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Once in a Lifetime: A Comedy
It's 1929 as The Jazz Singer hits the silver screen and the talkies promise to change movies forever. Enter three down-and-out vaudevillians who hatch a hare-brained scheme to "make it big" in Tinsel Town. Their plan? To open a voice academy for the witless stars of silent movies. The only things standing in their way are ditzy starlets and power-hungry movie moguls. Starring Ed Asner and directed by Moss Hart's son, this is top-of-the-bill screwball comedy and Kaufman and Hart genius at its very best An L.A. Theatre Works full-cast performance Aaron as Helen Hobart and Miss ChasenEdward Asner as Herman GlogauerJen Dede as Susan WalkerJeanie Hackett as Mrs. Walker and Miss LeightonDavid Kaufman as George LewisKatharine Leonard as Florabel Leigh and Bridesmaid #2Joe Liss as Ernest and othersKellie Matteson as Phyllis Fontaine and Bridesmaid #1;Jon Matthews as Rudolph Kammerling and othersSarah Rafferty as May DanielsJonathan Silverman as Jerry HylandS
236 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1930
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About the author
Moss Hart
51 books23 followersMoss Hart was an American playwright and director of plays and musical theater. Hart recalled his youth, early career and rise to fame in his autobiography, Act One, adapted to film in 1963, with George Hamilton portraying Hart.
Hart grew up at 74 East 105th Street in Manhattan, "a neighborhood not of carriages and hansom cabs, but of dray wagons, pushcarts, and immigrants" (Bach 1). Early on he had a strong relationship with his Aunt Kate, whom he later lost contact with because of a falling out between her and his parents, and her weakening mental state. She got him interested in the theater and took 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. Later, Kate became quite eccentric, vandalizing Hart's home, writing threatening letters and setting fires backstage during rehearsals for Jubilee. But his relationship with Kate was life-forming. He understood 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." (Bach 13).
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.) During the next decade, Kaufman and Hart teamed on a string of 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 live 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 for Best Director.
The Man Who Came To Dinner is about the caustic Sheridan Whiteside who, after injuring himself slipping on ice, must stay in a Midwestern family's house. The character was based on Kaufman and Hart's friend, critic Alexander Woollcott. Other characters in the play are based on Noel Coward, Harpo Marx and Gertrude Lawrence.
After George Washington Slept Here (1940), Kaufman and Hart called it quits. Hart had decided it was time to move on. Throughout the 1930s, Hart also worked, 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 not related.)
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 ran over seven years and won a Tony Award for Best Musical. Hart picked up the Tony for Best Director.
Occasionally, Hart wrote scree
Hart grew up at 74 East 105th Street in Manhattan, "a neighborhood not of carriages and hansom cabs, but of dray wagons, pushcarts, and immigrants" (Bach 1). Early on he had a strong relationship with his Aunt Kate, whom he later lost contact with because of a falling out between her and his parents, and her weakening mental state. She got him interested in the theater and took 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. Later, Kate became quite eccentric, vandalizing Hart's home, writing threatening letters and setting fires backstage during rehearsals for Jubilee. But his relationship with Kate was life-forming. He understood 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." (Bach 13).
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.) During the next decade, Kaufman and Hart teamed on a string of 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 live 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 for Best Director.
The Man Who Came To Dinner is about the caustic Sheridan Whiteside who, after injuring himself slipping on ice, must stay in a Midwestern family's house. The character was based on Kaufman and Hart's friend, critic Alexander Woollcott. Other characters in the play are based on Noel Coward, Harpo Marx and Gertrude Lawrence.
After George Washington Slept Here (1940), Kaufman and Hart called it quits. Hart had decided it was time to move on. Throughout the 1930s, Hart also worked, 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 not related.)
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 ran over seven years and won a Tony Award for Best Musical. Hart picked up the Tony for Best Director.
Occasionally, Hart wrote scree
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
September 16, 2020
After reading Moss Hart's excellent autobiography, Act One, I decided to read his first major hit which features prominently in his book. The play is a funny satire about the shallow world of Hollywood. The remarkable thing is that, after 90 years, it's still true!
August 12, 2016
About as funny as Medea.
October 24, 2022
Of the many funny plays written by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart, for my money Once in a Lifetime is the funniest. Written in 1930, it's the story of Jerry, May, and George, three small-time vaudevillians who, down on their luck and seeing the enormous success of the first talking picture, decide to head west and strike it rich in Hollywood. Their plan is to open an elocution school to teach the stars of the silent screen how to talk; they get a giant boost when they meet up with the famous gossip columnist Helen Hobart on the train to California and she agrees to introduce them to movie mogul Herman Glogauer. Fast-talking Jerry and level-headed May succeed in opening their school, but it is lovable, slow-witted George who--inevitably--becomes the darling of the studio. Along the way, George finds a sweet young thing named Susan Walker to be his girlfriend, while Jerry takes virtually the entire 2 1/2 hour running time to figure out that May is his one and only.
