Ben Hecht 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.

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

Buffalo Theatre Ensemble (BTE) presents the hilarious play of cinematic history, Moonlight and Magnolias, by Ron Hutchinson, running Sep. 18 - Oct. 11, 2009, at the McAninch Arts Center at College of DuPage, located at 425 Fawell Blvd., Glen Ellyn, Ill. Press night is Friday, Sep. 18 at 8 p.m.

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

The Purple Rose Theatre Company is proud to announce the World Premiere of Escanaba by Jeff Daniels this fall. The production will enjoy a fourteen-week engagement from Thursday, September 17 through Saturday, December 19, 2009.

Buffalo Theatre Ensemble (BTE) presents the hilarious play of cinematic history, Moonlight and Magnolias, by Ron Hutchinson, running Sep. 18 - Oct. 11, 2009, at the McAninch Arts Center at College of DuPage, located at 425 Fawell Blvd., Glen Ellyn, Ill. Press night is Friday, Sep. 18 at 8 p.m.

Kritzerland is proud to present its newest limited edition - a double bill of two never-before-released on CD soundtracks on one CD: Gaily, Gaily, music composed and conducted by Henry Mancini and The Night They Raided Minsky's, music composed by Charles Strouse.

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

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

Rock Hill Community Theatre will hold auditions for Ron Hutchinson's MOONLIGHT AND MAGNOLIAS August 2, 3 and 4 at 7:00 p.m. The auditions will be held at the Rock Hill Community Theatre, located at 240 E Black Street, Rock Hill, SC.

Rock Hill Community Theatre will hold auditions for Ron Hutchinson's MOONLIGHT AND MAGNOLIAS August 2, 3 and 4 at 7:00 p.m. The auditions will be held at the Rock Hill Community Theatre, located at 240 E Black Street, Rock Hill, SC.

Victoria Theatre Association and The Human Race Theatre Company announced today that Lanford Wilson's Tally's Folly will be replaced on the 2009-2010 Miami Valley and Good Samaritan Hospitals Broadway Series, with the humorous and witty Moonlight and Magnolias by Ron Huchinson, May 11-23, 2010 in the historic Victoria Theatre.

Minnesota Jewish Theatre Company will open its 15th anniversary season on October 24, 2009. For the past 14 years the Minnesota Jewish Theatre Company (MJTC) has been igniting your mind by touching your heart with acclaimed regional premiere productions such as Old Wicked Songs, The Magic Dreidels, Rose, Family Secrets, Miklat, Women Before a Glass, Parade, and 2.5 Minute Ride. In our 15th anniversary season, 2009-2010, we continue the tradition of excellence and thought provoking theater.

La Mirada Theater announces their 2009 - 2010 season of shows.This season, the company will offer its subscribers and audiences six unforgettable theatrical events: from the hilarious Southern gem, Steel Magnolias starring the inimitable Cathy Rigby; to the music and legacy of famed '50s legend Buddy Holly in Buddy - The Buddy Holly Story; you will drop in on the making of the classic movie epic, 'Gone With The Wind' - that almost wasn't made in Moonlight and Magnolias; then test your spelling prowess in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee; finally, enjoy a not so quiet Dinner with Friends and then get patriotic with Tony Orlando's tribute to the Stars and Stripes in 'Let's Salute America!'

This April, the critically acclaimed, multiple award-winning Fountain Theatre brings back last season's sold-out production of The Accomplices by former New York Times political reporter Bernard Weinraub. The true story of firebrand Peter Bergson, who shook up the U.S. State Department and the American Jewish establishment in his fight to rescue European Jews from the Nazis, is back with Steven Schub heading the cast ('a dynamic, impassioned portrayal' - Buzzine) and director Deborah LaVine at the helm ('Lavine skillfully melds a fine cast into a gripping production' - LA Weekly).

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.

Director Ed Shea keeps the authors' light touch on heavy issues in this comedy that plays at the Warren, RI theater through February 15th

TheatreWorks, the nationally-acclaimed theatre of Silicon Valley, is proud to present the regional premiere of TWENTIETH CENTURY by Ben Hecht-Charles MacArthur, based on a play by Charles Bruce Milholland in a new adaptation by Ken Ludwig. Broadway and Hollywood collide in this classic screwball comedy set in the 1930s, in which a rapidly declining Broadway impresario looks to revive his sagging career. Using mistaken identity, chicanery, and catastrophe, he attempts to coax his unforgiving former flame (now a mercurial silver screen starlet) into starring in his next stage production while aboard a train roaring across the U.S.

TheatreWorks presents the Tony nominated comedy hit Twentieth Century. Adapted by celebrated farceur Ken Ludwig, this classic screwball comedy, based on the 1930's play by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur, tells the tale of a Broadway impresario on the decline,who, desperately seeking to revive his sagging career, used mistaken identity, chicanery, and catastrophe to coax his unforgiving former flame and mercurial silver screen starlet into starring in his next production.

TheatreWorks, the nationally-acclaimed theatre of Silicon Valley, is proud to present the regional premiere of TWENTIETH CENTURY by Ben Hecht-Charles MacArthur, based on a play by Charles Bruce Milholland in a new adaptation by Ken Ludwig. Broadway and Hollywood collide in this classic screwball comedy set in the 1930s, in which a rapidly declining Broadway impresario looks to revive his sagging career. Using mistaken identity, chicanery, and catastrophe, he attempts to coax his unforgiving former flame (now a mercurial silver screen starlet) into starring in his next stage production while aboard a train roaring across the U.S.