Gone With the Wind: The Comedy

Moonlight and Magnolias

By Ron Hutchinson

Directed by Russell Garrett

Set Designer, Anthony Phelps; Costume Designer, Kristin Mahan; Lighting Designer, Andrew Andrews; Sound Designer, Ed Thurber; Prop Designer, David Allen Prescott; Stage Manager, Steven Espach

CAST: Peter S. Adams, Victor Fleming; Anthony Jarrod Goes, David O. Selznick; Dee Nelson, Miss Poppenguhl; Barry Press, Ben Hecht

Performances through October 19 @ Foothills Theatre Company

Box Office 508-754-4018 or www.foothillstheatre.com

In 1939, with the world on the brink of the second global conflict, it was an epic love triangle set during the Civil War that captured the hearts and minds of the movie-going public in the United States. After Margaret Mitchell's Gone With the Wind had introduced millions of readers to Scarlett O'Hara, Rhett Butler, Ashley Wilkes, and Melanie Hamilton, producer David O. Selznick had the vision to bring them to life on the silver screen. However, three weeks into filming, he was dissatisfied with the weak screenplay and shut down production. Moonlight and Magnolias is a very funny look behind closed doors at the remaking of this American classic.

Artistic Director Russell Garrett is at the helm as Foothills Theatre Company opens its 34^th season with Ron Hutchinson's comedy featuring one newcomer and three familiar faces in the tight ensemble cast. Anthony Phelps provides a beautiful art deco office setting, David Allen Prescott furnishes the appropriate dial telephones and manual typewriter, and Kristin Mahan's costume designs enhance the feeling of the era, especially with the suit and shoes of the secretary Miss Poppenguhl.

The fact-based story takes place in Selznick's Culver City, California office where he is master of the domain of Selznick International Pictures. Despite his lofty position, he is under immense pressure to make this movie of GWTW into a blockbuster to justify the then-unheard of purchase price of $50,000 for the rights, to prove his mettle to his father-in-law Louis B. Mayer, and to dispel the shadow of his father's failure in the industry. To shore up the script, he brings in newsman/screenwriter Ben Hecht who is reluctant to get involved, and takes Victor Fleming away from his directing duties on The Wizard of Oz before its completion. The catch is that Hecht has not read the book, so Selznick and Fleming act it out, chapter by chapter, while Hecht hammers it out at the typewriter. Day and night for five days, the producer locks his collaborators in his office to get the job done on a diet of bananas and peanuts. The silliness quotient is high, but Garrett does a masterful job of choreographing the mania, even setting a portion of it to the music of Leroy Anderson's "The Typewriter Song." I don't want to give away the visual, but when Melanie is ready to give birth, you've never seen a bowl of bananas used quite like this before!

Anthony Jarrod Goes is a welcome addition to the Foothills Theatre stage as his energy is infectious and he captures both the boyish exuberance and iron will of David O. Selznick. Barry Press plays Hecht as the world-weary and cynical voice of experience. With the benefit of hindsight, we can laugh knowingly when he proclaims, "No Civil War movie ever made a dime!" He walks away from his week in captivity with the firm belief that they've all wasted their time on this turkey, not knowing that it will be the goose that lays the golden egg for Producer Selznick. Peter S. Adams portrays Fleming, the limousine driver turned movie director, wearing all of his insecurities and creative genius on his sleeve. His turns as Prissy, Scarlett O'Hara's young black slave, and Melanie in labor are worth the price of admission. On the distaff side, Dee Nelson is the quintessential long-suffering executive secretary who anticipates the boss's every need and suffers through the siege alongside the three men.

Rapid-fire dialogue and crisp directing combine for hilarity in the first act, but things slow down in act two. While some of that is attributable to the sheer exhaustion of the characters after a series of all-nighters, Hecht's increasing preachiness as the moral compass stops the action in its tracks. It is certainly relevant to discuss the racial issues posed by filming GWTW and the scene where the three men are trying to figure out how to shoot Scarlett slapping Prissy is worthy of the Three Stooges. However, Hecht repeatedly confronts Selznick with his desire to be seen as an American rather than as a Jew, and challenges the executive to use his power and position to do the right thing. In a play that acknowledges the power of the audience to make or break a film, it is ironic to throw this slugging morality into the midst of a lighthearted comedy. Hutchinson's efforts to shed light on this side of Selznick's persona are commendable, but Hecht's moralizing falls on deaf ears onstage and off.

Moonlight and Magnolias, the working title of Gone With the Wind, is one man's imagining of what happened in that room nearly seventy years ago, but the story is plausible because the stakes were so high. If Selznick, Hecht, and Fleming had access to a crystal ball, they would have certainly felt that their personal sacrifice was worthwhile to create one of the most beloved and enduring motion pictures of all time. Clocking in at just under four hours, GWTW may test the attention span of today's movie audience; at a little less than two hours in length, Moonlight offers a CliffsNotes version and lots more laughs than the original.