REVIEW: “MOONLIGHT & MAGNOLIAS” @ THE BICKFORD

You don’t hear much about sturm und drang on movie sets nowadays, perhaps because so many of today’s films follow a pre-set formula or originate on a computer screen. But when the industry was in its infancy, the drama on a movie set often rivaled that on the screen.

Take one of the first blockbuster films, Gone with the Wind, for example. The stories about its inception are legend—and hair-raising—what with a search of two years for an actress to play Scarlett O’Hara, not to mention multiple scripts by many famous writers (F. Scott Fitzgerald among them) attempting to bring Margaret Mitchell’s best-selling novel to the screen; the hiring and firing of directors; and the hands-on involvement of the film’s producer, a young and driven-to-succeed David O. Selznick. What you end up with is a process that, similar to that old saw comparing creating legislation to making sausage, ain’t pretty.

But Ron Hutchinson’s version of these events, Moonlight and Magnolias, sure is funny. With crackling dialogue and physical antics directed within an inch of its life by Barbara Krajkowski, this comic romp highlights the clashing egos of screenwriter/former newsman Ben Hecht, director/former chauffeur Victor Fleming and producer Selznick as they work feverishly for five days hammering out a script turning Mitchell’s sprawling, melodramatic and very un-PC novel into what has become one of the most beloved films of all time.

Holed up—no, imprisoned—in Selznick’s office (beautifully designed with a thirties Art Deco vibe by Jonathan Wentz) and subsisting on bananas and peanuts brought in periodically by Selznick’s secretary, the trio have their work cut out for them. Because Hecht has read only the first page of the book, Fleming and Selznick act out each scene, hilariously, so he can write the appropriate dialogue.
You don’t have to be familiar with the film—or even to have seen it—but it sure makes the funny even funnier. Just listening to Selznick hum the opening bars of the GWTW theme will set you giggling, even though the music was probably composed long after the script was completed.

A wiry Gary Littman portrays Selznick as a nervous, driven man who, despite numerous hit films, still feels he must prove to his powerful father-in-law Louis B. Mayer (head of MGM Pictures) that he has the chops to produce a blockbuster movie. That Mayer has bankrolled 50% of the production costs—dough he expects to recover—is forever on the young movie mogul’s mind. Never mind that the novel glorifies slavery or that “no Civil War movie ever made a dime”; he’s determined to go ahead.

His adversary here is not Mayer, but Ben Hecht, who serves as the project’s social conscience and is played with gravity by Duncan M. Rogers. As the one who tries to inject some sense of social justice into a “plot that makes Finnegan’s Wake [seem like] a model of lucidity,” Rogers gets to utter some terrific lines, which he delivers with a combination of logic, wit and spot-on comedic timing. As Hecht, Rogers tries to appeal to Selznick’s Jewish sense of justice, arguing that because the book focuses on race and slavery, it is “an elegy for the South,” but he loses the battle to when Selznick grandly intones, “In the beginning was the deal,” reminding him that all he has to do is write a script and that Selznick, as producer, will get the film on the screen.

Rounding out the creative troika is Jarel Davidow as director Victor Fleming, who is especially delicious acting out the scene where Melanie Wilkes gives birth; he plays both Melanie and Prissy, her maid, with great comedic flair. Michele Danna does a fine job as Miss Poppenghul, Selznick’s secretary. Although most of her lines consist of “Yes, Mr. Selznick” and “No, Mr. Selznick,” her nasal delivery is delightfully amusing.

The sniping between Fleming and Hecht (and the way Selznick cringes at the very mention of his rival Irving Thalberg) are delightful reminders of the beginnings of this great art form, created by a group of Eastern European Jewish immigrants not long in America, men who fashioned what we consider to be the essence of the American Dream and projected it on screens all over America, teaching everyone what it means to be an “American.” Thomas Edison may have “invented” movies, but these guys made them commercial and profitable.
To Selznick, Hecht and Fleming, “movies are the biggest gamble in town,” but luckily for us, they took the risk, leading to the thriving industry we have today.

And thanks to playwright Ron Hutchinson and the Bickford Theatre folks, we have a deliciously wicked glimpse into how GWTW (as it’s fondly recalled) came to be one of the most successful and beloved films of all time. Howard Kisssel of the NY Daily News said of Moonlight and Magnolias, “Frankly, my dear, this is one funny play.” If you are a film buff or just love good theater (especially comedy), this is one play you won’t want to miss.

Moonlight and Magnolias will be performed at the Bickford Theatre of the Morris Museum Thursdays at 7:30 PM, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 PM, and Saturdays and Sundays at 2 PM through December 5. The Bickford is located at 6 Normandy Heights Parkway in Morristown. For information and tickets, call 973.971.3706 or visit online at http://www.bickfordtheatre.org/. The theater offers free parking and full accessibility. There will be an audio described performance on Sunday, December 5, at 2 PM.

And GWTW film lovers can see the film on Saturday, November 20, at 2 PM at the theater and in high definition projection on a really big screen. Admission is $8 and $5 for students.

PHOTOS: (Top) Gary Littman as David O. Selznick; (Middle) Littman and Davidow argue about what should be included in the GWTW script; (Bottom) Jarel Davidow as Fleming threatens Duncan Rogers as Ben Hecht. All photos by Warren Westura.