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Separating from the better-known collaborator in a entertainment duo is a hazardous affair. Larry David did it. Likewise Musician Andrew Ridgeley. Presently, this humorous and profoundly melancholic small-scale drama from scriptwriter the writer Robert Kaplow and director the director Richard Linklater recounts the all but unbearable tale of musical theater lyricist Lorenz Hart shortly following his separation from composer Richard Rodgers. His role is portrayed with flamboyant genius, an notable toupee and fake smallness by actor Ethan Hawke, who is often digitally shrunk in height – but is also occasionally recorded placed in an unseen pit to look up poignantly at taller characters, addressing Hart’s vertical challenge as actor José Ferrer previously portrayed the diminutive artist Toulouse-Lautrec.

Layered Persona and Themes

Hawke gets large, cynical chuckles with the character's witty comments on the subtle queer themes of the classic Casablanca and the cheesily upbeat theater production he’s just been to see, with all the lasso-twirling cowboys; he acidly calls it Okla-homo. The sexuality of Hart is complex: this movie clearly contrasts his gayness with the straight persona invented for him in the 1948 theater piece the musical Words and Music (with Mickey Rooney portraying Lorenz Hart); it cleverly extrapolates a kind of dual attraction from the lyricist's writings to his protege: youthful Yale attendee and budding theater artist Elizabeth Weiland, played here with uninhibited maidenly charm by Margaret Qualley.

Being a member of the famous Broadway lyricist-composer pair with musician Richard Rodgers, Hart was responsible for incomparable songs like the classic The Lady Is a Tramp, Manhattan, My Funny Valentine and of course Blue Moon. But annoyed at Hart’s alcoholism, undependability and depressive outbursts, Richard Rodgers ended their partnership and joined forces with Oscar Hammerstein II to create the show Oklahoma! and then a multitude of stage and screen smashes.

Emotional Depth

The picture imagines the deeply depressed Lorenz Hart in the musical Oklahoma!'s first-night New York audience in 1943, gazing with jealous anguish as the performance continues, despising its insipid emotionality, abhorring the exclamation mark at the finish of the heading, but dishearteningly conscious of how lethally effective it is. He understands a smash when he watches it – and senses himself falling into defeat.

Even before the break, Lorenz Hart sadly slips away and goes to the bar at the venue Sardi's where the rest of the film occurs, and anticipates the (inevitably) triumphant Oklahoma! troupe to appear for their post-show celebration. He knows it is his showbiz duty to praise Rodgers, to feign everything is all right. With smooth moderation, actor Andrew Scott portrays Richard Rodgers, obviously uncomfortable at what they both know is Hart's embarrassment; he offers a sop to his ego in the guise of a brief assignment composing fresh songs for their ongoing performance the show A Connecticut Yankee, which simply intensifies the pain.

• The performer Bobby Cannavale acts as the barman who in standard fashion hears compassionately to the character's soliloquies of bitter despondency
• Patrick Kennedy portrays writer EB White, to whom Hart accidentally gives the idea for his youth literature the novel Stuart Little
• Qualley acts as the character Weiland, the unattainably beautiful Yale attendee with whom the film imagines Hart to be intricately and masochistically in affection

Hart has already been jilted by Richard Rodgers. Surely the universe couldn't be that harsh as to cause him to be spurned by Weiland as well? But Margaret Qualley mercilessly depicts a youthful female who wants Lorenz Hart to be the laughing, platonic friend to whom she can reveal her experiences with guys – as well of course the Broadway power broker who can further her career.

Standout Roles

Hawke reveals that Lorenz Hart to a degree enjoys voyeuristic pleasure in learning of these guys but he is also genuinely, tragically besotted with Weiland and the movie informs us of an aspect rarely touched on in movies about the world of musical theatre or the films: the terrible overlap between professional and romantic failure. Yet at one stage, Lorenz Hart is rebelliously conscious that what he has attained will persist. It’s a terrific performance from Hawke. This may turn into a theater production – but who shall compose the tunes?

The movie Blue Moon was shown at the London movie festival; it is released on October 17 in the US, 14 November in the UK and on 29 January in Australia.