Podcast Summary: All Of It – Robert Kaplow on Writing for Lorenz Hart in ‘Blue Moon’

Host: Alison Stewart (WNYC)
Guest: Robert Kaplow, Academy Award-nominated screenwriter
Date: March 4, 2026
Episode Theme: Exploring the art and process behind the screenplay for Blue Moon, a film chronicling a pivotal night in the life of lyricist Lorenz Hart.

Episode Overview

In this episode of All Of It, host Alison Stewart sits down with Robert Kaplow, whose screenplay for Blue Moon has received an Academy Award nomination. The film dramatizes one turbulent night in the life of legendary lyricist Lorenz Hart, capturing his wit, loneliness, creative struggles, and complex partnership with composer Richard Rodgers during the dawn of Oklahoma!'s Broadway success. Kaplow shares the origins of the script, his creative challenges, research process, and insights into Hart's life, relationships, and enduring impact on American music.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

Inspiration and Development of the Screenplay

• Long Journey to the Screen
  • Kaplow worked on the Blue Moon script for about 12 years, uncertain if the film would ever be made.
  • His relationship with director Richard Linklater—established during their previous collaboration on Me and Orson Welles—was crucial.
  • "He said to me one day, what are you working on, Robert? I said, you know, I'm trying to write this thing about the final days of Lorenz Hart. And he goes, 'Lorenz Hart. I'm really interested in that. Could I read that?' Which is an extraordinary thing to have happen." (Kaplow, 03:52)
  • Linklater’s and actor Ethan Hawke’s early involvement shaped the project over repeated script readings and workshops.
  • Final production came together quickly after a decade of development: "'Robert, we're gonna make your movie this summer in Ireland.' I was like, I'm glad I came to this party." (Kaplow, 05:30)

Crafting Lorenz Hart’s Voice

• The Challenge of Characterization
  • Due to scarce audio or interviews with Hart, Kaplow had to invent a plausible voice capturing the spirit found in his song lyrics:
  • "The challenge for me was knowing the songs, which I knew very well, to create a plausible voice for him so that you’d hear that voice and you’d say, yeah, that’s where the songs came from. They’re funny, they’re ironic, they’re sardonic, and they’re also deeply lonely with this thread of yearning..." (Kaplow, 05:45)

Theatrical Structure and Real-Time Setting

• A Night at Sardi’s
  • The film unfolds in real time during one evening at Sardi’s Bar—a creative choice echoing Hart’s theatrical world.
  • "Even from the very beginning, this was 90 minutes in real time in one bar, Sardis bar. And you know, either you’re with it... or you’re not." (Kaplow, 06:57)
  • Focusing on one night allows the film to reveal the "DNA" of Hart’s relationships and character:
  • "If you look at one moment in anybody’s life and you move the camera metaphorically in close enough, I think you’d see everything..." (Kaplow, 07:30)
  • The seven-minute staircase scene between Rodgers and Hart attempts to condense a 25-year partnership into one emotional encounter.

Dialogue-Driven Filmmaking

• Finding the Funny–and the Pain
  • Hart’s command of language is at the heart of both his artistic genius and social existence.
  • "I wanted to show someone who is just intoxicated with words. That's his life… you just can’t say he’s the funniest guy in the room. He has to be the funniest guy in the room..." (Kaplow, 09:02)
  • Notable for its sharp, witty, and emotionally nuanced exchanges, the script embodies Hart’s love for wit and verbal play.

Casting and Performance

• Ethan Hawke’s Portrayal
  • Casting of Hawke (physically unlike Hart) underscored the transformative art of acting:
  • “Ethan Hawke is tall, blue eyes. He’s good looking, right? … And yet that’s why I think Hawke’s performance is so amazing. Is he… from the first frame to the end, he reinvents himself.” (Kaplow, 10:27)

Depicting Hart's Struggles

• Alcoholism and Denial
  • Hart's alcoholism and denial are critical to the narrative and to Hart’s professional decline:
  • "He is a drinker with a problem and he’s in denial about the problem. And that was going to be part of his complexity..." (Kaplow, 11:17)
• Loneliness and Yearning
  • Hart’s deep loneliness is woven throughout, as is his longing for love:
  • “He’s someone who is yearning to be in some kind of reciprocal love arrangement. And I don’t think it ever happened to him..." (Kaplow, 12:20)
  • All his unfulfilled romance pours into his lyrics:
  • "He took all that romance and yearning and it’s all in the songs." (Kaplow, 12:20)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

On Artistic Legacy

• “There are moments, I swear to God, there are moments in my work when I have made something bigger than myself... The words were bigger than the music, bigger than the characters who sang them. And they approached for maybe one half second something immortal... I’ve written a handful of words that are going to cheat death.”
  —Ethan Hawke as Larry Hart, script excerpt (13:38)

On 'Oklahoma!' as Professional Demise

• "Oklahoma is nostalgic for a world that never existed. It’s a romantic vision of America that probably never happened... But that’s what an audience was hungering for then. And Rogers, who had his ear to the ground, knew it.” (Kaplow, 14:49–15:42)

Rodgers and Hart: Partnership and Love

• "I think there’s a line in the movie where Rogers says, I owe my professional career to you, Larry. And I think he does… They really were the Gilbert and Sullivan of their time. And yet… they’re two very different guys… I think Rogers just, he had enough.” (Kaplow, 15:54)

On Decline and Being Tolerated

• “He has to, you know, celebrate this thing that he doesn’t respect… and that, you know, is the funeral knell for his own work.” (Kaplow, 17:19)

Misperceptions in the Elizabeth Subplot

• “They misperceive each other… She perceives him as a mentor… He has misperceived this as… now she’s fallen for me because I’ve fallen for her. And he clearly has… as an audience member, we see the impossibility…” (Kaplow, 18:31–20:16)

On Set, Collaboration, and Change

• “I said, I thought she’d be kind of like, weepy in that scene. And I said, you’re much tougher than that and feistier and angrier. And I said, it’s a lot more interesting to see what you are doing, so keep doing it.” (Kaplow, 21:10)

Oscar Nomination's Personal Meaning

• “It’s been a lot of fun, and I’m… enjoying it as one of those gifts that came my way that was unexpected. And I’m heartened that a little movie like this, that… is very dialogue driven, got noticed…” (Kaplow, 21:18)

Comedy Writing for NPR

• The episode closes with a humorous archival fundraising spot Kaplow wrote for NPR, featuring dead rock star impersonators:
  • "You know, it’s not so easy being dead, especially when you don’t have much money. And you know, that’s the same problem we have here at National Public Radio..." (22:37)

Timestamps for Key Segments

• 03:48 - 05:30: Development journey & Linklater’s interest
• 05:45 - 07:27: Reconstructing Hart's voice and the real-time, theatrical concept
• 07:30 - 08:38: Choosing to focus the story on a single night
• 09:02 - 10:24: Hart’s relationship with language and wit
• 10:27 - 10:58: Casting Ethan Hawke and his performance
• 11:17 - 12:07: Depicting Hart’s alcoholism and emotional complexity
• 12:20 - 13:14: Hart’s loneliness and translation of yearning into music
• 13:38 - 14:34: Script excerpt performed by Ethan Hawke
• 14:44 - 15:42: The meaning of Oklahoma! for Hart’s career
• 15:54 - 17:00: Complexity and love in the Rodgers & Hart partnership
• 17:11 - 18:08: Portraying Hart's professional decline and being tolerated
• 18:31 - 20:16: The relationship with Elizabeth and its tragic implications
• 20:16 - 21:10: On-set experiences and actor Margaret’s interpretation
• 21:18 - 22:23: Significance of the Oscar nomination
• 22:37 - 23:15: Kaplow’s comic fundraising writing for NPR
• 23:15 - 23:25: Closing acknowledgments

Takeaways

• Blue Moon is a film that captures, with sharp dialogue and deep pathos, the genius and tragedy of Lorenz Hart’s final night among the New York theater elite. Robert Kaplow’s screenplay offers a portrait as witty and yearning as Hart’s own lyrics, and the making of the film itself became a testament to patience, collaboration, and artistic faith.
• The conversation between Alison Stewart and Kaplow reveals the layers of craft, research, and empathy that go into portraying a complex figure often overshadowed by professional partnered success and personal struggles.
• The episode also serves as an inspiring backstage look at how original, dialogue-driven films can persevere and earn recognition in a cinematic landscape dominated by larger productions.