Once in a Lifetime is so densely packed with brilliantly funny lines and business that you lose track after awhile; that's if you're not bowled over by the realization that practically every cliche of the standard-issue satire on the empty-headed movie business seems to have originated here. The first scene ends with Jerry, May, and George chanting "California, here we come!" and the play reaches its climax with May informing Jerry that he's "gone Hollywood." Helen Hobart, the Louella Parsons-Hedda Hopper stand-in, actually says "You know it was I who gave America Gary Cooper and Rex the Wonder Horse." At the glittery Gold Room of the Hotel Stilton in Los Angeles, two exotic femmes fatales named Phyllis Fontaine and Florabel Leigh would seem to be the epitome of glamour and sophistication--that is, until they open their mouths (think Jean Hagen in Singin' in the Rain).
And there's plenty more: a tyrannical Prussian film director reminiscent of Von Stroheim; a bubble-headed studio receptionist who wears a black evening gown every day to work; a movie studio head so rich that he inspires this exchange:
Once in a Lifetime is so densely packed with brilliantly funny lines and business that you lose track after awhile; that's if you're not bowled over by the realization that practically every cliche of the standard-issue satire on the empty-headed movie business seems to have originated here. The first scene ends with Jerry, May, and George chanting "California, here we come!" and the play reaches its climax with May informing Jerry that he's "gone Hollywood." Helen Hobart, the Louella Parsons-Hedda Hopper stand-in, actually says "You know it was I who gave America Gary Cooper and Rex the Wonder Horse." At the glittery Gold Room of the Hotel Stilton in Los Angeles, two exotic femmes fatales named Phyllis Fontaine and Florabel Leigh would seem to be the epitome of glamour and sophistication--that is, until they open their mouths (think Jean Hagen in Singin' in the Rain).
And there's plenty more: a tyrannical Prussian film director reminiscent of Von Stroheim; a bubble-headed studio receptionist who wears a black evening gown every day to work; a movie studio head so rich that he inspires this exchange:
Helen: It's the most gorgeous house, May. You remember--we saw it from the train.There's also Laurence Vail, a frustrated and completely ignored screenwriter; he arrived six months ago, "one of a shipment of sixteen playwrights" from New York, and has yet to be given any work to do or even to set eyes on his mercurial boss, Herman Glogauer. George S. Kaufman played Vail himself in the original production; you can tell how much fun he and Moss Hart must have had writing him, the lone voice of reason in a madhouse far madder than even the zaniest Marx Brothers movie.
May: Oh, yes. With the illuminated dome.
Helen: And the turrets.
July 7, 2025
This satirical play is related to the time when cinema was having a transition to what was referred to as talkies or simply sound. It delivers entertaining perception. Written first by Hart, the collaboration with Kaufman made it palatable enough to be welcomed by Broadway’s audience in 1930. The play was awarded the 1930 Roi Cooper Megrue Prize for comedy. One of its success derives from the fact that it criticizes the film industry in a subtle and smart fashion. The play, according to some critics, set a yardstick for comedic plays, encouraging the following generations of playwrights to incorporate amusement with social critique.
August 4, 2017
I read this right after I read Act One because the writing and production of OIAL was a big part of Act One, which was an amazing book. But wow I sure didn't understand any of these jokes. Felt like reading a different language altogether. Probably was hilarious back in the day. But I guess the legitimate stage had better look to its laurels
January 5, 2025
A play from the 1930s that feels every year of its age. The play is filled with hyper-specific stars and references which I am sure was very topical at the time, but none of which are timeless. The ending feels empty and incomplete, and just seems like this is a play full of filler with no substance to speak of.
April 20, 2018
This is frivolous but very entertaining for someone (like me) who's into old Hollywood stuff. Go look up the LA theater works version and give it a listen.
August 2, 2018
It was great to read after reading the book about its writing and production success but is a bit dated and not as funny as I thought it would be.
November 15, 2022
Early 20th c. "screwball comedies" written by dead white guys hit different after #MeToo, BLM, WSYWIG. Tired of being expected to laugh at those jokes.
Read
February 1, 2012After reading Moss Hart's memoir, I thought it worthwhile to read the play that he wrote about.
Once in a Lifetime is a cute comedy about NY theater types who try to make it in Hollywood. Turns out, nobody knows anything, and people in Hollywood are dumb and shallow.
Tried reading You Can't Take it With You, too, but these plays are unfortunately dated. That said, Once in a Lifetime could be a funny high school production, given the broad characters and jokes.
Once in a Lifetime is a cute comedy about NY theater types who try to make it in Hollywood. Turns out, nobody knows anything, and people in Hollywood are dumb and shallow.
Tried reading You Can't Take it With You, too, but these plays are unfortunately dated. That said, Once in a Lifetime could be a funny high school production, given the broad characters and jokes.
July 28, 2011
To be honest, this is a strange but fast moving play. It has a huge cast and we saw it on the Olivier Stage at the National Theatre, London. It has rather dated dialogue but accurately portrays the story it tells.
Read
October 8, 2012An essential companion to Moss Hart's memoir, "Act One." Much of that book is about the creation of "Once in a Lifetime." But the play is still very funny all by itself.
October 13, 2012
Hoping that this story will get better once we actually bring it to life in theatre, but for now it was just an alright story.
May 4, 2014
3.5 stars. Funny and charming, but not outstanding.
August 11, 2017
A delicious premise that feels like a cousin to Singin' In the Rain with some fun cameo characters. A great read for old Hollywood fans.
December 24, 2016
Why no love for this in the comments? If nothing else a must-read for Cohen Brothers enthusiasts.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews