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BLUE MOON · written by Robert Kaplow · 2025
Scene 20 of 26 · ≈ 5 min on screen · Last scene of 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.
Hart pitches a grand future, hunts for artistic validation, and retreats through drink and old stories when Rodgers resists.
While rave reviews echo from upstairs, Eddie flirts with the cigarette girl and fails to remember Hart's borrowed joke.
In the men's room, Hart detains Morty with memories of Pal Joey's reviews and Vivienne Segal's tender but decisive rejection.
The Times review crowns Oklahoma! near perfection; Hart applauds, then urgently draws Rodgers aside for a private farewell disguised as congratulations.
This scene
HART
I remember when I first heard about
you, you were just Morty Rodgers's
little brother; what, were you
seventeen?
RODGERS
Sixteen!
HART
Yeah, I was 23.
FAN #7
Swell job.
RODGERS
Yeah, you were the wise old man of
the mountain.
HART
But when I first heard you play
your stuff, I knew you had it. I
wasn't entirely convinced that I
had it, but I heard something that
afternoon: originality, melody,
grace...
He can't go on.
RODGERS
Come on. Come on, Larry. Stop it.
Come on, what's the matter with
you?
HART
You worked your whole life for this
night, Dick. Nobody's worked
harder.
(hugs Rodgers awkwardly)
And nobody deserves it more.
RODGERS
All right, thanks. Thanks, Larry.
Thank you.
HART
All right, that's what I wanted--
just go enjoy your party.
RODGERS
Hey, look at me. Look at me – we're
going to do a Connecticut Yankee,
all new. We're gonna write four or
five new songs.
HART
I have ideas already. And if I get
some pages down for Marco Polo, can
I send them over?
RODGERS
You have to ask me that? Larry, I
owe my professional life to you.
HART
(talk-sings)
"Summer journeys to Niagara,
our cares--"
RODGERS
You remember we heard that on the
radio for the first time?
HART
In your parents' living room. Our
first hit.
RODGERS
That was one of the most
astonishing moments of my life,
Larry. I was 22.
HART
And, I'm telling you, I swear to
God, our best work is still ahead
of us.
RODGERS
Yes, the new Connecticut Yankee!
HART
Yeah, yeah. And bigger stuff.
FRIENDS (O.S.)
Dick, get up here.
RODGERS
All right. I'm coming!
HART
I mean, Marco Polo is gonna be a
show about joy--but a hard-earned
joy. An unsentimental joy.
RODGERS
Something wrong with sentimental?
HART
What? It's too easy.
RODGERS
Oklahoma! is too easy? The guy
actually getting the girl at the
end is too easy? You've just
eliminated every successful musical
comedy ever written, Larry--
HART
Then it's too easy for me.
RODGERS
Did you hear the audience tonight?
HART
Yes.
RODGERS
Sixteen hundred people didn't think
it was too easy. You're telling me
sixteen hundred people are wrong?
HART
I'm just saying that you and I can
do something so much more
emotionally complicated. We don't
have to pander to what audiences--
RODGERS
Oscar and I are pandering?
HART
I didn't say that.
RODGERS
Irving Berlin is pandering?
HART
I love Berlin.
RODGERS
"White Christmas" is pandering?
HART
Well, I don't believe "White
Christmas."
RODGERS
OK. Well, maybe audiences have
changed.
HART
Well, they still want to laugh.
RODGERS
They want to laugh, but not in that
way.
The words catch Hart.
HART
Not in what way?
RODGERS
In your way. They want to laugh,
but they also want to cry a little.
They want to--they want to feel...
You're my oldest friend and, you're
unique.
HART
Sounds like you're writing my
obituary.
RODGERS
I'm just saying.
HART
I'm right here, right now.
Ready to work.
RODGERS
Yeah? And you're willing to go
back to Doctor's Hospital?
HART
I don't need to go back to Doctor's
Hospital. And I don't need a
psychiatrist either, thank you very
much.
RODGERS
We were just trying to help you,
Larry.
HART
Who's we? You and Oscar? Help me?
RODGERS
Oscar? You think Oscar had anything to do with it?
HART
Oklahoma! is going to be the biggest hit of your career.
RODGERS
You don't know that. You don't know that.
HART
You got that asshole Kron to manage my money. Now I'm incapable of--
RODGERS
I did that at the insistence of your brother, Larry. Teddy literally begged me--
HART
Well, maybe you and Teddy should write the lyrics--
RODGERS
I did write the lyrics.
HART
What is that supposed to mean?
RODGERS
For By Jupiter? Have you conveniently blocked that out?
HART
Blocked what out?
RODGERS
How Logan and I begged you for extra choruses, extra verses, and you were so drunk that you didn't even show up, so yes, I had to write the lyrics. I wrote the lyrics, absolutely.
HART
You didn't write one fucking word of that show.
RODGERS
How would you know? How would you know, Larry? You weren't around to even--you know what, I'm actually not gonna argue with you tonight, if that's all right with you.
HART
I like to argue.
RODGERS
Well I don't. I don't
Rodgers moves to leave.
HART
Look, I am sorry. I don't care if somebody attacks me. It doesn't mean anything to me. But nobody can attack my work. It is all I've got.
RODGERS
Your work is brilliant. That's not the problem. Your work has been brilliant since the day I met you.
HART
Do you still remember that?
RODGERS
You, standing there in your carpet slippers and your stripy bathrobe, with the five o'clock shadow at eleven AM. I'll remember that till the last day of my life. Larry, I got to go upstairs--the whole company's waiting.
HART
I know, of course. Of course.
Rodgers smiles as he moves to exit.
RODGERS
Four or five songs, yes.
HART
(calling up after him)
I'm telling you, I'm having ideas already! A big comedy solo for Vivienne about how she's killed off every single one of her previous husbands!
RODGERS
Might be funny.
Rodgers disappears upstairs.
HART
We can call it: "To Keep Our Love Alive!"
Rodgers has gone.
RENEE
You OK, Larry?
HART
Mmm-hmm.