One of award-winning playwright,
Moss Hart's, lesser known
works, the off beat drama, "The Climate of Eden",
was both the last play written by the legendary
playwright, and also his favorite work. Nonetheless, as the
acclaimed author himself feared, it was one of his least
successful pieces.
Moss Hart
(1904 – 1961), was one of the most respected playwrights, and
director, on Broadway. Born in New York, he received his
earliest theatrical training as assistant to producer Augustus Pitou, in the 1920s.
Hart's first two plays failed, but success soon materialized
when the young playwright collaborated with
George S. Kaufman on the
Hollywood spoof, Once in a
Lifetime, in 1930. The team of Kaufman and Hart would
write some of the most popular, or at least most interesting,
plays produced during the following decades. A few of the better
remembered include: 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).
The
Hart/Kaufman team also were
famed for their musical collaborations as well, works such as
the libretto for the hit musical,
I'd Rather Be Right, produced in 1937. With other
collaborators, or often 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). A few of his other solo, nonmusical, efforts include:
Winged Victory (1943),
Christopher Blake (1946),
Light Up the Sky (1948), and
The Climate of Eden (1952).
Due to the fact
that so many of Hart's earlier works were collaborations, it's
often difficult to assess his precise contribution to each of
them, however, his solo efforts revealed a gift for superior,
literate dialogue and probing characterization. This last
quality probably reflecting his deep interest in human
psychology, a quality developed following his own much
publicized psychoanalysis.
In addition to
directing many of his own shows, Hart also produced (staged)
many of his plays, as well as by others. A sampling of these
theatrical hits include: Junior
Miss (1941), Dear Ruth
(1944), My Fair Lady
(1956), and
Camelot (1960)
And we mustn't forget his
renowned, best-selling, Autobiography:
Act One, in 1959.
It all began back in the 1950's, when the Eastwood Family
moved from Syracuse, New York, 
Thursday,
July 30, 2009 12:10 AM
