Act One: An Autobiography

Act One is one of my favorite books. I have rearead it often since the first time I picked it up in my late teens. I love the anecdotes about the Broadway greats ans near greats and how Mr. Hart became famous, but my favorite parts of the book concern his memorable Aunt Kate, a woman whose fate in life was other than she deserved. She is very humanely portrayed, and so is the rest of Mr. Hart's family. I also enjoyed learning more about George Kaufman and his wife. This book's great!

A few years ago when I was doing a lot of theatrical reading I heard about Moss Hart's "Act One" and at the time it was out-of-print. I did not have a computer then, but a local bookseller was able to locate a used copy for me and it is a treasure. Moss Hart was truly an amazing man. He started out in a time when there was not much around in the way of financial security...to put it mildly, but he never gave up. It seems that he was always there to fix whatever problems came up in the Broadway theatre. He wrote this book because his wife, Kitty Carlyle Hart, asked him to and it is a little gem.I am so happy to see that it is now available again and I am going to give it as birthday gifts to two dear friends who share my love of the theatre. They will love it as much as I do.

"Act One," Moss Hart's timeless autobiography, is not only the story of a man's life and dreams, but of an era that feels as legendary and distant to us as Camelot. All of the theatrical giants are there, peppered in among a cast of characters that include Hart's painfully dysfunctional family as well as his colorful array of employers and cohorts as he scratches out a living in pursuit of a seemingly impossible goal: life in the legitimate theatre. More than anything, it is an inspirational tale of taking charge, of setting out to rise above oppresive beginnings and follow the soul's destiny, no matter how foolhardy that may seem. We know the outcome, but Hart's ability to spin the tale and build the tension is impeccable! Will he really make it? Of course he will, or we wouldn't be reading this wonderful book, but so involving is Hart's journey, that one can't help but get pulled along for the ride. Like the last drops of water in a scorching desert, I wanted to stretch this book out, greedily reading only a few paragraphs at a time so that tomorrow I'd have some left over. If you love the art of live theatre, or if you're an artist in need of a creative jump-start, "Act One" will provide the juice.

ACT ONE is not just the engrossing story of a remarkable life -- its a precious gift from an author who captures the spirit of his past and passes it on to us. Moss Hart brings the New York of the early 20th Century to life, immersing the reader in the everyday life of that lost world. The despair of his family's poverty, the challenge of survival, the long-gone Catskill resort camps where he got his start, and the glamour of Broadway in its glory years -- all of these things Hart recalls with such vivid impact that they become tangible realities for us in ACT ONE. While Hart was justly acclaimed as a master playwright and director, ACT ONE proves that he also had a gift for superlative, irresistibly readable prose -- you feel you are listening to this man in warm, intimate conversation. Theatrical legends like Sam Harris and the inscrutible George S. Kauffman become three-dimensional and fascinating. Most importantly, this is one autobiography where the author shares a piece of his soul with the reader. Instead of just telling about his family being poor, he gives us a sense of how poverty can crush the soul -- and, conversely, how escaping from such poverty can set the soul free. The result is an autobiography that is not just interesting or entertaining, but genuinely moving. Hart's passion radiates throughout ACT ONE -- passion for success, for New York, for the theatre. And oh, how he brings you into the world of the theatre as he knew it -- the maddening and eccentric personalities, out of town tryouts, exhausting re-writes, soul-breaking failures and sky-high triumphs. If theatre or New York interest you, you canot afford to miss this book. If you simply love a great read, you also cannot afford to miss this book. We all owe ourselves a little joy, and ACT ONE is a joy from start to finish.