Act One: An Autobiography

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 greatest 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 the Author :
Moss Hart (1904-1961) began his career as a playwright in 1925 and achieved his first major success in the 1930 collaboration with George S. Kaufman titled Once in a Lifetime. With Kaufman he also wrote such American classics as The Man Who Came to Dinner and You Can't Take It with You, winner of the 1937 Pulitzer Prize. Hart also gained universal recognition for his award-winning direction of many shows, including My Fair Lady and Camelot. Christopher Hart has written ten novels published to date, both literary and historical, including Lost Children and Rescue Me, while his historical fiction, written under the pen name of William Napier, includes Julia, the best-selling Attila trilogy and the Last Crusaders trilogy. His work has been praised in both The Times Literary Supplement and the Sunday Sport. He has also published numerous short stories, essays and reviews, and has been a freelance journalist since the 1990s, for The Sunday Times, Daily Mail, Daily Telegraph and others. He lives in Wiltshire, where he is rewilding seven acres and a hedge. Jim Meskimen is a stage, film, and television actor who has appeared in many well-known movies and television shows. He acted in Apollo 13 and Frost/Nixon, both of which were nominated for Best Picture Oscars. He is the winner of an AudioFile Earphones Award and lives in Los Angeles with his wife, actress Tamra Meskimen.

Review :
"Act One is legendary in the theater world." -- "James Lapine, award-winning stage director of Into the Woods " "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 New York City in the '30s, '40s and '50s, here's a good place to find out." -- "Amazon.com, editorial review" "Moss Hart's Act One is not only the best book ever written about the American theater, but one of the great American autobiographies, by turns gripping, hilarious, and searing." -- "New York Magazine" "One of the leading playwrights and directors of the New York stage, Moss Hart here tells, with considerable introspection and at times almost total recall, the story of his early years and the breaks that led to Broadway...Provides good, long, and fascinating look at the machinery of hit-making, made the more palatable by the fact that this particular agony ended in triumph. Affecting and appealing." -- "Kirkus Reviews" "The ultimate Broadway memoir by the master who raised the bar for all of us." -- "Julie Andrews"