Some of his more famous lyrics include "Blue Moon"; "The Lady Is a Tramp"; "Manhattan"; "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered"; and "My Funny Valentine".

[2][3][4][5] 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.

[2] But the "encomiums suggest[ing] that Larry Hart was a poet"[7] caused his friend and fellow writer Henry Myers to state otherwise.

"[7] Rodgers and Hart wrote music and lyrics for several films, including Love Me Tonight (1932), The Phantom President (1932), Hallelujah, I'm a Bum (1933), and Mississippi (1935).

Rodgers had brought Hammerstein onto the project due to Hart's worsening mental state;[9] Hart would admit he had difficulty writing a musical for such a rural setting as Oklahoma and departed,[10] leaving an eager Hammerstein (whose own songwriting partner Jerome Kern had no interest in the project) to complete what would eventually become Oklahoma!.

He was found ill in a hotel room from drink and taken to Doctors Hospital, Upper East Side, but died within a few days.

[2] According to Thomas Hischak, Hart "had a remarkable talent for polysyllabic and internal rhymes",[12] and his lyrics have often been praised for their wit and technical sophistication.

According to The New York Times music critic Stephen Holden, "Many of Hart's ballad lyrics conveyed a heart-stopping sadness that reflected his conviction that he was physically too unattractive to be lovable.

Although he wrote dozens of songs that are playful, funny and filled with clever wordplay, it is the rueful vulnerability beneath their surface that lends them a singular poignancy.

[15] Many of Hart's contemporaries who knew him socially have stated he was a discreet homosexual, with a reputation as a voyeur, though his friends did not go into detail about people whose behavior he watched, such as their genders.

[16] Robert Gottlieb wrote in the April 2013 edition of The Atlantic magazine, There were rumors about Larry [Lorenz Hart] while he was alive, but nothing about his sexuality ever appeared in print.

[27][28] The circumstances of Lorenz Hart's life were heavily altered and romanticized in the 1948 MGM biopic Words and Music, with fictitious personal details such as changing his sexual orientation and attributing his erratic behavior and depression to an obsession with a woman (played in the film by Betty Garrett) who turns down his marriage proposal.

Written by Robert Kaplow, the film is set to be directed by Richard Linklater and star Ethan Hawke as Hart, alongside Margaret Qualley, Bobby Cannavale, and Andrew Scott.