Theater News

Tony Shalhoub and Santino Fontana Will Star in Moss Hart Bio-Play, Act One

James Lapine’s adaptation of Hart’s acclaimed memoir will play Lincoln Center Theater.

Tony Shalhoub
Tony Shalhoub
(© David Gordon)

2013 Tony Award nominees Tony Shalhoub (Golden Boy) and Santino Fontana (Cinderella) will star in Lincoln Center Theater’s spring Broadway production of Act One, James Lapine’s stage adaptation of playwright/director Moss Hart’s 1959 memoir. Lapine also directs the work, which begins previews March 20 at Broadway’s Vivian Beaumont Theater and officially opens April 17.

Shalhoub, best known for his Emmy-winning performance on the long-running television series Monk, and Fontana, whose credits also include Sons of the Prophet and the new film Frozen, will both portray Hart at various stages of his life. A third actor, still to be announced, will also take on the role. Featured on the creative team are Beowulf Boritt (scenic design), Jane Greenwood (costume design), Ken Billington (lighting design), Dan Moses Schreier (sound design), and Louis Rosen (original music).

Hart is best known for his dramatic collaborations with writer George S. Kaufman. Together their plays include The Man Who Came to Dinner, You Can’t Take It With You, Once in a Lifetime, and Merrily We Roll Along. As a director, Hart won a Tony Award for staging the original production of My Fair Lady.

Act One takes place before all of Hart’s successes as theater maker, exploring his youth as an impoverished child in the Bronx, his stint as the social director at resorts in the Catskills, and his struggle to gain a foothold in the industry he loved so dearly.

Click here for more information and tickets to Act One.

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Cinderella

Closed: January 3, 2015