Act One: An Autobiography - Softcover

Hart, Moss

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1250050898 ISBN 13: 9781250050892

Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin, 2014

Synopsis

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.

About this title

Review:

Moss Hart was in the thick of American theater when everyone wore black tie on opening night and the world's most witty people entertained each other around a grand piano at late-night supper parties. It's an era of glamour that will never come again, but we have Hart's words on paper, and that is no small thing. A renowned director and theatrical collaborator, the brilliant Hart died too soon after the curtain went up on Act Two. If you want to know what it was like to be on the inside track in NYC in the '30s, '40s and '50s, here's a good place to find out.

From the Inside Flap:

In the opinion of the publishers, act one is the warmest, most engrossing?and by far the most revealing?book about the theatre that they have ever encountered.
It is, of course, a success story, for Moss Hart today is one of the most brilliant, successful and famous figures in the American theatre, both as a playwright and as a director.
How did it happen? Not easily. His boyhood and adolescent years were spent in two entirely different backgrounds, and the stories of both are fascinating. With the opening of his first Broadway play, Once in a Lifetime, his world changed abruptly. This book concludes with a detailed telling of the complicated steps whereby that play came into being.
?I consider the memories and pledges that were part of the struggle that preceded success the vital ones,? the author says. He has set these memories down with unusual candor, humor and excitement; and the book is an intimate and informative portrait, not only of him self but of the world of the theatre as well.

About this edition

• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 1250050898
• ISBN 13: 9781250050892
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 464