This is the bio of Hart to read – splendidly written, diligently researched, a lot of fun. Hart had one of those careers you simply can’t have any more – stage struck as a child, he broke into the business as an office boy; he managed to get a debut play onto Broadway but it sank like a stone; he perfected his talent in the Catskills; achieved fame with George Kaufman in Once in a Lifetime; worked on many now-forgotten revues with major talents like Irving Berlin and Cole Porter; hit a golden streak with Kaufman and a series of classic plays; then became an accomplished director.
Lots of things I didn’t realise – he was really good mates with Dore Schary (the two corresponded throughout Hart’s life); the struggles behind almost all Hart’s hits (even My Fair Lady); the contribution of Pascal to My Fair Lady via the changes he made to the script of the 1938 film of Pygmalion (I was totally unaware of this); the influence of psychoanalysis on his work. I love how they tried to solve the problems of Once in a Lifetime by adding more comedy and more spectacle – then going the other way and adding more drama, which ultimately worked; it’s a golden lesson for all comedy writers.
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