gary marmorstein
Lorenz Hart, inside out
The darkness of Hart’s lyric for “This Funny World” (“If you’re beaten, conceal it,/ There’s no pity for you”) so unnerved Belle Baker, who was to give its first performance in the show Betsy, that she commissioned a more upbeat number from Irving Berlin and sang that instead. Hart’s songs could be tender (“My Funny Valentine,” “Isn’t It Romantic?”), topical (“Zip!”), or meta (“Johnny One Note”), but it is their sadness that sticks in the mind: “Glad to Be Unhappy,” “It Never Entered My Mind.” More
