Who does Ethan Hawke play in Blue Moon? Inside the genius and struggles of legendary composer Lor...

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Hawke and director Richard Linklater have made a funny valentine to the troubled lyricist. Who does Ethan Hawke play in Blue Moon? Inside the genius and struggl

Hawke and director Richard Linklater have made a funny valentine to the troubled lyricist.

Who does Ethan Hawke play in Blue Moon? Inside the genius and struggles of legendary composer Lorenz Hart

Hawke and director Richard Linklater have made a funny valentine to the troubled lyricist.

By Maureen Lee Lenker

Maureen Lee Lenker

Maureen Lee Lenker is a senior writer at ** with over nine years of experience. An award-winning journalist, she's written for Turner Classic Movies, *Ms. Magazine*, *The Hollywood Reporter*, and more.

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October 18, 2025 9:30 a.m. ET

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Lorenz Hart and Ethan Hawke. Credit:

ohn Springer Collection/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty; Sabrina Lantos/Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics

- In *Blue Moon, *Ethan Hawke stars as lyricist Lorenz Hart.

- As half of writing duo Rodger and Hart, Lorenz Hart wrote some of the most beloved standards in the American songbook.

- But Hart was haunted by addiction and various demons, all of which come to the forefront over the course of one night in *Blue Moon.*

Richard Linklater and Ethan Hawke are releasing a film together for the first time in 11 years this week.

The movie *Blue Moon, *out in limited release this Friday before going wide on Oct. 24, is a portrait of American lyricist Lorenz Hart (Hawke) on the night of his former collaborator's triumph with a new writing partner. As Hart drowns his troubles at the Sardi's bar, he awaits the brouhaha of the opening night for *Oklahoma, *the first of many triumphs from composing duo Richard Rodgers (Andrew Scott) and Oscar Hammerstein II (Simon Delaney).

But who is Lorenz Hart — and how did he bring together the Gen X dream team of Linklater and Hawke after over a decade?

Ethan Hawke as Lorenz Hart in 'Blue Moon'.

Sabrina Lantos/Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics

Musical theater lovers will likely know Hart's name. He is the one-time lyricist partner of composer Richard Rodgers. Nowadays, their work is not as well remembered as that of Rodgers and Hammerstein. That is largely because their shows, including *On Your Toes, Too Many Girls, Babes in Arms, *and *Pal Joey, *are rarely revived or performed at regional and community theaters around the world.

While the film versions of their work, most notably *Babes in Arms *starring Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney, are considered classics, their stage productions do not hold the same sway in popular culture as those of Rodgers and Hammerstein. Indeed, the legacy of Rodgers and Hart is felt most in their contributions to the American songbook through individual songs that have become beloved standards.

Some of their most famous songs include "Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered," "Blue Moon," "My Funny Valentine," "I Could Write a Book," "The Lady is a Tramp," and "Where or When."

Andrew Scott as Richard Rodgers and Ethan Hawke as Lorenz Hart in 'Blue Moon'.

Sabrina Lantos/Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics

It was through those songs that Linklater first became enamored of Hart. "I was in my 20s when I got the Rodgers and Hart Songbook double album, which is really fantastic," he tells *. *"There's so many more songs to seek out, but that is particularly stunning. It took me a while to realize that the Rodgers of Rodgers and Heart was the same Rodgers I'd grown up with in Rodgers and Hammerstein. The music's so different."

Then, over a decade ago, Linklater was catching up with friend and writer, Robert Kaplow, who wrote the book which served as the source material for Linklater's 2008 film, *Me and Orson Welles. *

"He described *Blue Moon* to me," Linklater says. "He said, 'It's set on the opening night of *Oklahoma!' *That's such a crazy, perverse notion — on this triumphant night, to see it from the point of view of the guy being left behind in all this. I read it and it was just a really long monologue, but everything good about it was there — Hart's vulnerability, his acid bitterness."

Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart.

Kaplow was inspired by archival letters he found between Hart and a young college student, Elizabeth Weiland, who Margaret Qualley plays in the film. The letters and *Blue Moon* imply that Hart nursed an infatuation for Elizabeth despite his sexual identity. "Everyone knows Hart is gay," explains Linklater. "But he was the kind of guy who was still proposing to women and wanted maybe some hint of normalcy. When your sexuality is against the law, there are these kinds of relationships."

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After connecting with Kaplow, Linklater recruited longtime collaborator Hawke to play Hart, known to his friends as Larry. At the time, Hawke was too young to play Hart, who died less than a year after the film's setting at the age of 48. The trio developed the film over the last decade as Hawke aged into the role.

Margaret Qualley as Elizabeth Weiland and Ethan Hawke as Lorenz Hart in 'Blue Moon'.

Sabrina Lantos/Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics

Hart was a tragic figure, plagued by alcoholism and drunken binges that would find him disappearing for days at a time. But he also influenced a generation of songwriters and beyond, one of whom makes a small (fictionalized) cameo in the film.

At one point in the night, Hart meets Oscar Hammerstein II's neighbor, a precocious 12-year-old named Stephen. Fans will know instantly that this child grows up to be renowned composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim, and Linklater leans into that, having the pre-teenage Sondheim criticize Hart's writing. "He did say that Hart was a little sloppy," Linklater says of the real-life Sondheim. "He liked him, but he was good at pointing out [flaws]."

Before Sondheim died in 2021, Linklater established a relationship with the composer in preparation for his ambitious, multi-year approach to adapting Sondheim's *Merrily We Roll Along. *"I looked forward to telling him someday, and to the expression on his face," Linklater says of the cameo. "But I never mentioned it because the film wasn't happening. So I missed him by a couple of years. He would've chuckled."

Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II.

Hulton Archive/Getty

Hart far preceded Sondheim in death. Eventually, his drinking eroded his ability to work, leading Richard Rodgers to seek out a new partnership with Oscar Hammerstein II. Hart was also a repressed gay man who lived with his widowed mother throughout his adult life. Following the 1943 death of his mother, he spiraled further until his untimely death from complications of pneumonia, which he contracted while on another drinking binge.

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All of this is rich fodder for filmmaking, though oddly, it has only served as inspiration for one other movie, 1948's *Words and Music, *released only a month after Hart's passing. The film bears little to no resemblance to Hart's actual life, besides the fact that Mickey Rooney, who stars as Hart, is closer in height to Hart's diminutive 5-foot stature (Rooney beat Hart by two inches). The film supposes that Hart's depression and mental health issues stem from rejection by a woman he wants to marry.

"That's such a silly movie," says Linklater, with a laugh. "The Hays Code totally ignores his alcoholism and homosexuality. We're the flip side of that."

Ethan Hawke as Lorenz Hart in 'Blue Moon'.

Sabrina Lantos/Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics

Still, Hawke's casting did give Linklater pause, if only because Hawke stands at 5-foot-10. But the director quickly realized he needed an actor of Hawke's intellect to take on the role. "I was staring at him, going, 'Well, you're not this guy,'" Linklater recalls. "It was different to have to transform an actor to that degree, but that wasn't ultimately an encumbrance."

"It's a portrait of a lyrical genius," he continues. "So, you couldn't have some slow-thinking actor, and there's a lot of good actors who aren't that quick. They just don't have the neural firing that Ethan has, so you would believe potentially, 'Oh, that is a genius lyricist. Do you see the way his mind works? The way he puts together words?'"

Linklater still had to contend with the height issue, given that Hart's complex about it was a key part of his identity. "We were really old school," Linklater says of their approach. "There was no digital, no body doubles, no bald caps. Ethan shaved his head, and we used stagecraft where you lower him and keep the rest of the world the same. It's a pain in the butt for sure, but every film has some cross to bear. To be looking up at the world, it's different."

Margaret Qualley and Ethan Hawke in 'Blue Moon'.

Sabrina Lantos/Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics

"For Ethan, it's a true transformation of character," the director continues. "Larry Hart is ultimately his brain, his wit, and his words. We had to dial down everything else. Usually, you're building something. I was taking away everything, except the brain and the mouth — the emotions, everything that's interior. But I had to break down the confidence and physicality of Ethan and leave him vulnerable."

From both an acting and technical standpoint, *Blue Moon *proved a challenging undertaking for both director and star. "It was the hardest thing we've ever done," Linklater says of his and Hawke's collaboration. "At least we didn't get back together out of, 'Oh, let's just do something fun.' It's like, 'Oh, let's get together and push ourselves to the limit of our talents.'"**

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