Once in a Lifetime

Once in a Lifetime

Once in a Lifetime

Once in a Lifetime

Overview

It’s winter of 1928 and the biggest news in entertainment is the whopping success of Al Jolson in The Jazz Singer, the first all-talking picture. A down-at-heels vaudeville troupe — the ascerbic May Daniels, the fast-talking Jerry Hyland, and their slightly dopey cohort, George Lewis — decide to make their fortune by going Hollywood. The only problem is: they don’t know what they’re going to do out there. That’s all right: no one knows anything in Hollywood either. The trio pretends to be a team of skilled vocal coaches and, with the help of Lotusland’s greatest gossip columnist, Helen Hobart, they find themselves working for Herman Glogauer, the volatile producer behind Glogauer Pictures. Glogauer makes George the head of production, and George obliges him by making the worst picture ever made.  Yet, even this comedic satire has a Hollywood ending: George makes the studio a success despite himself and finds the girl of his dreams, while May and Jerry fall into each other’s arms. Fade-out: The End.

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Details

  • Genre: Parody / Spoof, Romantic Comedy
  • Time Period: 1920s
  • Cast Attributes: Ensemble cast, Reduced casting (Doubling Possible), Flexible cast size, Room for Extras
  • Target Audience: Appropriate for all audiences

Authors

Moss Hart

Moss Hart (1904-1961) began his career as a playwright, director and producer in 1930 when, with George S. Kaufman, he wrote Once in a Lifetime. Subsequent Kaufman and Hart successes include Merrily We Roll Along, You Can't Take It With You and The Man Who Came To Dinner, amo ...

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George S. Kaufman

George S. Kaufman was born in Pittsburgh in 1889. During his early career as a reporter and drama critic , he began to write for the theatre. For 40 years, beginning in 1921 with the production of Dulcy, there was rarely a year without a Kaufman play — usually written in coll ...

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