Once in a Lifetime

Summary

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 LA Theatre Works full-cast performance featuring Caroline Aaron as Helen Hobart and Miss Chasen, Edward Asner as Herman Glogauer, Jen Dede as Susan Walker, Jeanie Hackett as Mrs. Walker and Miss Leighton, David Kaufman as George Lewis, Katharine Leonard as Florabel Leigh and Bridesmaid #2, Joe Liss as Ernest and others, Kellie Matteson as Phyllis Fontaine and Bridesmaid #1, Jon Matthews as Rudolph Kammerling and others, Sarah Rafferty as May Daniels, Jonathan Silverman as Jerry Hyland, and Steve Vinovich as Lawrence Vail and others. Directed by Christopher Hart and recorded before a live audience at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles.