Blue Moon For Good

A bit bewitched, bothered and bewildered...

It took a few weeks, but I’ve caught up with Wicked: For Good. When the first instalment came out, I was a bit cranky about it (see the Exeunt group discussion here). I didn’t have the highest hopes for the follow-up, but, to my surprise, I found myself enjoying it quite a lot more than the first part (my lovely friend Shuye’s company definitely helped). This preference doesn’t make much sense – the first half has much more humour and many of the more popular (sorry) songs – and neither does much of the plot of the second act. It mostly builds up so we can all weep together at ‘For Good’ (yes, I did shed a tear).

Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande are great, of course (Grande especially, I think), and Jonathan Bailey succeeds in actually giving Fiyero some personality. I loved Elphaba’s treehouse, which seems such an idyllic spot in which to be an outcast. The cardigan/knitted dressing gown that she wears for the love scene for the sake of preserving PG modesty (even though Bailey is topless in the next scene) is what my best friend Ali and I would call ‘spirit granny chic’. Not that I’m planning to recreate the garment, as I’m currently doing with Sarah Lancashire’s Happy Valley scarf.

Completely different in style and tone is Richard Linklater’s Blue Moon, a chamber piece about Lorenz ‘Larry’ Hart of Rodgers and Hart fame. I didn’t previously know much about Hart’s life, apart from the fact that he was gay and an alcoholic and the latter was what led the breakup of his partnership with Richard Rodgers. Having seen the film, I still don’t know that much more, but that’s not a criticism. It isn’t a conventional biopic; instead, it’s set over one evening, which happens to be the opening night of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma! It’s being hailed as Rodgers’s greatest hit to date – how can his former writing partner not be devastated?

Ethan Hawke is excellent as Hart, who is used to being the wittiest person in the room yet ever sensitive about his lack of height – in stark contrast with the tall, jowly and jovial Oscar Hammerstein II (Simon Delaney), whom Hart dismisses as ‘earthbound’ (the film opens with him bitching about the predictable rhyme of ‘land’ and ‘grand’ – Stephen Schwartz’s ‘There are bridges you cross you didn’t know you crossed / Until you’ve crossed’ would have killed him). To add insult to injury, Rodgers (played by the far too handsome and suave Andrew Scott) now intends to musicalize Liliom (‘That was cornball in 1909’, apparently) with Hammerstein and set it in Maine (that’s the last straw for the urbane Hart).

I thoroughly enjoyed all the showbusiness gossip and references. However, I glazed over when it came to Hart’s relationship with Elizabeth (Margaret Qualley), the beautiful 20-year-old poet and aspiring theatrical designer with whom he is infatuated despite not usually being attracted to women (apparently this is all heavily fabricated, if not entirely fictional). I wonder if it could be turned into a play in a similar vein to Good Night, Oscar (one of my favourites of this year). If so, I’d recommend eliminating Elizabeth and making Vivienne Segal (to whom Hart once proposed) a character instead.

Throughout the film, Hart is grumpy about the fact that ‘Blue Moon’ was his biggest hit. I have to say I’ve never been the biggest fan of it myself (too croon-y for my liking, I suppose). I think my favourite is ‘Dancing on the Ceiling’, though I do sometimes forget that it’s by Rodgers and Hart, as it’s so closely associated with the very English Jessie Matthews (love her). Other favourites include ‘I Wish I Were in Love Again’, ‘Glad to Be Unhappy’, and ‘Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered’, especially when performed by Sian Phillips singing the uncensored lyrics.

In other news

I’m so pleased that my former colleague Thom Geier won second prize for his ‘Broadway Bulletin’ columns for Musicals magazine at this year’s National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Awards from the L.A. Press Club. It’s a lovely little dividend amid all the grief (yes, it still feels that way) surrounding our magazine’s closure.

Coyote Ugly is the latest noughties film set to receive musical treatment (directed by Jerry Mitchell). I suppose a revisionist lens (if they apply one) could be interesting but I suspect there’ll be a lot of wading through a bunch of indifferent new songs in order to get to ‘Can’t Fight the Moonlight’ (which really is one of the great pop songs). When I interviewed the film’s male lead Adam Garcia when he was in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (he was so nice), I told him I was one of the many 12-year-old girls who went to see it even though it was deemed ‘inappropriate’ (he said that the UK version was edited so that it could be released as a 12 rather than a 15 – the unsuitability was of course part of the appeal). I think I can safely say that I wasn’t corrupted by the experience, but I’ve never revisited it since.

Some good news for original MT writing: Jack Godfrey and Ellie Coote’s show Hot Mess, which I very much enjoyed in October, has received a full cast recording. Very well deserved and I’m sure this autumn’s run won’t be its last.

My friend Tracey Sinclair kindly gave my Substack a mention in her latest post and I would like to return the compliment. Tracey is such an engaging writer who brilliantly chronicles the Newcastle theatre scene (I really want to see the city for myself) and she also provides excellent book and pop culture recommendations.

My ‘listening age’ according to Spotify Unwrapped is 93 (my favourite artist is Gordon MacRae, yet his erstwhile leading lady Shirley Jones is a mere 91). It does seem extreme but I can’t say I was altogether surprised (I didn’t get all the cultural references in Blue Moon but I think I’d be able to hold my own if I was transported to 1943) and I’m actually quite proud as I haven’t seen it surpassed anywhere. I’m glad it’s made a few people laugh out loud.