The quotable Moss Hart!

"My wife moves into a store like the Soviets into occupied territory. She dismantles it and sends it home bit by bit." --from Light Up the Sky

Moss Hart was an American playwright (1904-1961) known for both his humor and sharp observations about the business of show business.

Hart began as a director in "amateur" theater, and had his first Broadway hit, Once in a Lifetime, in 1930, co-written with George S. Kaufman. They went on to write a string of comedies, perhaps best known were two that have been performed on the AFD Stage: The Man Who Came to Dinner and You Can't Take It with You. The latter garnered him a Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

Though his plays were contemporary to his time (1930- 1940's), they still speak to audiences today, with insight into the laughable side of humanity. Hart was not afraid to toss out barbs at himself, his friends, his beloved theater world, and as you can see above, a backhanded barb at the Soviets, which still rings true today.

Check out some of his other quotes below and see if you agree!

“There’s nothing the matter with Hollywood that a good earthquake couldn’t cure."

"You'd be surprised how many kings are only a queen with a moustache."

"So far as I know, anything worth hearing is not usually uttered at seven o'clock in the morning; and if it is, it will generally be repeated at a more reasonable hour for a larger and more wakeful audience."

"I have had many successes and many failures in my life. My successes have always been for different reasons, but my failures have always been for the same reason: I said yes when I meant no."

"I have had the irreplaceable opportunity of learning my profession with the proper tools, the most important of which is not a pencil or a typewriter, but the necessary time to think before using them."

“A sharp sense of the ironic can be the equivalent of the faith that moves mountains. Far more quickly than reason or logic, irony can penetrate rage and puncture self-pity.” After his death, the Moss Hart Memorial Award was established by the New England Theater Conference to honor theater excellence. AFD has won the award five times in the Community Theater Division, as well as receiving Honorable Mentions six times. We hope you enjoy our production on this Moss Hart play, Light Up the Sky, which opens Dec. 2 and runs through Dec 11, with an extra performance added Thursday Dec 8 at 8PM.