Editing Lorenz Hart (section)

==Life and career==
Hart was born in [[Harlem]], New York City, the elder of two sons, to Jewish immigrant parents, Max M. and Frieda (Isenberg) Hart, of German background. Through his mother, he was a great-grandnephew of the German poet [[Heinrich Heine]].<ref>[https://www.politico.com/states/new-york/albany/story/2012/07/lorenz-hart-inside-out-067223 Politico.com]. Retrieved November 19, 2017</ref> His father, a business promoter, sent Hart and his brother to private schools. (His brother, Teddy Hart, also went into theatre and became a musical comedy star. Teddy Hart's wife, Dorothy Hart, wrote a biography of Lorenz Hart.)<ref name=Mooney/>

Hart received his early education from [[Columbia Grammar School]] and entered [[Columbia College (New York)|Columbia College]] in 1913, before switching to [[Columbia University]] School of Journalism, where he attended for two years.<ref name=Mooney>[https://www.pbs.org/wnet/broadway/stars/hart_l.html Hughson Mooney, "Lorenz Hart"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120901102124/http://www.pbs.org/wnet/broadway/stars/hart_l.html |date=September 1, 2012 }}, PBS. Excerpted from the ''Dictionary of American Biography, Supplement 3'': 1941–1945. American Council of Learned Societies, 1973. Reprinted by permission of the American Council of Learned Societies. Retrieved November 12, 2010.</ref><ref name="Biography">[http://www.songwritershalloffame.org/exhibits/C66 Biography"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170421210032/http://www.songwritershalloffame.org/exhibits/C66 |date=April 21, 2017 }} songwritershalloffame.org. Retrieved November 12, 2010</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last1=Beck|first1=Andy|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7csx0BtfZWIC&dq=lorenz+hart+%22columbia+college%22&pg=PA34|title=Another Op'nin', Another Show: 15 Broadway Favorites for Solo Singers|last2=Fisher|first2=Brian|date=June 2006|publisher=Alfred Music Publishing|isbn=978-0-7390-4087-4|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Varsity Show's 107th Production: A Modern Spectacle That Evokes Rich Tradition|url=http://www.columbia.edu/cu/record/archives/vol26/vol26_iss22/2622_Varsity_Show.html|access-date=October 3, 2021|website=columbia.edu}}</ref> In 1919 a friend introduced him to [[Richard Rodgers]], and the two joined forces to write songs for a series of amateur and student productions.<ref name=Mooney/>

By 1918, Hart was working for the [[Shubert family|Shubert]] brothers, partners in theatre, translating German plays songs into English.<ref name=Mooney/> In 1919, his and Rodgers' song "Any Old Place With You" was included in the Broadway musical comedy ''A Lonely Romeo''. In 1920, six of their songs were used in the musical comedy ''[[Poor Little Ritz Girl]]'', which also had music by [[Sigmund Romberg]]. They were hired to write the score for the 1925 [[Theatre Guild]] production ''[[The Garrick Gaieties]]'', the success of which brought them acclaim.

Rodgers and Hart subsequently wrote the music and lyrics for 26 Broadway musicals during a partnership of more than 20 years that ended shortly before Hart's early death. Their "big four" were ''[[Babes in Arms]],'' ''[[The Boys From Syracuse]]'', ''[[Pal Joey (musical)|Pal Joey]]'', and ''[[On Your Toes]].'' The Rodgers and Hart songs have been described as intimate and destined for long lives outside the theater.<ref name="HoldenPop"/> Many of their songs are standard repertoire for singers and jazz instrumentalists. Hart has been called "the expressive bard of the urban generation which matured during the interwar years".<ref name=Mooney/>  But the "encomiums suggest[ing] that Larry Hart was a poet"<ref name="Marmorstein, Gary 2012">Marmorstein, Gary ''A Ship Without a Sail: the life of Lorenz Hart'' Simon & Schuster 2012.
p. 14.</ref> caused his friend and fellow writer Henry Myers to state otherwise.  "Larry in particular was primarily a showman. If you can manage to examine his songs technically, and for the moment elude their spell, you will see that they are all meant to be acted, that they are part of a play. Larry was a playwright."<ref name="Marmorstein, Gary 2012"/>

Rodgers and Hart wrote music and lyrics for several films, including ''[[Love Me Tonight]]'' (1932), ''[[The Phantom President]]'' (1932), ''[[Hallelujah, I'm a Bum (film)|Hallelujah, I'm a Bum]]'' (1933), and ''[[Mississippi (film)|Mississippi]]'' (1935).<ref name="Biography"/>  With their successes, during the [[Great Depression]] Hart was earning $60,000 annually, and he became a magnet for many people. He gave numerous large parties. Beginning in 1938, he traveled more often and suffered from his ongoing [[alcoholism|drinking]].<ref name="Nolan">[[Frederick Nolan (writer)|Nolan, Frederick]], [https://books.google.com/books?id=1VFwDk20BnUC&q=Lorenz+Hart:+A+Poet+on+Broadway ''Lorenz Hart: A Poet on Broadway''], New York: [[Oxford University Press]] (1995), pp. 237–239. Retrieved December 2, 2010.</ref> Nevertheless, Rodgers and Hart continued working together through mid-1942, with their final new musical being 1942's ''[[By Jupiter]]''.

''[[The New York Times]]'' reported on July 23, 1942: "The [[Theatre Guild]] announced yesterday that [[Richard Rodgers]], Lorenz Hart and [[Oscar Hammerstein II]] will soon begin work on a musical version of [[Lynn Riggs]]'s folk-play, ''[[Green Grow the Lilacs (play)|Green Grow the Lilacs]]'', which the Guild produced for sixty-four performances at the [[Guild Theatre (Portland, Oregon)|Guild Theatre]] in 1931." Rodgers had brought Hammerstein onto the project due to Hart's worsening mental state;<ref>Layne, Joslyn. [{{AllMusic|class=artist|id=p84807|pure_url=yes}} Lorenz Hart Biography], Allmusic. Retrieved December 22, 2010</ref> Hart would admit he had difficulty writing a musical for such a rural setting as Oklahoma and departed,<ref>Kantor, Michael and [[Laurence Maslon|Maslon, Laurence]]. ''Broadway: The American Musical''. New York: Bullfinch Press, 2004. {{ISBN|0-8212-2905-2}} pages 196–202</ref> leaving an eager Hammerstein (whose own songwriting partner [[Jerome Kern]] had no interest in the project) to complete what would eventually become ''[[Oklahoma!]].''<ref>Nolan, Frederick. ''The Sound of Their Music: The Story of Rodgers and Hammerstein''. New York: Applause Books, 2002, {{ISBN|1-55783-473-3}} pages 1–25</ref> [[Rodgers and Hammerstein]] would continue collaborating for 16 years (ending in Hammerstein's death in 1960), a partnership that made the duo one of the most successful composing teams of the 20th century.

Hart, meanwhile, was much affected by his mother's death in late April 1943.  Regrouping somewhat, Rodgers and Hart teamed a final time in the fall of 1943 for a revival of ''[[A Connecticut Yankee (musical)|A Connecticut Yankee]]''. Six new numbers, including "[[To Keep My Love Alive]]", were written for this reworked version of the play; it would prove to be Hart's last lyric.  Hart had taken off the night of the mid-November opening and was gone for two days. He was found ill in a hotel room from drink and taken to [[Doctors Hospital (Manhattan)|Doctors Hospital]], [[Upper East Side]], but died within a few days.<ref name=Mooney/>