Moonlight and Magnolias (2010)

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Poster by Emma Baines

by Ron Hutchinson

Directed by Mark Ireson

Performances: Tue 7th – Sat 11th September 2010, Bell Theatre


Introduction

Hollywood, 1939, and mogul David O. Selznick has just shut down production on the most eagerly anticipated movie in history, Gone With The Wind, scrapping the script and sacking the director for good measure. Determined to produce a rewrite in five days, he engages the reluctant services of ace script doctor Ben Hecht - possibly the only person in America who has not read the novel - and the movie’s new director Victor Fleming, straight from the set of The Wizard Of Oz after squabbling with the Munchkins and coming to blows with Judy Garland.

With his reputation on the line, and nothing but peanuts and bananas to sustain them, Selznick locks the three collaborators in his office, and a marathon creative session begins…

Cast

Crew

The characters

David O. Selznick Fanatically driven producer, son in law of the producer Louis B Mayer, the movies were in his blood. The son of a movie distributor who became bankrupt in the 1920s, Selznick rose to the top of the Hollywood tree working at RKO, Paramount and MGM before starting his own Selznick International Pictures. He was notorious for his frantic, benzedrine-fueled pace of work and the astonishing volume of memos he produced on every aspect of the productions (seen by some as meddling and by others as attention to detail).

Victor Fleming Started his working life as a motor mechanic, but got a break in the film business as a camera assistant, moving on to direct many action movies in the 1920s and 30s. With a robust manner and love of outdoor sports Fleming was known as a “man’s director”, but his two best known and most successful directing credits were The Wizard Of Oz and Gone With The Wind. Coincidentally, in both cases he was a substitute, brought in to replace the original director in the early weeks of shooting.

Ben Hecht A successful Chicago journalist, Hecht became one of the most celebrated and prolific screenwriters in the early days of film in Hollywood, as well as contributing uncredited work as a “script doctor” on many more [including Gone With The Wind]. As well as journalism and screenplays he wrote short stories, novels, plays [including The Front Page] and later ghost wrote Marilyn Monroe’s autobiography. A lifelong activist for Jewish causes, his active support of the Zionist movement in Palestine led to a British boycott of his work in the late 1940s and 1950s.

Miss Poppenguhl Selznick’s exceptionally efficient secretary. Usually tireless, by the end of the five days even she is more than a little dazed. In reality, Selznick employed two full time secretaries to keep up with his frantic pace of dictation.

Reviews

From the SLT discussion board:

Occasionally you catch a glimpse of what we are really capable of at SLT and last night was one of those occasions.

Aside from all the organisation, catering and general looking good by SLT's brightest and best, there was the small matter of a show.

Moonlight and Magnolias is worth seeing for the performances alone; Barry inhabits the character of Ben Hecht with no little skill and sublety. If you want to see a convincing portrait of a man who's been without sleep longer than he should, Barry's Hecht is it. His performance as Selznick's Jewish concience and as Fleming's waspish critic is top notch. Matt Platt is quite simply hilarious as director, Victor Fleming. His feeble, sleep-deprived attempt to peel a banana will live long in the memory. A huge range of emotions were on display here; anger, fear, desperation, Matt conveyed them all brilliantly, and to marvellous comic effect. He almost matches the great C G Doyle for his physicality here, and that's serious praise! I don't have any superlatives left for Chaz. He is quite magnificent as David O Selznick; a man driven by the hunger for success and the fear of failure. We all know Chaz can do physical theatre as well as anybody but here he gives us so much more. In between the laughs, which he earns with almost effortless ease, he manages to convey the sheer dynamism of the kind of man Selznick must have been while at the same time demonstrating the vulnerability of someone desperate not to follow in his father's hapless footsteps and fail in front of his bombastic father-in-law. Stronger men than Hecht and Fleming would have been persuaded to do what they did by Chaz's Selznick.

I confess that when I heard that Mark had cast Caroline as Miss Poppenghul, my first thought was, 'what a waste'. Casting someone of Caroline's undoubted talents in such a small, dare I say, insignificant, role seemed like the ultimate misuse of a brilliant actress. I was wrong. We haven't seen enough of Caroline doing comedy. She wrung every comic ounce there was to be wrung out of Miss P without recourse to overplaying or downright scene-stealing. Her almost pathetic gratitude to Selzick for being given a few hours off was superbly conveyed and was funny even while simultaneously tugging at the heart strings.

On top of all this there was an excellent, well built and decorated set, with props that really worked, great use of lighting and sound and a mightily impressive quick scene change into the bargain.

Mark, you should be mighty proud of this one: we all should!

Gallery

Reminiscences and Anecdotes

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See Also

Have there been other SLT productions of this play? Link to them here.

Or add anything that is related within this site. The author's page for instance or other plays with a similar theme.

References

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External Links

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