Following the loss of the Bridgewater Cineplex, The Lunenburg County Film Series continues to be hosted this season at the Astor Theatre in Liverpool. No season passes; individual tickets can be bought at the door in cash or electronically. Ticket prices are $10 including HST.
Largely set on March 31, 1943, the opening night of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma!, Richard Rodgers’ former creative partner Lorenz Hart struggles with alcoholism and depression. Most of the plot takes place at the bar of New York Theater District restaurant Sardi’s. Slipping out of Oklahoma!’s opening night, the semi-closeted Hart arrives at Sardi’s ahead of the afterparty to get drunk and complain about his former creative partner’s new hit musical.
Relevance and love don’t slam a door in your face. They just stop thinking about you.
This idea is at the core of Richard Linklater’s excellent “Blue Moon,” a writer’s yin to the director’s yang of his also-upcoming “Nouvelle Vague.” Wherein that film is about the art of the director via the making of Jean Luc-Godard’s “Breathless,” this one captures the heart of the writer through one of the last nights in the life of Lorenz Hart (Ethan Hawke), who was once one of the most acclaimed Broadway songwriters on the scene before fame and passion stopped returning his calls. He’s now the drunk at the end of the bar, the guy who gets there first and leaves last, and the one who can barely hide the pain behind his non-stop commentary on film, Broadway, and everything else around him. Working from a script by Robert Kaplow, Linklater has crafted one of his finest dramedies, a consistently fascinating exploration of the frailty of the artist, buoyed by one of Ethan Hawke’s most remarkable performances.
