Big laughs and a lot of heart define ‘Moonlight and Magnolias'

• Article
• Comments (0)
• Photos (4)

	Script problems threaten to derail the making of “Gone With The Wind” in Ron Hutchinson's fictional farce “Moonlight and Magnolias.” Fox Valley Repertory's revival stars Dennis Grimes, center, Stef Tovar, right, Weston Blakesley, top, and Delia Baseman, right.
	Five days working on the “Gone With The Wind” script, eating nothing but bananas and peanuts, nearly undoes producer David O. Selznick (Stef Tovar, left), director Victor Fleming (Weston Blakesley, center) and writer Ben Hecht (Dennis Grimes, right) in David Zacek’s highly entertaining revival of “Moonlight and Magnolias” for Fox Valley Repertory.
	Dennis Grimes, left, Weston Blakesley, center, and Stef Tovar star as filmmakers working during Hollywood’s golden age in “Moonlight and Magnolias,” running through March 11 at Fox Valley Repertory in St. Charles.
	David O. Selznick (Stef Tovar, right) shares his ideas for “Gone With The Wind” with director Victor Fleming (Weston Blakesley, left) and writer Ben Hecht (Dennis Grimes) in Fox Valley Repertory’s rollicking revival of “Moonlight and Magnolias,” Ron Hutchinson’s backstage look at the making of the epic film.

 1 of 4 

 

View other photograph collections

“My studio. My picture. I can do anything I want.”

Hollywood producer David O. Selznick makes that pronouncement in Fox Valley Repertory's production of “Moonlight and Magnolias,” Ron Hutchinson's backstage comedy about the legendary studio executive's frantic attempts to craft a screenplay for “Gone With The Wind” from Margaret Mitchell's 1,000-plus-page tome.

You'd think such a declaration of absolute sovereignty — which producers like Selznick enjoyed during Hollywood's golden age — wouldn't earn an audience's affection. But that's exactly what Stef Tovar inspires in director Dennis Zacek's rollicking, well-acted and deliciously funny revival for Fox Valley Repertory.

Tovar plays Selznick, the Hollywood mogul who risks his career and reputation in his attempt to transfer one of the century's most popular (and unwieldy) novels to the big screen. In a performance marked by humor and sincerity in equal measure, Tovar sells us on the relentless Selznick, a demanding, desperate, deeply insecure man determined to accomplish the impossible. But then, a producer is something of a salesman. Selling investors and collaborators on an idea. Selling the public on a film.

In lesser hands, the character might have been all pique and bluster. But the canny Tovar — whose fine performance propels the show — digs deeper to reveal in a striking, soul-baring moment just how much Selznick needs this movie.

Also credit Zacek, who recently retired from Victory Gardens Theater after 30 years as artistic director. The laughs come frequently in his exuberant, fast-paced production, but he, Tovar and the rest of the pitch-perfect cast make this show into more than screwball comedy. Under Zacek's direction, it emerges as a poignant, even compelling portrait of a man committed to his vision and the people waiting for him to fulfill theirs.

Moreover, “Moonlight and Magnolias” offers insight into the nature of artistic collaboration and the mutual dependence of collaborators; the responsibility an artist has to his audience vs. his desire to follow his conscience and the role of compromise in the pursuit of commercial appeal. It's not perfect. Hutchinson can get a bit preachy, and his dialogue includes 21st century jargon inappropriate for 1939. But the playwright is generous in showcasing each of his characters. And he has crafted laugh-out-loud moments, including a slap fight that rivals any Three Stooges bit.

The time is 1939. The place is Selznick's office, a comfortable, well-appointed room designed by Jack Magaw. It's been three weeks since “Gone With The Wind” started filming and Tovar's Selznick still doesn't have a viable screenplay, although he does have about a dozen unsuitable drafts. After shutting down production, he summons former Chicago newspaperman and award-winning writer Ben Hecht (a wry, passionate Dennis Grimes) to his office.

After some haggling, the reluctant Hecht agrees to doctor the script for $15,000, even though he hasn't read the best-seller, which he dismisses as mere “moonlight and magnolias.”

“You have a heroine whose lack of morals would be remarked on in a two-dollar whorehouse, a hero who would shoot his own grandmother in the belly, a plot that makes ‘Finnegan's Wake' a model of lucidity,” he says.

No matter. Selznick's making the picture.

That deal sealed, he ushers in director Victor Fleming (a nicely gruff Weston Blakesley), who is weeks away from wrapping “The Wizard of Oz” and is exhausted from working with 116 drunken Munchkins. Selznick informs Fleming that he's taking over for “GWTW's” original director George Cukor, whom Selznick fired 24 hours earlier. The second deal sealed, Selznick insists the trio hammer out a script, proposing he and Fleming act out scenes from the book, which Hecht will translate into a screenplay.

Hecht is appalled by the book, which asks readers to sympathize with slave owners. Challenging Selznick to make a more substantive film that addresses oppression, Hecht urges him to “make America look its ugly mug in the face.”

It doesn't help that Hecht doesn't get along with Fleming. Selznick's response to their animosity is to lock all three of them in his office until the script is complete, with his efficient, beleaguered secretary Miss Poppenghul (a funny cameo from Delia Baseman) their only contact with the outside world.

Grimes tempers Hecht's smugness enough to make him endearing, while Blakesley moderates Fleming's machismo to reveal the soul of the artist. Their performances, like their timing, are spot on.