Who Was This For?

Blue Moon, a 2025 film directed by Richard Linklater and starring Ethan Hawke, Margaret Qualley, Bobby Cannavale, and Andrew Scott, follows Lorenz, or Larry Hart, on the night of his writing partner's greatest triumph. You've heard of "Rodgers and Hammerstein." Well, before Richard Rodgers changed musical theater in the 20th century with his infamous partner Oscar Hammerstein II, he actually had a prolific career writing 28 stage musicals and over 500 songs with lyricist Larry Hart. Blue Moon is a fictional account of what Larry might have been doing on the night that Oklahoma! opened on Broadway. With such a niche premise that needs historical context to even understand, today we ask: who was this for?

Referenced:

Blue Moon (2025)

As of recording, streaming on Netflix

Primer from Ethan Hawk on Lorenz Hart

Before Trilogy

Blue Moon (1934 Song)

Letters of Elizbeth Weiland: https://time.com/7325788/blue-moon-true-story-lorenz-hart/

Richard Rodgers: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Rodgers

George Roy Hill: https://boxd.it/15Ef

Oscar Hammerstein II: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscar_Hammerstein_II

Stephen Sondheim

Casablanca

Ingrid Bergman as Ilsa Lund

Humphrey Bogart as Rick Blaine

The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis

Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’: https://youtu.be/O5APc0z49wg?si=x5aW7pf7uWs5XyKE

Oklahoma!:

E.B. White: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._B._White

Roshan Sethi: https://boxd.it/NwRh

A Nice Indian Boy: https://boxd.it/GG6o

What is a Snob? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snob

George M. Cohan “Over There”: https://open.spotify.com/track/6XHjtVlSB0X073M80nabrs?si=fe2aa04aa91f43b7

Yankee Doodle Dandy: https://boxd.it/25LO

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/whowasthisforpod?igsh=YWE0N3diaW1jbjRi

Letterboxd: https://boxd.it/kWtTV

Or email us at whowasthisforpod@gmail.com

Ep. 1 Wicked: For Good (Creative Shoehorning?)

Tanner Mastaw — Thu, 04 Jun 2026 02:28:07 GMT

Episode 1: Wicked: For Good is the much anticipated second installment of the film adaptation of the Broadway musical, Wicked. Released in 2025, with a book by Winnie Holzman and music by Stephen Schwartz, the musical is itself an adaptation of Gregory Maguire's 1995 novel, Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West. But wait, Maguire's novel is a twist on L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and its subsequent 1939 film called The Wizard of Oz. Each of these properties are beloved in their own right and after a wildly successful first installment, Wicked: For Good had a lot of pressure to deliver. Did it? Today we ask: who was this for?

Show Notes and projects referenced:

Wicked: For Good https://boxd.it/AyfK (As of recording, streaming on Peacock)
Stephen Schwartz
Jonathan Bailey
Reprises https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/reprise
Script Notes Interview with Dana Fox “Something Wicked This Way Comes” https://johnaugust.com/2025/something-wicked-this-way-comes
Rodgers and Hammerstein
Entr'acte https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entr%27acte
“Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West” by Gregory Maguire
Ethan Slater
SpongeBob SquarePants: The Broadway Musical
John M. Chu
Idina Minzel
Hamilton
Hadestown
Ariana Grande
Kristen Chenoweth
Game of Thrones
Frozen
Cynthia Erivo
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
Map of Oz on Broadway (Elyse meant to say Winkie Country, not Winkie Land. Clearly, she stared at the map but didn’t internalize the map) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wicked_Map_%2821745639%29.jpeg
Saltburn
Frankenstein https://www.gutenberg.org/files/84/84-h/84-h.htm

Songs called out:

https://open.spotify.com/album/3JUrJP460nFIqwjxM19slT?si=g1TghnrHQA2oMxv96bg9vQ

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/whowasthisforpod?igsh=YWE0N3diaW1jbjRi

Letterboxd: https://boxd.it/kWtTV

Or email us at whowasthisforpod@gmail.com