Hart was born in
Harlem, New York City, the elder of two sons, to German Jewish immigrant parents, Max M. and Frieda (
née Isenberg) Hart. Through his mother, he was a great-grandnephew of the German poet
Heinrich Heine. 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.) From 1914 to 1916, he also spent two years at
Columbia University School of Journalism. While he had no special interest in becoming a journalist, he was drawn to the school's steady requirement of writing. While at Columbia, he also took a class in dramatic technique. By 1918, Hart was working for the
Shubert brothers, partners in theatre, translating German play songs into English. 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. 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, which the Guild produced for sixty-four performances at the
Guild Theatre in 1931." Rodgers had brought Hammerstein onto the project due to Hart's skepticism that the play could be adapted into a musical. Hart said he had difficulty writing a musical for such a rural setting as Oklahoma. He was not alone in this assessment.
Jerome Kern had also been offered the project and was equally doubtful that the play, which had run only 64 performances, would succeed as a musical. Disappointed at Hart's refusal, Rodgers turned to Hammerstein. Complicating this was Hart's worsening mental state and exhaustion after his work on
By Jupiter. This left an eager Hammerstein to complete what became
Oklahoma!. Rodgers and Hammerstein continued to collaborate for 16 years (until Hammerstein died, in 1960), a partnership that made them one of the most successful composing teams of the 20th century. After the success of
Oklahoma! in 1943, Rodgers decided that he and Hart should reunite for a revival of their successful 1927 musical
A Connecticut Yankee. Hart composed new lyrics for many of the songs in anticipation of the revival's November 17, 1943 premiere at the
Martin Beck Theatre. Six new numbers, including "
To Keep My Love Alive", were written for this reworked version of the play; it was Hart's last lyric. ==Lyrical style==