Discover the Best Books Written by Moss Hart

Moss Hart (October 24, 1904 – December 20, 1961) was an American playwright, librettist, and theater director. Hart was born in New York City, the son of Lillian (Solomon) and Barnett Hart, a cigar maker. He had a younger brother, Bernard. He grew up in relative poverty with his English-born Jewish immigrant parents in the Bronx and in Sea Gate, Brooklyn. He was the great-grandson of the Jewish bare-knuckle pugilist Barney Aaron.

In his youth, he had a strong relationship with his Aunt Kate, with whom he later lost contact due to a falling out between her and his parents and Kate's weakening mental state. She piqued his interest in the theater, taking him to see performances often. Hart even went so far as to create an "alternate ending" to her life in his book Act One. 

He writes that she died while he was working on out-of-town tryouts for The Beloved Bandit. In later life, Kate became eccentric and disturbed, vandalizing Hart's home, writing threatening letters, and setting fires backstage during rehearsals for Jubilee. Yet, his relationship with her had been formative. He learned that the theater made possible "the art of being somebody else … not a scrawny boy with bad teeth, a funny name … and a mother who was a distant drudge."

Hart's first glimpse of Broadway came in 1919 when he was 14 years old. He later recounted exiting the subway at Times Square and standing agog at the urban tableau before him: "A swirling mob of shouting happy people... confetti and paper streamers... soldiers and sailors climbed happily onto the tops of taxis, grabbing girls up to dance with them. My first thought was, 'Of course, that's just the way I thought it would be.'" Unbeknownst to Hart, his arrival coincided with the armistice signing that ended World War One.

After working several years as a director of amateur theatrical groups and an entertainment director at summer resorts, he scored his first Broadway hit with Once in a Lifetime (1930), a farce about the arrival of the sound era in Hollywood. The play was written in collaboration with Broadway veteran George S. Kaufman, who regularly wrote with others, notably Marc Connelly and Edna Ferber. 

(Kaufman also performed in the play's original Broadway cast in the role of a frustrated playwright hired by Hollywood) and produced by Sam Harris. Hart's agent at this time was Frieda Fishbein, who brought a lawsuit against Hart, contending she was entitled to a percentage of the royalties from plays produced by Harris. The matter was settled out of court for an undisclosed amount.

During the next decade, Kaufman and Hart teamed on several successes, including You Can't Take It with You (1936) and The Man Who Came to Dinner (1939). Though Kaufman had hits with others, Hart is generally conceded to be his most important collaborator. 

You Can't Take It With You, the story of an eccentric family and how they lived during the Depression, won the 1937 Pulitzer Prize for drama. It is Hart's most-revived play. When director Frank Capra and writer Robert Riskin adapted it for the screen in 1938, the film won the Best Picture Oscar, and Capra won Best Director.

The Man Who Came To Dinner is about the caustic Sheridan Whiteside, who must stay in a Midwestern family's house after injuring himself slipping on ice. The character was based on Kaufman and Hart's friend, critic Alexander Woollcott. Other characters in the play are based on Noël Coward, Harpo Marx, and Gertrude Lawrence.

Throughout the 1930s, Hart worked both with and without Kaufman on several musicals and revues, including Face the Music (1932); As Thousands Cheer (1933), with songs by Irving Berlin; Jubilee (musical) (1935), with songs by Cole Porter; and I'd Rather Be Right (1937), with songs by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart. (Lorenz Hart and Moss Hart were unrelated.) After George Washington Slept Here (1940), Kaufman and Hart called it quits. 

Hart continued to write plays after parting with Kaufman, such as Christopher Blake (1946) and Light Up the Sky (1948), as well as the book for the musical Lady In The Dark (1941), with songs by Kurt Weill and Ira Gershwin. However, he became best known during this period as a director. Among the Broadway hits he staged were Junior Miss (1941), Dear Ruth (1944), and Anniversary Waltz (1954). 

By far, his biggest hit was the musical My Fair Lady (1956), adapted from George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion, with book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe. The show lasted six years and won a Tony Award for Best Musical. Hart picked up Tony for Best Director.