Act One: An Autobiography [Paperback]

Moss Hart'sAct 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 Oneis the quintessential American success story.

MOSS HART, born in New York City in 1904, began his career as a playwright in 1925 and achieved his first major success in the 1930 collaboration with George S. Kaufman,Once in a Lifetime. With Kaufmann, he also wrote such American classics asThe Man Who Came to Dinner andYou Can't Take it With You, winner of the 1938 Pulitzer Prize. Hart also gained universal recognition for his award-winning direction of many shows, includingMy Fair LadyandCamelot.He died in 1961.

Moss Hart'sAct Oneis not only the best book ever written about the American theater, but one of the great American autobiographies, by turns gripping, hilarious and searing. Frank Rich

ReadingAct Oneis like going to a wonderful dinner party and being seated next to a man who is more charming, more interesting, smarter, and funnier than you ever knew men were capable of being. Moss Hart is alive in these pages, and I am in love with him. Ann Patchett, author of This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage and Bel Canto

IsAct Onefor you? Only if you know that theater is spelled theatre, cast albums are not soundtracks, and intermission is twice as fun as halftime. In that case, not only isAct Onefor you--it is immediate and required reading. Tim Federle, author of Better Nate Than Ever and Five, Six, Seven, Nate!