I’m surprised someone felt the need to write another biography of Hart so soon after Steven Bach’s Dazzler but this is an entertaining look at one of the giants of a period which is essentially gone now. Out of show try outs, new shows every year, disdain for Hollywood, houses in Connecticut near other showbiz type, writing a show on a trip around the world with Cole Porter and his entourage (144 days – imagine!), glossy apartments, dining out at restaurants. It really did happen.
It’s important to create the world because Hart himself isn’t that fantastically interesting – possibly bisexual, once poor, money burned a whole in his pockets, charming and easy to work with, major battles with depression, etc.
Brown has access to Hart’s diaries and letters, giving us an invaluable insight into his mental state – particularly his battle with depression. Well researched, workman-like prose. Brown never really succeeds in making the past come alive the way say a Simon Callow might but he does well enough.
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