- Person
- Lorenz Hart
- Lived
- 1895–1943
- Field
- Broadway lyricist
- From
- American
The story
By the mid-1930s Lorenz Hart had developed a sharp satirical streak. PBS's history of Broadway notes that in the 1920s his lyrics had been carefree and insouciant, but that in the 1930s, as the Depression deepened, they grew more sober and even sombre, and his humour gained a sharper political edge. It cites I'd Rather Be Right (1937) as his take-off on politics.
The show was a collaboration between two celebrated teams. Hart and the composer Richard Rodgers wrote the songs, and the book was by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart. The story is a Depression-era satire of Washington politics: a young couple in New York, Peggy and Phil, cannot afford to marry until Phil gets a raise, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt himself steps in to solve their problem while struggling to balance the federal budget.
According to EBSCO's biography of Hart, the show took the unprecedented step of satirising an American president who was still in office. Roosevelt was played by the Broadway legend George M. Cohan, who in the number 'Off the Record' danced as the real president could not. Other songs poked fun at the cabinet and the Constitution, while the score's tender side included 'Have You Met Miss Jones?' and the title song.
The show opened at the Alvin Theatre on 2 November 1937, produced by Sam H. Harris, and ran for 290 performances. The British writer H. G. Wells wrote enthusiastically about it and about Cohan's performance in a 1938 magazine article. The production also features prominently in the 1942 film Yankee Doodle Dandy, in which James Cagney, playing Cohan, meets Roosevelt in the Oval Office and dances down the White House stairs.
The same years saw Rodgers and Hart at the height of their powers, with Babes in Arms, I Married an Angel and The Boys from Syracuse all appearing between 1937 and 1938. I'd Rather Be Right stands out among them as proof that a Broadway musical could laugh openly, and affectionately, at the most powerful man in the country.
Why it matters
I'd Rather Be Right showed that the American musical could comment freely and humorously on national politics and on the president himself.
About Lorenz Hart
Lyricist of Rodgers and Hart, whose witty, rueful words for “Blue Moon” “My Funny Valentine” and “The Lady Is a Tramp” helped make the Broadway song an art form.
More about Lorenz Hart
- One Hart show gave the world 'My Funny Valentine'Babes in Arms (1937) alone gave the world 'My Funny Valentine', 'The Lady Is a Tramp', 'Where or When' and 'Johnny One-Note'.
- Lorenz Hart helped bring Shakespeare to musical comedyRodgers and Hart's The Boys from Syracuse (1938), based on The Comedy of Errors, was a pioneering Shakespeare adaptation for musical comedy.
- Lorenz Hart turned Mark Twain's Connecticut Yankee into songRodgers and Hart's A Connecticut Yankee (1927), based on Mark Twain's novel, confirmed Hart as a leading lyricist; he revised it as his final work.
- Lorenz Hart pioneered the conversational song lyricLorenz Hart was among the first lyricists to use polysyllabic rhyme for wit and insight and to write in a natural, conversational voice.
- Lorenz Hart wrote 'Isn't It Romantic?' for the moviesIn Hollywood in the early 1930s, Lorenz Hart wrote film songs including 'Isn't It Romantic?' for Maurice Chevalier, as well as 'Lover' and 'Blue Moon'.
- Lorenz Hart's Pal Joey triumphed when revived in 1952Pal Joey (1940), the first musical with unromanticised realism, won the New York Drama Critics Award when revived in 1952.
- Lorenz Hart wrote lyrics for 28 Rodgers and Hart musicalsLyricist Lorenz Hart and composer Richard Rodgers wrote 28 stage musicals and more than 500 songs together, including 'Blue Moon', many now classics of the American songbook.
Sources
- Lorenz Hart EBSCO Research Starters
- Lorenz Hart PBS, Broadway: The American Musical
- I'd Rather Be Right Wikipedia
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