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BLUE MOON · written by Robert Kaplow · 2025
Scene 5 of 26 · ≈ 3 min on screen · Act one
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 collapses alone in a rainy alley as his obituary lists the songs that will outlive him.
Hart watches Oklahoma!'s rapturous finale beside his mother, mocks its lyrics, and abandons the theater for a drink.
Hart crosses 44th Street from the St. James Theatre toward Sardi's.
At Sardi's, Hart trades Casablanca riffs with Eddie, asks for whiskey despite his pledge, and describes his adoration of Elizabeth and his wish to stop being afraid.
This scene
Flower Delivery Guy/Sven (tall, Nordic-looking) enters with a modest-sized vase of carnations.
SVEN
(checking bill)
Elizabeth Weiland. For--
HART
Those are mine! Jesus, that is all you get for five dollars?
SVEN
Plus delivery, yes.
(verifying name on bill)
Lorenz Hart? You know, I kind of think I've heard that name before.
HART
You just earned yourself a dollar tip, kid! A precedent is being broken.
(pulling a pencil from his jacket pocket to sign the receipt, speaks to Eddie)
Hey, she gave this to me.
(re: pencil)
Mailed it all the way from New Haven because I said I wanted something she'd actually touched. Christ, it's like I'm seventeen again, except I never was seventeen. I went directly from childhood to washed-up. Eddie, get the kid a drink. Would you?
SVEN
No thanks. I'm working.
HART
Christ, that's when you should be drinking. What's your name? Sven, am I right?
SVEN
Troy.
HART
Oh, even better. Listen Sven, are you free tonight? Eddie, would you get the kid a Goddamn shot? 'Cause I am throwing an enormous party at my place. All of show business is going to be there. I've booked the Golden Gate Quartet! I'm serious. I want you to show up. Bring a friend. Bring a dozen friends. It's gonna be like nothing you've ever seen before. I'm up at the Ardsley, you know?
HART (CONT'D)
Ninety-first, on the Park.
(scribbles down address with his pencil)
Just tell the desk-clerk that you're with Lorenz Hart's party. You're gonna need to know the password. Are you ready for the password? "Nobody ever loved me that much."
Sven smiles and downs the shot.
HART (CONT'D)
(re: drinking)
Slow! Now that is a beautiful sight.
Takes the shot glass from Sven and inhales its fumes.
SVEN
You don't drink?
HART
(talk-sings)
"After one whole quart of brandy,
Like a daisy I awake."
You know that song?
SVEN
No, no.
Morty Rifkin, the cocktail pianist in uniform, is trying to follow along.
HART
(talk-sings)
"My funny Valentine,
Sweet comic Valentine..."
SVEN
I really don't listen to the radio that much.
HART
You said you know my name! You don't know one Rodgers and Hart song?
SVEN
I know, I just can't really remember...
HART
(talk-sings)
"I'll take Manhattan,
The Bronx and Staten..."
Blank look.
HART (CONT'D)
We were on the cover of Time Magazine! My picture is on the wall right...Eddie, where's my picture?
EDDIE
They move 'em around.
HART
What do you do--
MORTY RIFKIN
Well, how about this one?
He plays and sings the opening to "Blue Moon."
MORTY RIFKIN (CONT'D)
(sings)
"Blue moon."
SVEN
I know that one!
(sings)
"You saw me standing alone."
Sven, Morty Rifkin, and Eddie all sing together.
TOGETHER
"Without a dream in my heart,
Without a love of my own."
HART
Worst Goddamn lyric I ever wrote!
SVEN
You wrote that?
HART
Wasn't even supposed to be the title!
SVEN
I like that song.
HART
I'll take my tip back.
Sven has left. Hart calls after him.
HART (CONT'D)
I want you at my party, Sven!
Turns to Eddie.
HART (CONT'D)
Doc Bender said to me the other night--after I told him I'd proposed to Vivienne again--she turned me down, again--he said, "Larry, make up your mind. Are you homosexual or heterosexual?" I said: "Doc, I'm 'ambisexual.'" He said: "What the hell does that even mean?" I said: "It means I can jerk off equally well with either hand."
EDDIE
Larry! There's a lady present.
HART
Well, women can use either hand, too. But, to be a writer you have to be kind of omni-sexual, don't you? You have to have, inside yourself, you know, everyone on earth. Men, women, horses--how can you give voice to the whole chorus of the world if the whole chorus of the world isn't already inside you? Eddie, what do you call a tireless, relentless homosexual?
EDDIE
(weary)
Huh?
HART
"Indefagitable."
Eddie doesn't get it.