Andrew Barnicle News

Making movie history is not easy! Just ask film producer David O. Selznick, who stops the filming of Gone with the Wind three weeks into production because he wants a rewrite of the unwieldy script. He hires playwright Ben Hecht to do the job-in only five days! Only one problem: Hecht has never even read the novel. So, Selznick summons Hecht and Gone With the Wind director Victor Fleming to his office, locks the doors and closes the shades. Subsisting on a diet of bananas and peanuts, the three men spend five days crafting a screenplay that will become the blueprint for one of the most successful films of all time. This wildly funny and engaging tale illuminates the behind-the-scenes business of movie-making during the golden age of Hollywood. A co-production with McCoy Rigby Entertainment and La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts.

When you've got a prestige project like Gone With The Wind in your hands, your goal as a director or a producer or a writer or, hell, even a craft services caterer, is to make it be the Best. Movie. Ever. In 1939, in what seemed like a banner year for celluloid masterpieces, David O. Selznick was a young, ambitious, forward-thinking producer that knew this film, based on Margaret Mitchell's global best-seller, should be better than how it was progressing. Thus, according to Hollywood legend, he decides to shut down production on this massive film project, fire his original director, and bring in a trusted script doctor to fix the flaws in what would eventually prove to be one of history's most successful and celebrated pictures of all time. Thus is the premise of Ron Hutchinson's MOONLIGHT AND MAGNOLIAS, now playing at the Laguna Playhouse through November 1. There's plenty of laughs here, but can be slow and too long at certain moments.

La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts and McCoy Rigby Entertainment in association with the Laguna Playhouse are proud to present the second production of La Mirada Theatre's 2009-2010 season of shows, the critically-acclaimed co-production with The Laguna Playhouse of MOONLIGHT AND MAGNOLIAS, written by Ron Hutchinson and directed by Andrew Barnicle.

Making movie history is not easy! Just ask film producer David O. Selznick, who stops the filming of Gone with the Wind three weeks into production because he wants a rewrite of the unwieldy script. He hires playwright Ben Hecht to do the job-in only five days! Only one problem: Hecht has never even read the novel. So, Selznick summons Hecht and Gone With the Wind director Victor Fleming to his office, locks the doors and closes the shades. Subsisting on a diet of bananas and peanuts, the three men spend five days crafting a screenplay that will become the blueprint for one of the most successful films of all time. This wildly funny and engaging tale illuminates the behind-the-scenes business of movie-making during the golden age of Hollywood. A co-production with McCoy Rigby Entertainment and La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts.

Making movie history is not easy! Just ask film producer David O. Selznick, who stops the filming of Gone with the Wind three weeks into production because he wants a rewrite of the unwieldy script. He hires playwright Ben Hecht to do the job-in only five days! Only one problem: Hecht has never even read the novel. So, Selznick summons Hecht and Gone With the Wind director Victor Fleming to his office, locks the doors and closes the shades. Subsisting on a diet of bananas and peanuts, the three men spend five days crafting a screenplay that will become the blueprint for one of the most successful films of all time. This wildly funny and engaging tale illuminates the behind-the-scenes business of movie-making during the golden age of Hollywood. A co-production with McCoy Rigby Entertainment and La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts.

The following are Laguna Playhouse's upcoming events through February 2010.

September 4-27- Special Performance, MENOPAUSE THE MUSICAL Performances: Tuesday - Saturday evenings at 7:30 p.m.

THE LAGUNA PLAYHOUSE: Sinatra, Selznick, Menopause, and Wonderettes highlight remainder of 2009.

THE LAGUNA PLAYHOUSE: Sinatra, Selznik, Menopause, and Wonderettes highlight remainder of 2009.

There's something to sing about - and laugh about - during The Laguna Playhouse's 2009-2010 Mainstage season, which includes five fantastic plays beginning this summer with the musical revue My Way: A Musical Tribute to Frank Sinatra. Other plays on the season include the comedy Moonlight and Magnolias, the holiday hit The Winter Wonderettes, and the stellar musical showpiece Hershey Felder as George Gershwin Alone.

The Laguna Playhouse, a nonprofit resident professional theatre company, has been awarded a grant of $400,000 from The James Irvine Foundation...