Stage Scene LA Review

Review by Steven Stanley
October 10, 2009
http://stagescenela.com/html/moonlight_and_magnolias.html

Hollywood legend has it that movie mogul David O. Selznick shut himself, director Victor Fleming, and script doctor Ben Hecht inside his office for five straight days, the three men subsisting entirely on a diet of bananas and peanuts, as Hecht rewrote the entire script of Gone With The Wind, a book he’d never read.

Playwright Ron Hutchinson imagines what might have happened behind those closed doors in his hit comedy Moonlight And Magnolias, now getting its first L.A./Orange County big stage production at the Laguna Playhouse (moving to the La Mirada Theatre For The Performing Arts in November). Blessed with Andrew Barnicle’s expert direction, sensational performances by Jeff Marlow (Selznick), Brendan Ford (Fleming), Leonard Kelly-Young (Hecht), and Emily Eiden (harried secretary Miss Poppenghul), and an absolutely gorgeous set designed by Bruce Goodrich, Moonlight And Magnolias is a show which will delight, entertain, and elucidate anyone who’s ever seen GWTW, and that’s just about everyone on the planet, right?

At lights up, Selznick has just shut down production on the movie, Sidney Howard’s script having proved unfilmable, and called in Hecht, screenwriter of Wuthering Heights, Nothing Sacred, Design For Living, and uncredited scribe of countless more movies in need of doctoring. The head of Selznick International Pictures has also fired director George Cukor and summoned Fleming to take over filming, despite the fact that Fleming still has two more weeks left on The Wizard Of Oz. Fleming, under contract to GWTW distributor MGM, has no choice but to acquiesce. Hecht, on the other hand, takes quite a bit more persuading—and $15,000 (about $225,000 today!) for his five days of work.

Since Hecht hardly has time to read the novel’s more than 1000 pages, Selznick has Fleming help him reenact the book’s key scenes, with the very macho Fleming portraying both Melanie and Prissy, and Hecht typing like a demon. As the hours and days pass, the men become more and more harried, the office gets messier and messier, and Miss Poppinghul’s hair takes on a life of its own. For audiences at the Laguna Playhouse, the result is some of the most hysterical physical comedy of the season, and a priceless lesson in Hollywood history.

In the 1930s it was common practice for screenwriters to change whatever they saw fit when adapting novels for the screen, and Hecht wants to change both the book’s setting and its time period (no Civil War movie ever having made money). Selznick, however, is adamant—Gone With The Wind will stick to Mitchell’s plot (and dialog), even if it means having an immoral hero and heroine and no romantic fadeout for Scarlett and Rhett. Then there’s the matter of the slap Scarlett gives to Prissy when the slave girl returns without a doctor in tow to the room where Melanie is about to give birth. Hecht imagines the slave girl giving an impassioned anti-slavery speech, and you can imagine how that would go off in 1930s America, especially in the still segregated South.

Besides the sheer entertainment value of Hutchinson’s script and the fly-on-the-wall sensation of being witness to Hollywood history, Moonlight And Magnolias also provides a glimpse of a time not quite so “golden” as social conservatives would have us believe. Not only “Negroes” are second-class citizens in 1930s Hollywood. Even Tinseltown’s uber-powerful studio heads find themselves unable to buy homes in upscale Hancock Park, nor can their bank accounts buy them memberships in the “best” country clubs, as Selznick finds out when Hecht telephones WASP producer Nunnally Johnson with a simple question, “David O. Selznick...American or Jew?” Guess what Johnson replies, as do the two other All-American power players Hecht phones?

Still, politics aside, Moonlight And Magnolias is mostly just great, entertaining fun, and some of the best acted fun you’ll see this or any month. The always marvelous Marlowe adds Selznick to the list of nebbishes he’s so masterful at embodying. Kelly-Young is perfection as the increasingly frazzled Hecht, and a master of the sarcastic retort to boot. Ford is a great, handsome, macho Fleming, his easy masculinity making his female impersonations all the funnier. Eiden makes the simple line “Yes, Mr. Selznick” worth its weight in gold. Rarely has an actress made so much out of so little to such hilarious effect.

Goodrich’s set is so elegant with its wood paneling, art deco wall engravings, and plush leather sofa and armchairs that it could have been transported directly from 1939 MGM to the Laguna Beach playhouse. Top marks too to Julie Keen’s period costumes, Paulie Jenkins lighting (especially for the way she lights the skyline seen through the office’s big picture windows), and Julie Ferrin’s sound design.

