Ethan Hawke, Andrew Scott, and Bobby Cannavale bring Broadway history to the big screen with Richard Linklater's take on the friendship of Broadway legends Lorenz Hart and Richard Rodgers.

A recently released film brings the story of Broadway songwriting duo Rogers and Hart to the big screen, focusing on their unique partnership and creative process. The film explores how their differing talents—Rogers as a musical genius and Hart as a gifted wordsmith—combined to produce some of the most memorable songs in musical theater history.

The movie delves into the complexities of their relationship, depicting both the harmony and tension that fueled their collaboration. Through dialogue and performance, the film aims to capture the musicality and emotional depth of their work, while also reflecting on broader themes of artistic inspiration, friendship, and the challenges of creative partnerships.

Broadway history brought to the big screen

I saw this movie a few days ago and it's still like sitting with me like there's so much of it that I absolutely loved. I'm a musical theater nerd growing up and it felt like a play and played out like a play and that it was it was superb. The relationship between Rogers and Hart is what like really jumped out. You described them as like kind of the Lennon-McCartney of their time. These are two masters who really approached creating in two very different ways and you mentioned how in that when approaching the part that like understanding their friendship was the most important thing. How would you both describe their relationship and what about it worked for creating? Well I think people could write books about that. One is that they didn't step on each other's toes. One they had very different gifts. One is a musical genius and the other is a wordsmith. If you listen to the Rogers and Hart songbook these lyrics are still astonishing. The rhymes are funny and playful and profound which is a really rare combination to be both funny and profound which is I think what the movie aspires to be. It's kind of like a Rogers and Hart song but I think that was their dynamic and obviously Rogers found that with Oscar Hammerstein as well but it's a magic collaboration. I think Larry Hart is almost Dylan-esque in his ability to just rifle off words that that tell a story and communicate in a profound way and it was matched by these unbelievable soaring melodies. I think it's unconscious but I think in some ways you have to recreate those two different those two very different notes that they play and that's why I think like a lot of the time in our dialogue we're sort of interrupting each other and yeah I'm moving and then there's a somebody speaks and then you go under and so you have to understand that that I don't know this sort of musicality almost in the way we speak to sort of represent the way the kind of extraordinary unique singular um music that they made. Absolutely I mean and in their in their debates and their arguments I mean like like you can feel the 25 year friendship but it also feels like their friendship is hanging on by a thread. Well it's so verbose you know I noticed that in the film last night that it's incredibly verbose and just before they sort of part in the scene in the stairs it's just completely silent completely there's nothing it's like you know nothing like there's nothing there's just it just hangs in the air and that's musical that's you know sometimes when you're looking at a a film script or a play script particularly the music of it or even the way it looks like on page tells you how to perform it in some ways. Oh absolutely yeah yeah and I mean in in the way that they each approach creating you know or the way they talk about creating art right where the heart talks about it like the way he talks about it's almost as if it's like catching inspiration like almost like catching a wave almost um and riding you know the creative force whereas like and Rogers I mean talks about it's like yeah but it's also business yeah what type of an artist would you say you are? I mean I find being an interpretive artist I don't write or anything but I just know it when I when I read it when I read it I can it's something resonates with me that I think oh usually it's something that I recognize in myself that resonates with me and then and then if there's enough that I'm curious about looking into other aspects of myself that I know exist usually I'm looking for like something that's tapping into some sort of secret in me that I want to expose without telling anybody what that is that's usually what attracts me to a character personally. In general I like to work because I think the more you're working the more likely inspiration is to come there's a certain magic to people like um heart that I think he'd liked to create chaos out of which a depth of feeling would erupt um and I think that's part of why they're breaking up that that's an exhausting thing to be around for sure yeah totally totally totally exhausting I think that's it I think it's where I think I'd it's about sort of downloading the the script a lot of the time it's the work is like you you just get in there and I do think something strange can happen where you if you know it really well because I think sometimes if you don't know it it becomes an exercise on the day in it becomes a memory exercise and that can be mistaken for I can't find it actually you just need to really know it and then you have the confidence to be able to to play with it and then I think if you have that within you and um you can surprise yourself I think she recognizes she's being adored by one of the great appreciators of beauty there's no way around that one is there when the girl loves the guy with all of her heart and he just doesn't return her feeling do you have any idea what that feels like nobody ever loved me there's a place you know for art that's you know for entertainment and and for art that puts a mirror up you know as so you know I guess where where would you say Rogers actually lands well it's like that expression that I love which is tell the truth but tell it slant you know just because something is light doesn't necessarily mean there's no there's no message in it I think that's a real thing about suffering or tragedy is sometimes over praised in relation to and things that are are lighter I think that's where he where he would feel he says it in in in the script he goes I think people relate to it even if it's for a second or even if they're not aware that they that they are relating to it in that world something is going in we write together for a quarter of a century in the first show he writes with someone else he's gonna be the biggest hit he ever had am I bitter yes

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