Hart, Moss

Hart, Moss (1904–61), playwright and director. Born in New York, he received his earliest theatrical training as assistant to producer Augustus Pitou. Hart's first two plays failed, but success came when he collaborated with George S. Kaufman on the Hollywood spoof Once in a Lifetime (1930). The team of Kaufman and Hart would write some of the most popular or interesting plays of the day, including Merrily We Roll Along (1934), You Can't Take It with You (1936), The Fabulous Invalid (1938), The American Way (1939), The Man Who Came to Dinner (1939), and George Washington Slept Here (1940), as well as the libretto for the musical I'd Rather Be Right (1937). With others or alone, Hart wrote the books or sketches for the musicals Face the Music (1932), As Thousands Cheer (1933), The Great Waltz (1934), Jubilee (1935), Sing Out the News (1938), and Lady in the Dark (1941). His solo nonmusical efforts include Winged Victory (1943), Christopher Blake (1946), Light Up the Sky (1948), and The Climate of Eden (1952). Because so many of Hart's earlier works were collaborations, it is difficult to assess his precise contribution to them, but his solo efforts revealed a gift for superior, literate dialogue and probing characterization, this last quality probably reflecting his interest in human psychology following his own much‐publicized psychoanalysis. Besides directing many of his own shows, he also staged such hits as Junior Miss (1941), Dear Ruth (1944), My Fair Lady (1956), and Camelot (1960). Autobiography: Act One, 1959. Biography: Dazzler: The Life and Times of Moss Hart, Steven Bach, 2001.