Having now seen Moonlight And Magnolias, I’m eager to get my hands on a Gone With The Wind DVD and re-experience one of the greatest films of all time. I know that from the opening notes of Max Steiner’s score to Scarlett’s “Tomorrow is another day!”, my viewing experience will be that much richer for having been inside Selznick’s office those five fateful days.

Critics Rave About Moonlight & Magnolias!

Not only is Moonlight and Magnolias getting standing ovations just about every night, but the critics are raving as well! Show runs until November 1st and tickets are still available on our website.

In Andrew Barnicle's riotous staging of the 2004 play at Laguna Playhouse, we're invited to examine both the hilarity and the drama of a Hollywood mogul acutely aware of the many figures nipping at his heels, from gossip columnists to rival producers," writes Eric Marchese in the OC Register. "The actions of the play's trio of stars plays like vintage screwball comedy from the 1930s and '40s, with plenty of scurrying about, shouting, hurtling insults and snappy comebacks, slapping, mugging and more. Despite the lack of traditional action, Barnicle and his cast, though, keep things fresh. In a relatively small role, even Emily Eiden, as Selznick's yes-girl, garners laughs with her rote recitation of the line "Yes Mr. Selznick," her response to nearly his every question or command. Read the complete OC Register review!

In the Event News, Joseph Sirota calls the play "a barn-burning crowd pleaser. This smashingly tasty production at the Laguna Playhouse satisfies our curiosity while bringing us two hours of non-stop smiles and laughter. Also enlightening and insightful, it smartly examines what truly drives gifted, high-achievers we salute. Hat's off to the amazingly funny, yet movingly 'human' four cast members who deliver this immensely demanding play with perfection: Jeff Marlow as dazzlingly driven to win-or-die Selznick, Leonard Kelly-Young as Hecht, master screenwriter with an underlying philosopher's soul, Brendan Ford as Fleming, tough, hardworking street kid-- turned Hollywood director and Emily Eiden as Miss P, cute exec-assistant, working to a frazzle to support these crazed guys rescuing the film."

"Exquisitely directed by Andrew Barnicle," notes Ben Miles in the Riverside Press Enterprise . "Jeff Marlow portrays David O. Selznick with biographical exactitude. Completely convincing in each moment of his characterization, Marlow's incarnation of Selznick is a pinched-nerve of a performance, replete with energetic neurosis. As Ben Hecht, Leonard Kelly-Young is a cynical, dry-witted delight. In one instance, Kelly-Young is convulsed in laughter; it is so genuine a moment that the guffaws quickly become contagious. Brendan Ford plays auteur Victor Fleming as a forceful lug. It's easy to envision Ford's Fleming as a Bligh-like tyrant on the sound stage. After all, Fleming was accused of slapping the young Judy Garland. Also, Emily Eiden, as Selznick's secretary, Miss Poppenghul, has several wonderful moments of comic naturalism. What's more, with Bruce Goodrich's convincing 1930s office setting, Julie Ferrin's rich sound-scape, as well as Paulie Jenkins's lighting design and Julie Keen's spot-on costuming, The Laguna Playhouse provides for us an entertaining and informative staging of this enjoyable show."

Opening Night Slideshow- Moonlight & Magnolias

Gone With the Wind- Behind the Scenes

GONE WITH THE WIND

Compiled & edited by Christopher Trela

Few books captured the imagination of our nation like Gone with the Wind. The only novel written by Margaret Mitchell, Gone with the Wind is set during the American Civil War and Reconstruction. It follows the story of Scarlett O’Hara, the daughter of an Irish immigrant plantation owner, as she pursues romance and endures the hardships of war.

The novel won the 1937 Pulitzer Prize and was adapted into an Academy Award-winning 1939 film of the same name. It was also adapted during the 1970s into a stage musical called Scarlett, and a new musical stage adaptation (titled Gone With The Wind) played in London's West End in 2008.

