Overview

• Set largely at Sardi’s on the 1943 opening night of Oklahoma!, the film tracks Lorenz Hart through a single evening of reckoning with career, identity, and addiction.
• Critics broadly single out Ethan Hawke’s performance as the film’s standout strength, while some describe the opening stretch as slow and the staging as claustrophobic.
• Andrew Scott’s turn as Richard Rodgers anchors tense, talk-driven confrontations, with Margaret Qualley and Bobby Cannavale among the key supporting players.
• Linklater and Hawke developed the project over years, employing practical effects to minimize Hawke’s stature and filming on a Sardi’s set constructed in Ireland.
• Sony Pictures Classics opens the film in select U.S. theaters on Oct. 17 with a wider release reported for Oct. 24, and some coverage notes early awards-season speculation.