MOONLIGHT & MAGNOLIAS

(L to R) Stephen Dietz, Russell E. Lessig and David Kester star in "Moonlight & Magnolias," a comic peek behind the Hollywood screen about the making of the classic film "Gone with the Wind."

Photo by Ron Severdia

MOONLIGHT & MAGNOLIAS by Ron Hutchinson, Directed by Robert Wilson. Ross Valley Players Barn Theatre, Marin Art & Garden Center, 30 Sir Francis Drake Blvd. at Lagunitas, Ross, CA. 415-456-9555 or www.rossvalleyplayers.com. September 5 to October12, 2008

FRANKLY, MY DEAR, I DON’T GIVE A DAMN

It may not be fair coming to the Ross Valley Players the night after seeing Larry Shue’s beautifully constructed play, “The Foreigner”, produced in San Jose Reps professional theater. This fantasized story just rambles along, switching from comedy, to farce with some serious dialog thrown in at unexpected moments.

The plot, if you can call it that, is based on fact. The Time & Place is a Hollywood studio lot, office of legendary producer David O. Selznick, February 1939. The troubled “Gone With The Wind” movie production was stopped, Victor Fleming (Russell Lessig) replaced fired director George Cukor and Ben Hecht (Stephen Dietz) brought in to rewrite the script. Producer David O. Selznick (David Kester) locks the three of them in his studio office (great set by Ken Rowland) for five days for a marathon rewrite. Selznick feeds them only bananas and peanuts. Miss Poppenguhl (Molly McGrath), written as the proverbial, and hackneyed, efficient but harried secretary contributes minimally to the shenanigans.

Both Fleming and Hecht keep repeating the movie will be a flop and Ben Hecht has not even read the book. A few laughs are generated as Fleming and Selznick embarrassingly act out well known parts of the movie while Hecht types away on a manual typewriter. By the second scene of act one, the stage is littered with crumpled paper, banana peels and peanut shells. We have been bombarded with speeches about the role of, and conflicts between, producers, screenwriters and directors. To give social significance, the author has added the plight of the Jews in Europe, the anti-Jewish atmosphere of Hollywood and racial insensitivity. The racial insensitivity is relegated to whether Scarlet should slap Miss Prissy. To this end, the author has written a distasteful scene of how the slap should be filmed ending in a three way slapping match better suited to the Three Stooges films. He has forgotten that such a scene provides humor at the expense of “he who gets slapped.”

To the author’s credit the play is relatively short, lasting only one hour and forty minutes with a 20 minute intermission. Let’s see, that is a 90 minute running time. Director Robert Wilson keeps the action moving but has the habit of moving his actors to center stage practically addressing the audience during their “most meaningful” dialog. Stephen Dietz as Ben Hecht is the most polished of the three main characters. He has a natural stage presence; great comic timing that is a continuation of his memorable performance in Marin Shakes’ “Amadeus.” David Kester, although tall and imposing, only occasionally projects the power of the “legendary producer.” Russel Lessing will never be success as a drag queen if his impersonation of Miss Melanie, Miss Prissy and Scarlett is indication of his creative ability.

The play appropriately ends in a scene with a justification of the famous line of Rhett Butler to Scarlett O’Hara “My dear, I don’t give a damn.”

Courtesy of TheatreWorld Internet Magazine