It took Mitchell seven years to write the book and a further eight months to check the thousands of historical and social references. The title is taken from the first line of the third stanza of the poem Non Sum Qualis eram Bonae Sub Regno Cynarae by Ernest Dowson: "I have forgot much, Cynara! gone with the wind." Scarlett O'Hara uses the title phrase when she wonders if her home, a plantation called Tara, is still standing, or if it was "also gone with the wind which had swept through Georgia." More generally, the title has been interpreted as referring to the entire way of life in the South as having "gone with the wind."

The novel was almost titled after the final line in the book, "Tomorrow is another day," but there were several books at that time close to the same title, so Mitchell selected a new title: Gone with the Wind.

Gone with the Wind is one of the most popular books of all time, selling more than 30 million copies. Time magazine included the novel in its 100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005.

FROM BOOK TO FILM

Directed by Victor Fleming (who replaced George Cukor), the epic movie version of Gone with the Wind stars Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh, Leslie Howard, and Olivia de Havilland.

Gone with the Wind received ten Academy Awards, a record that stood for twenty years. In the American Film Institute's inaugural Top 100 American Films of All Time list of 1998, it was ranked number four, although in the 10th Anniversary edition of that list in 2007, it dropped two places to number six. Rhett Butler’s (Clark Gable) farewell line to Scarlett O’Hara (Vivien Leigh), “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn,” was voted in a poll by the American Film Institute in 2005 as the most memorable line in cinema history.

The movie has sold more tickets in the U.S. than any other film in history, and is considered a prototype of a Hollywood blockbuster. It is undoubtedly one of the greatest and most popular films of all time and one of the most enduring symbols of the golden age of Hollywood.

BEHIND THE SCENES

Selznick replaced the film's director three weeks into filming and then had the script rewritten. He sought out director Victor Fleming, who, at the time, was directing The Wizard of Oz. Fleming was dissatisfied with the script, so Selznick brought in famed writer Ben Hecht (who was working on the Marx Brothers’ comedy At The Circus) to rewrite the entire screenplay within five days.Original Gone with the Wind screenplay writer Sidney Howard’s first submission was far too long and would have clocked in at six hours. Producer David O. Selznick wanted Howard to be on the set to make revisions, but Howard refused to leave New England. Revisions were instead handled by a host of writers, including Ben Hecht.

By the time of the film's release, there was some question as to who should receive screen credit, but despite the number of writers and changes, the final script was close to Howard's version. Howard's name alone appears on the credits, possibly a salute to his memory as well as his writing, because Howard died tragically at age 48 in a farm tractor accident prior to the movie's premiere.

The casting of the two lead roles became a complex, two-year endeavor. Many famous or soon-to-be-famous actresses were either screen-tested, auditioned, or considered for the role of Scarlett, including Jean Arthur, Lucille Ball, Tallulah Bankhead, Joan Bennett, Joan Crawford, Bette Davis, Frances Dee, Olivia de Havilland, Irene Dunne, Joan Fontaine, Greer Garson, Paulette Goddard, Susan Hayward, Katharine Hepburn, Miriam Hopkins, Carole Lombard, Ida Lupino, Merle Oberon, Norma Shearer, Barbara Stanwyck, Margaret Sullavan, Lana Turner and Loretta Young.

For the role of Rhett Butler, Clark Gable was an almost immediate favorite, although other actors under consideration were Gary Cooper and Errol Flynn.

Principal photography began January 26, 1939, and ended on June 27, 1939, with post-production work concluding on November 11, 1939. Director George Cukor, with whom Selznick had a long working relationship, and who had spent almost two years in preproduction on Gone with the Wind, was replaced after less than three weeks of shooting. Olivia de Havilland said that she learned of George Cukor's firing from Vivien Leigh on the day the Atlanta bazaar scene was filmed. The pair went to Selznick's office in full costume and begged him to change his mind. Selznick apologized, but refused. Victor Fleming was called in from MGM to complete the picture, although Cukor continued privately to coach Leigh and De Havilland. Another MGM director, Sam Wood, worked for two weeks in May when Fleming temporarily left the production due to exhaustion.

Cinematographer Lee Garmes began the production, but after a month of shooting what Selznick and his associates thought was "too dark" footage, was replaced with Ernest Haller, working with Technicolor cinematographer Ray Rennahan. Most of the filming was done on "the back forty" of Selznick International studio. The location scenes were photographed primarily in Los Angeles County or neighboring Ventura County. Estimated production costs were $3.9 million, a princely sum in those days.

