Dazzler : The Life and Times of Moss Hart

Rating:
Summary: Moss Hart: The reality show
Review: Most early readers of this new Hart biography are readers who love "Act One." That brilliant book is central to every stage-struck person's devotion to theater, Broadway and glamor. But along comes Mr. Bach, and his portrait only makes us love Hart's version more. Yes, I believe Mr. Bach has researched and read and compiled facts that delineate the real life of a Broadway legend. But by comparison it is also insight into what a creation is "Act One" and the creative process of a playwright and man of the theatre. Hart wrote his own version with the eye of an artist; facts didn't interest him. A great story was in the telling. Facts interest Mr. Bach, and they are very well presented. If any reader is worried that Mr. Bach has been indiscreet, that his palette has too many warts and all, I assure you that he has been careful and admiring. His role as a biographer may have kept him at too much of a distance from the artist, but his book in combination with Hart's is a full-blown, 3-D treatment of a worthy subject. It takes this new book to make you fully appreciate the original, and then grateful for the contrasting study.

Rating:
Summary: A DAZZLER INDEED
Review: Theater buffs have been waiting a long time for this book, and it's been worth it. In an age of tell-all hatchet jobs, Bach presents a sensitive, witty look at a complex man. You get the warts-and-all, but you come away admiring Hart and wishing you'd had the pleasure of knowing him. You also get a fantastic backstage trip through Broadway's most glamorous era, with all the personalities, intrigues and entanglements we love to read about. Many of us who read "Act One" felt we just didn't want the book to end. "Dazzler" made me feel the same way.

Rating:
Summary: Act Two
Review: This book covers the material we enjoyed in Act One, then picks up where Act One left off, at which point things get very interesting indeed. His youth wasn't nearly as grim as he would have us believe, and his later years weren't as much fun as we would have imagined. Bach has certainly done his research. The more interested you are in theater history and the small details of each production, the more you'll enjoy Dazzler. Even if you're not crazy about theater, you might enjoy watching the rise of a genius. It's smooth and insightful and never boring. Keep it with your biographies of Kaufmann. You'll want to come back to it the next time you view The Man Who Came to Dinner and You Can't Take It With You.