Moonlight & Magnolias: Bechtel Has Done It Better Than Ever

— a review by Jackie Bates —

Photo: Chris Thomerson

In my first live theater review, I must say that that Moonlight and Magnolias is completely terrific. Everything about it, from the set and the props along, with the direction and the acting, couldn’t have been better.

I laughed myself silly and left grinning with satisfaction along with the rest of the appreciative audience when the play opened on Friday, February 21, at The Grange. This production depicts a time long gone—the glamor and chaos of big studio movie-making, stunning excess, a war coming on—along with a wildly mismatched handful of people locked in a room with an impossible task.

Doug Bechtel directed this play with a sure hand, somehow knowing how to pull all the flyaway parts and personalities into a thoroughly enjoyable, devastatingly funny romp, that nevertheless has the serious underpinnings of ethical dilemma.

This very high energy play, was written by Ron Hutchinson and premiered at the Goodman Theater in Chicago in 2004. It is based on five days of the nearly four years it took to make the film version of Gone With the Wind. In truth, David O. Selznick locked himself, Ben Hecht, and Victor Fleming into a room for five days to get a revised, workable script for the famous Gone With the Wind film that eventually won many Academy Awards in the 1940 ceremony. (Nine or ten, depending on the source.)

What happened in that room is not really known. Playwright Hutchinson’s version of what might have occurred is the story in Moonlight and Magnolias.

Ron Herman, cast as the famously brilliant but eccentric producer, David O. Selznick, is nothing short of amazing in this production. Though he is on stage throughout the entire play and has more lines than any one actor should, he is totally believable as Selznick. In this play he gets what he wants with a cavalier mix of flattery, reverse psychology, bullying, cajolery, and reasonable explanation. Ron is all over the stage with cat-like grace, but seemingly never breaks a sweat.

John Mazzarella, as Ben Hecht, the screen writer brought in to ‘fix’ the script, may be the most nuanced character of the three extremely complex men. He manages to portray an intelligent, talented man who gets the job done, protesting all the way and beginning by declaring that he has never read the book. He tries to stick by his ethics, objecting to the rampant anti-Semitism and blatant racism of the time. How he does that while being hilariously funny, is hard to describe. Equally difficult to explain is how he seems to have one foot out the door of a locked room most of the time.

Then there is Tony Lee as the outrageous Victor Fleming. Oh my. Fleming has been brought in to replace George Cukor as the director of the beleaguered movie. In fact, he has been taken off the set of the Wizard of Oz to do so, and seems appropriately bewildered (like a fox) about how he got into this room and where all the food went.

The whole, crazy process is barely held together only by Miss Poppenghul, portrayed by Gillian Smith, Mr. Selznick’s long-suffering secretary. Gillian manages to put more complicated meaning and emotion into “Yes, Mr. Selznick,” than you could ever imagine. Just the way she walks says everything about 1930s Hollywood and women’s place in that arcane culture.

So, even if you never knew you wanted to see Ron Herman adroitly act out every character in Gone With the Wind, or if you have lived a lovely, full life without watching Tony Lee writhe in childbirth and try and fail to peel a banana (though not at the same time) you would miss a lot by missing this play. You would also miss John Mazzarella balance personal and political conflicts with the task at hand, while in the company of lunatics. And, perhaps most of all, you would miss Gillian Smith ask “Memo one?” while meaning a thousand other things.

At least another dozen talented, hard-working people designed, built, and painted the set, gathered and/or made the props, did costumes and make up, ran the light board, managed the house, wrote and printed and folded the programs, took the tickets, shelled the peanuts, and cleaned them up. Not to mention what the absolutely essential, almost invisible, stagehands do. Wow!

Moonlight And Magnolias continues at the Grange tonight with additional performances on March 7, and 8 with closing night on Sunday, March 9. Performances are at 7:30. Tickets are $10 and are available at Darvill’s, on-line, or at the door.

Some language may not be suitable for younger children. For additional information, contact Doug Bechtel at 317-5601. Allergy Warning: Peanuts are used in the production.