Once in a Lifetime

By: George S. Kaufman, Moss Hart

Narrated by: Caroline Aaron, Edward Asner, Jen Dede, Jeanie Hackett, David Kaufman, Sarah Rafferty, Jonathan Silverman

It’s 1929 as The Jazz Singer hits the silver screen and the talkies promise to change movies forever. Enter three down-and-out vaudevillians who hatch a hare-brained scheme to “make it big” in Tinsel Town. Their plan? To open a voice academy for the witless stars of silent movies. The only things standing in their way are ditzy starlets and power-hungry movie moguls.

Starring Ed Asner and directed by Moss Hart’s son, this is top-of-the-bill screwball comedy and Kaufman and Hart genius at its very best.

An L.A. Theatre Works full-cast performance featuring (in alphabetical order) Caroline Aaron as Helen Hobart/Miss Chasen; Edward Asner as Herman Glogauer; Jen Dede as Susan Walker; Jeanie Hackett as Mrs. Walker/Miss Leighton; David Kaufman as George Lewis; Katharine Leonard as Florabel Leigh/Bridesmaid #2; Joe Liss as The Porter/Ernest/Mr. Flick/Weisskopf/The Bishop; Kellie Matteson as Phyllis Fontaine/Bridesmaid #1; Jon Matthews as Rudolph Kammerling/Fontaine Chauffer/Leading Man; Sarah Rafferty as May Daniels; Jonathan Silverman as Jerry Hyland; Steve Vinovich as Lawrence Vail/Leigh Chauffer/ Meterstein. Directed by Christopher Hart. Recorded before a live audience at the Skirball Cultural Center, Los Angeles, in October 2009.

©2011 L.A. Theatre Works (P)2011 L.A. Theatre Works