OPENING NIGHT

On September 9, 1939, Selznick, his wife Irene Mayer Selznick, investor Jock Whitney, and film editor Hal Kern drove out to Riverside, California with all of the film reels to preview it before an audience. The film was still unfinished at this stage, missing many optical effects and most of Max Steiner's music score. After arriving at the Fox Theatre, Kern called for the manager and explained that they had selected his theatre for the first public screening of Gone with the Wind and that he could make an announcement of the preview, but was forbidden to say what the film was.

When the film began, there was a buzz in the audience when Selznick's name appeared, as audiences had been reading about the making of the film for the past two years. In an interview years later, Kern described the exact moment the audience realized what was happening by stating “when Margaret Mitchell's name came on the screen, you never heard such a sound in your life. They just yelled, they stood up on the seats...and when the title Gone with the Wind came on the screen, it was thunderous!”

The film premiered in Atlanta, Georgia, on December 15, 1939, as the climax of three days of festivities that included a parade of limousines featuring stars from the film, receptions, thousands of Confederate flags, false antebellum fronts on stores and homes, and a costume ball. Eurith D. Rivers, the governor of Georgia, declared December 15 a state holiday. The New York Times reported that thousands lined the streets as "the demonstration exceeded anything in Atlanta's history for noise, magnitude and excitement.’"

LEGACY

Gone with the Wind was given theatrical re-releases in 1947, 1954 (widescreen), 1961, 1967 (70 mm stereophonic), 1971, 1989, and 1998. The film made its television debut on the HBO cable network in June 1976, and its broadcast TV debut in November of that year in two parts on the NBC network, where it became at that time the highest-rated television program ever presented on a single network, watched by 47.5 percent of the households sampled in America, and 65 percent of television viewers. Ironically, it was surpassed the following year by the mini-series Roots, a saga about slavery in America.

In 1989, Gone with the Wind was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."

Interview with Moonlight and Magnolias Director, Andy Barnicle

Q: What made you want to do this particular play?
A: I saw the premiere at the Old Globe in San Diego some years ago, and I felt that one day it would be a good fit for me and Laguna Playhouse. I'm at my best with comedy that has heart, and this one surely does. The story of the creation of the screenplay for Gone with the Wind also reveals some interesting things about the ethnic tension in Hollywood in what we usually refer to as the "glory days." Maybe they weren't so glorious after all.

Q: This is based on real characters and a real situation. What challenge does this pose on you and the actors as far as being authentic to history?
A: The play is actually Hutchinson's speculation on what happened. He has altered the actual circumstances slightly in order to create a unity of time, place and action so that the pressure of finishing the project is greater on the characters. My research has shown that, in actuality, the trio of main characters took nearly a week on this job, they were only holed up in Selznick's office for one long day and then came in for regular workdays after that, and they only finished the first half of the movie so that Selznick could begin shooting again. Otherwise, most of the circumstantial facts are true. I think enough time has passed that most folk don't carry an actual memory of the physical behavior of Hecht, Selznick and Fleming, but we are seeking actors who won't completely betray type.

Q: How much research on the real life people involved in this play will you and the actors do? Will there be a group screening of GWTW for actors and crew?
A: I have read whatever biographies and auto-biographies exist about these characters. I suspect that I have retraced Hutchinson's research steps, because I found the source material for many of the lines and ideas in the play. There's a lot of material, especially a collection of Selznick's daily memos, which were prolific, which sometimes Hutchnison quotes.

Q: The play reads at times like a rapid fire Marx Brothers-style movie, and the overall feel is very comic. How difficult is it to stage/direct this kind of play?
A: The difficult task here is to stage the farcical moments in balance with, or outgrowths of, the serious ideas. Creating comedy that seems possible will allow the motivational forces behind these real people to manifest themselves. If we go too far in either direction we will have a problem--a really slick farce that doesn't allow for the human urges underneath, or a too serious play that has occasional bizarre and unlikely behavior in it. All in all, the theory is to find out who the people are and what they want in order to justify the extreme behavior. These men have needs so great, and there is so much at stake, that they are driven to extreme behavior. If this extreme behavior gets disconnected from its need to exist however, what results are cartoon characters who are difficult to invest in.

Moonlight and Magnolias TV Spot

See more videos from the Laguna Playhouse on YouTube at
http://www.youtube.com/user/TheLagunaPlayhouse