Biography
Pop music and show tune lyricist Lorenz Hart forged his lasting reputation through his partnership with composer Richard Rodgers. Together they ranked among Broadway’s most prosperous songwriting teams and helped shape the sound of musical theater across the 1920s and 1930s. Born in N.Y.C. on May 2, 1895, Hart encountered the younger Rodgers while both contributed material to Columbia University productions, and the pair quickly formed a writing team. Their initial success arrived with “Any Old Place With You” (1919), interpolated into the Broadway show A Lonely Romeo. Another breakthrough followed in 1920 when Poor Little Ritch Girl incorporated seven of their numbers. Several lean years ensued as they supplied songs for smaller productions and at one point suspended their collaboration entirely. Their fortunes reversed in 1925 with The Garrick Gaieties and the first full score they completed, Dearest Enemy. Subsequent stage works that found favor included The Girl Friend (1926), Jumbo (1935), and By Jupiter (1942), yet even modest outings yielded enduring tunes such as “Thou Swell” (1927) and “With a Song in My Heart” (1929). When Depression-era economics reduced theatrical opportunities, the songwriters relocated to Hollywood and scored films from the early through the middle 1930s. Notable credits from that interval comprise Love Me Tonight (1932) and Mississippi (1935). Numerous Rodgers & Hart stage successes were also adapted into movie musicals during those years. The collaborators returned to Broadway in 1935 and entered the most celebrated stretch of their partnership. Each new score produced multiple hit songs; among those introduced in 1937’s Babes in Arms were “Where or When,” “The Lady Is a Tramp,” and “My Funny Valentine.” Additional numbers that surfaced in late-1930s and early-1940s productions include “Spring Is Here,” “I Didn’t Know What Time It Was,” and “Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered.” Beyond his lyric-writing duties, Hart served as co-librettist on several productions, among them Babes in Arms. Other widely recognized songs from his pen encompass “Manhattan,” “My Heart Stood Still,” “Isn’t It Romantic?,” and “Dancing on the Ceiling.” Following the 1942 premiere of By Jupiter, Hart’s creative momentum faded amid mounting struggles with alcohol and mental illness. Rodgers & Hart reconvened briefly to furnish fresh material for the 1943 Broadway revival of their earlier hit A Connecticut Yankee, yet Hart had already disengaged from the work. Shortly after that revival opened, he developed double pneumonia and died on November 22, 1943. In the 1948 film Words and Music, which dramatized the Rodgers & Hart story, Hart was portrayed by Mickey Rooney.
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