.
Rifkin moves to leave the men's room. Hart follows, still talking.
HART (CONT'D)
"Think it over," I told her.
I took her hand in mine. Her nail
polish was pale gray....
PT 2:
A cheer is heard from outside.
Hart and Rifkin reenter the main dining area.