Blue Moon Trailer: Richard Linklater's Starry Broadway Drama

Watch the Star-Studded First Trailer for Richard Linklater’s Broadway Drama Blue Moon

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New Richard Linklater is always cause for filmic celebration, especially when talking about a production that looks as suave and opulent as the upcoming Blue Moon. Linklater’s 1940s Broadway period piece opened to strong reviews at the Berlin International Film Festival in February, and brings together an impeccable cast of some of his favorite performers to tell the story of a man who was famous and beloved in his day, slowly sliding toward irrelevance. As the official synopsis puts it: “On the evening of March 31, 1943, legendary lyricist Lorenz Hart confronts his shattered self-confidence in Sardi’s bar as his former collaborator Richard Rodgers celebrates the opening night of his ground-breaking hit musical Oklahoma!.”

Lorenz Hart is here played by frequent Linklater muse Ethan Hawke, virtually unrecognizable under a painful combover and years of booze and regret. He’s joined by Andrew Scott as former partner Richard Rodgers, who won the Silver Bear for Best Supporting Actor this February in Berlin, and It Girl Margaret Qualley as Elizabeth Weiland, a young woman seemingly trying to use Hart to get close to Rodgers, though we’d say that the (semi-closeted) Hart doesn’t seem to mind. Hart is aided in his confessionals by both Qualley and Bobby Cannavale playing a Sardi’s bartender, where much of the film seems to take place. It feels like a wistful ode to classic Broadway and the pains of the creative process and partnership, as highlighted by the titular playing of “Blue Moon,” with Linklater’s usual superb eye for nuanced historical detail.

Watch the Star-Studded First Trailer for Richard Linklater’s Broadway Drama Blue Moon