Moonlight and Magnolias

Reviewed by Holly Bartges

Ah, “the land of the free and home of the brave,” it blows me out of the saddle to know truth and reality of that belongs to only a very few people who see it for themselves excluding any one with even the slightest difference.

James Nantz as Victor Fleming and Erik Sandvold as David O. Selznick in the Arvada Center’s production of Moonlight and Magnolias. Photo by P. Switzer

The Arvada Center’s current blockbuster production of Ron Hutchinson’s Moonlight and Magnolias drove that home while I laughed myself weak in the knees, marveling over the performances of Jordan Leigh, James Nantz, Leslie O’Carroll, and Erik Sandvold. Directed by Bev Newcomb-Madden who hit the nail squarely on the head with this production on a stunning set designed by Laura K. Love replicating the office of the great movie director, David O. Selznick.

The story behind the story always grabs attention. With a great piece of art work, perfected theatre, magnificent movie, glued to the pages novel, there is the secret underlying desire, “why can’t I do that?” Forgetting that behind the scenes floats a great deal of blood sweat and tears, near misses, failures because some things don’t work. Just because some things don’t work doesn’t mean failure. It simply means some things don’t work. Discovering the way they might work can mean to some a life or death matter.

Fact or fiction? A distinction difficult to decipher. There are certain things we do know. We know Selznick (Sandvold) ran through several screenplays for Gone With The Wind, originally titled Moonlight And Magnolias, and none of them worked. We know he called in the brilliant and successful writer, Ben Hecht (Leigh) who read only the first page of the novel because he thought it preposterous, dull, and uninteresting. We know Selznick took Director Victor Fleming (Nantz) off the Wizard of Oz with only two weeks left of shooting, to finish directing Gone With The Wind when there wasn’t a viable script. We know he shut down the shooting of GWTW at an astonishing cost to the studio of $50,000 a day.

Generous to a fault, he was willing to give Hecht two weeks. Stubborn to a fault, Hecht finally agrees to five days. If he doesn’t have a script in five days, he walks.

We know Louis B. Mayor was Selznick’s father-in-law, and that the authoritarian movie mogul made it known he considered his son-in-law a failure. Sandvold makes it crystal clear with word emphasis, and body language, commands and demands and laughs in between his desperate circumstances depended upon the success of this movie. He honestly believed it was Oscar material. He also knew his career was at stake in the eyes of Mayor. Five days to live or die that was the limit Hecht gave him.

Locking the three of them in his office, on a Monday morning in 1939, feeding them only peanuts and bananas for brain food, there was no time to waste.

O’Carroll as Miss Poppenghul ties herself into the knots of an all business, no nonsense, obedient and loyal secretary to Selznick. Hysterical is hardly the word. O’Carroll definitely knows how to throw punch into a line. Totally amazing the numerous ways she could say “Yes, Mr. Selznick” grabbing a laugh every time. No need to say to her, “once more with feeling”. She delivered again, and again, and again.

With only five days granted by the reluctant Hecht, Leigh clips his words straight and to the point. “I never read the book”. “It won’t work”, Selznick and Fleming are left only one choice: act out the scenes for Hecht to translate into a working script. With Hecht seated in a chair behind his Underwood manual typewriter, clipping his “I don’t believe this can happen” attitude, Nantz and Sandvold take Fleming and Selznick through a physical hysterical laugh-a-minute and then some roller coaster romp through the Civil War novel. With Sandvold playing Selznick playing Scarlet O’Hara and Nantz playing Fleming playing all of the other key characters is worth triple the price of the ticket.

Having Nantz’ macho Fleming on the floor as Melanie giving birth with Sandvold’s desperate “professionalized” Selznick playing Scarlet helplessly helping and Leigh’s straight-faced Hecht attempting to grasp the situation enough to make sense out of nonsense is simply a classic piece of comedic theatre. When desperation sits on one’s shoulder, pride can be the first thing to slip into utter slapstick. Why not? What is there to lose?

The undercurrent political battle cry of how the country treated Jews, limiting their social contact, while at the same time feasting on their creativity always wanting more, dug deep into the script and deep into the characters’ portrayal. Leigh’s Hecht with curt lines perpetuates the conversation as an activist for Jewish causes. Not once does he want Selznick to forget where they stood and how they stood in their own society. Nantz’ Fleming balances the perception from the non-Jewish side of the street. Leigh’s cynical approach for Hecht delivers insight into a once-upon-a-time journalistic mind turned screenwriter. Intriguing how thought provoking and humorous can share the same bed. Laughter flows while the mind twitters. Hecht takes full opportunity to remind Selznick in the midst of their desperate situation to think about America’s hesitation to accept the Jewish population as real American’s.

Hutchinson’s brilliant writing plays with the mind throbbing issue in conjunction with sliced humor exposed by Selznick making phone calls to see if people see him as a Jew or an American.

By the end of the five days, the three exhausted, worn to a frazzle punch drunk begin to see the light of day until the last page of the novel. Hecht balks at Scarlet’s final line “Tomorrow is another day”. It just won’t work he insists. It must be re-written. Hecht wants out until Fleming and Selznick jump on the sofa as Rhett Butler and Scarlet riding off into the sunset on horseback.

Selznick wants an Oscar so bad he can taste it. He wants to make one good movie before he turns out the lights. Hecht and Fleming think he’s wasting his time and money. So convinced is Fleming, he opts for a straightforward salary instead of a share of the profits, creating an erupted chortle from the audience.

Fact or fiction? It doesn’t matter. The brilliantly contrived script with this stunning cast who make the characters into flesh and blood well rounded human beings, providing very funny approaches to a desperate situation, tied to mind-boggling political thoughts provides an evening of theatre that won’t be forgotten anytime soon.

The Arvada Center’s production of Moonlight and Magnolias should not be missed for all of the above-mentioned reasons.