a book
Act One
Moss Hart · 2014 · 464 pages
Moss Hart's Act One, which Lincoln Center Theater presented in 2014 as a play written and directed by James Lapine, is one of the great American memoirs, a glorious memorial to a bygone age filled with all the wonder, drama, and heartbreak that surrounded Broadway in the early twentieth century. Hart's story inspired a generation of theatergoers, dramatists, and readers everywhere as he eloquently chronicled his impoverished childhood and his long, determined struggle to reach the opening night of his first Broadway hit. Act One is the quintessential American success story.
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Dick Cavett
“Hart rose from grinding poverty in Brooklyn to the heights of Broadway success in writing and directing. Act One is easily the best show — business autobiography — a riveting story that risks promoting the foolish idea that if you chase your dream and never give in, you will succeed. Bull. A few will. Hart did.”↗
John Lithgow
“Moss Hart’s memoir of his early years (he died too young to produce Act Two) remains the gold standard among books about the American theater. Fully half of it is about his collaboration with George S. Kaufman on ‘Once in a Lifetime,’ Hart’s breakthrough success. It is the best description of the creative process of theater that I’ve ever read.”↗
