‘Act One’ Perfect Open-Air Summer Theater

“Act One” is a play about what theater was like in America during the first few decades of the 20th century. It’s based on Moss Hart’s beloved autobiography of the same title, which tells his life story up to the point where his first major play, the Hollywood satire “Once in a Lifetime” (co-written with George S. Kaufman), survived some worrisome out-of-town tryouts and became a Broadway hit in 1930.

Seeing such an old-fashioned show, done in a leisurely, stagy, community-theater style, at an open-air summer theater in the bucolic Connecticut town of Bethlehem, is an other-worldly experience.

The respectful adaptation of Hart’s book is by James Lapine. It had a brief New York run in 2014 and is just now getting its first Connecticut production — not by one of the state’s major regional theaters but by a small company in Litchfield County.

For the Clay & Wattles Theater rendition, in the roofed but barely walled, windswept The Gary The Olivia Theater space on the grounds of the Abbey of Regina Laudis, a 14-member cast is charged with portraying dozens of characters, including many notable New York celebrities of the 1920s and 1930s.

The actors resemble these once-notable folks (Jed Harris! Sam Harris! Alexander Woollcott! Dorothy Parker! Dore Schary! Edna Ferber! Harpo Marx!) not at all. The acting styles are all over the place. Clay & Wattles co-Artistic Director Thomas Camm, who plays three roles — Hart’s father, Hart’s mentor Kaufman and Hart himself in his dotage — is slow and stentorian, while some of the sharper ensemble members (David Macharelli, Michael Hodges, Caroline McCaughey, Jonathan Gibbons) set a friskier pace. Jeff Ronan, the main actor playing Moss Hart, has a different tempo altogether.

Yet there’s something special about this piece of theater nostalgia being done so earnestly in such a quaint, out-of-the-way location. Many theatergoers today know Moss Hart’s work, especially his other Kaufman collaborations “You Can’t Take It With You” and “The Man Who Came to Dinner,” from small theater productions just like this one.

“Act One” conjures up just the right images of what live theater used to be and what it used to mean. Now, can someone please revive “Once in a Lifetime”?

“ACT ONE” by James Lapine, based on the book by Moss Hart, directed by Sally Camm, is performed by the Clay & Wattles Theater Company through June 19 at The Gary The Olivia Theater, 249 Flanders Road, Bethlehem. Performances are Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 2:30 p.m. Tickets are $23. 203-273-5669, thegarytheolivia.com.