Lorenz Hart
Lorenz (Larry) Hart (
May 2,
1895 -
November 22,
1943) was the lyricist half of the famed
Broadway songwriting team
Rodgers and Hart. His most memorable lyrics include, "
Blue Moon", "
Where or When", "
Falling in Love with Love", "
Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered", "
The Lady is a Tramp", "
Manhattan", "
Mountain Greenery", and "
My Funny Valentine".
Hart was born in
Harlem, New York to
Jewish immigrant parents. His mother was a kind and loving woman, and his relationship with her was very good. His father claimed to be a businessman whose business was anything at all. Hart had a strange relationship with his father, but enjoyed telling people that his father was a crook. This upbringing helped make Hart a very boisterous and fiery personality. He loved to throw parties, and had an insatiable taste for the 'high life.'
Hart attended
Columbia University, where a mutual friend introduced him to composer
Richard Rodgers in
1919, and the two wrote songs for a series of amateur and student productions. In 1919, the team landed their first song in a Broadway musical. The song was "Any Old Place With You" and it premiered in the musical comedy
A Lonely Romeo. The smashing success of their score for the 1925
Theatre Guild production,
The Garrick Gaieties, brought them great acclaim. They continued working together until Hart's death in 1943, along the way producing scores for a series of hit shows and making a substantial contribution to the
Great American Songbook.
Hart struggled with his own
homosexuality in an era when such a lifestyle was socially unacceptable and with
alcoholism, which eventually contributed to his death. Hart also suffered great emotional turmoil toward the end of his life. His personal problems were often the cause of friction between him and Richard Rodgers, and in fact led to a brief breakup in 1943, at which time Rodgers started working with
Oscar Hammerstein II, who was actually a school friend of Hart.
Rodgers and Hart teamed up one final time in the fall of 1943 for a revival of
A Connecticut Yankee. Five days after this show opened, Hart died of
pneumonia from exposure. He is believed to have died alone. He is buried in Mount Zion Cemetery in
Queens County,
New York.
*
1920 Fly With Me*
1925 The Garrick Gaieties*
1926 The Girl Friend*
1927 A Connecticut Yankee, based on the
Mark Twain novel
*
1928 Present Arms*
1935 Jumbo*
1936 On Your Toes*
1937 Babes in Arms*
1938 The Boys from Syracuse, based on
William Shakespeare's
Comedy of Errors*
1938 I Married an Angel*
1938 Too Many Girls*
1940 Pal Joey, based on
John O'Hara's work
*
1942 By Jupiter*
Internet Broadway Database page for Lorenz Hart*
Notable Names Database page for Lorenz Hart*
Nolan, Frederick.
Lorenz Hart: A Poet on Broadway. New York: Oxford University Press (1994). ISBN 0195102894
