Overview

Lorenz Hart singlehandedly changed the craft of lyric writing. When Larry Hart first met Dick Rodgers in 1919, the commercial song lyric consisted of tired cliches and cloying Victorian sentimentality. Hart changed all that, always avoiding the obvious, aiming for the unexpected phrase that would twang the nerve or touch the heart. Endowed with both a buoyant wit and a tender, almost raw sincerity, Hart brought a poetic complexity to his art, capturing the everyday way people talk and weaving it into his lyrics. Songs had never been written like that before, and afterwards it seemed impossible that songs would ever be written any other way. Lorenz Hart: A Poet on Broadway presents the public triumphs of a true genius of the American musical theatre, and the personal tragedies of a man his friend the singer Mabel Mercer described as ""the saddest man I ever knew."" Author Frederick Nolan began researching this definitive biography in 1968, tracking down and interviewing Hart's friends and collaborators one by one, including a remarkable conversation with Richard Rodgers himself. A veritable who's who of Broadway's golden age, including Joshua Logan, Gene Kelly, George Abbott and many more, recall their uncensored and often hilarious, sometimes poignant memories of the cigar-chomping wordsmith who composed some of the best lyrics ever concocted for the Broadway stage, but who remained forever lost and lonely in the crowds of hangers-on he attracted. A portrait of Hart emerges as a Renaissance and endearing bon vivant conflicted by his homosexuality and ultimately torn apart by alcoholism. Nolan skillfully pulls together the chaotic details of Hart's remarkable life, beginning with his bohemian upbringing in turn of the century Harlem. Here are his first ventures into show business, and the 24-year-old Hart's first meeting with the 16-year-old Richard Rodgers. ""Neither of us mentioned it,"" Rodgers later recalled, ""but we evidently knew we would work together, and I left Hart's house having acquired in one afternoon a career, a best friend, and a source of permanent irritation."" Nolan captures it all: the team's early setbacks, the spectacular hour long standing ovation for their hit song, ""Manhattan,"" the Hollywood years (which inspired Hart to utter the undying line, ""Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean the bastards aren't out to get you""), and the unforgettable string of hit shows that included ""On Your Toes,"" ""The Boys from Syracuse,"" and their masterpiece, ""Pal Joey."" But while success made Rodgers more confident, more musically daring, and more disciplined, for Hart the rounds of parties, wisecracks, and most of all drinking began to take more and more of a toll on his work. When Hart's unreliability forced Rodgers to reluctantly seek out another lyricist, Oscar Hammerstein II, and their collaboration resulted in the unprecedented artistic and commercial success of ""Oklahoma,"" Hart never truly recovered. Meticulously researched and rich with anecdotes that capture the excitement, the hilarity, the dizzying heights, and the crushing lows of a life on Broadway, Lorenz Hart is the story of an American original.

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9780195102895

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Reviews

"""Exhilarating and moving.""--John Kander, composer of Cabaret and The Kiss of the Spider Woman ""In this studiously detailed book, Mr. Nolan...ably traverses the rocky slide of the clever little boy who became a great success and them imploded on himself.""--Andrea Higbie, The New York Times Book Review ""Written with honesty, integrity and charm and is an important document of the Golden Age of musical theatre.""--Jerry Herman, composer-lyricist of Hello Dolly! and Mame ""Well researched and amusingly written.""--Gerald Kaufman, The London Sunday Times ""A splendid book. No one interested in the American musical theatre can do without it.""--Miles Donald, Literary Review ""Nolans' well-written account captures the highs of an amazing career, as well as the lows.""--Stages ""A fascinating show-by-show account of Rodger's and Hart's reign as musical comedy kings in the late 1920s through the 1930s.""--Mark Douglas Wood, Portland Oregonian ""Nolan's book...is an excellent one of its kind--intelligent, well-organized, packed with absorbing detail.""--John Gross, The London Sunday Telegraph ""Engaging....Nolan vividly captures the personality of this talented and unstable man, as well as the spirit of the entertainment world.""--Publisher's Weekly ""Exhilarating and moving.""--John Kander, composer of Cabaret and The Kiss of the Spider Woman ""A narrative account of Hart's life and career that fills in many gaps and corrects many mistakes. The interviews he conducted with many of Hart's contemporaries enliven and authenticate the book.""--The Los Angeles Times Book Review ""Breezy and frank....Wonderful.""--Booklist"

An old-fashioned Broadway biography of Richard Rodgers's first lyricist. Nolan (The Sound of Their Music: The Story of Rodgers and Hammerstein, 1978) presents a this-is-your-life account of Lorenz Hart's rise and fall. Born in 1895 to Jewish immigrant parents in New York City's Harlem, Hart was raised in a boisterous household by a loving mother and a ne'er-do-well father who specialized in elaborate business scams. After directing amateur theatricals at summer camp, Hart began working on student revues at Columbia, where he met a young piano player named Richard Rodgers. Through classmate Herb Fields, then an aspiring writer, they were introduced to Fields's father, Lew, a theatrical impresario, who gave them their first break. After several abortive stabs at writing for Broadway, the partners were so unsure of their eventual success that Rodgers was tempted by an offer to sell babies' underwear just before their first big hit, a score for the Theater Guild's Garrick Gaieties of 1935. Rodgers and Hart went on to create many well-known musicals, including Babes in Arms, I Married an Angel, The Boys from Syracuse, and the great Pal Joey. Along the way, Hart pushed for lyrics - witty, cosmopolitan, full of current slang and topical allusions - whose quality was a notch above the moon-June-spoon fare of previous popular songs; he also insisted that songs be an integral part of the play, not just interpolations to suit a particular singing star. The writer was dogged by low self-esteem and a homosexual bent that Nolan seems most uncomfortable discussing; Hart eventually became so addicted to late-night carousing that he aggravated his more prudish partner. Rodgers finally paired up with Oscar Hammerstein shortly before Hart's death in 1943 to compose the immortal Oklahoma!, which launched the modern musical era. A sympathetic account for fans of the musical theater of the '30s and '40s. (Kirkus Reviews)

A splendid book. No one interested in the American musical theatre can do without it. Literary Review

Author Information

Frederick Nolan is the author of the acclaimed biography Rodgers and Hammerstein: The Sound of their Music.

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