It's a shame that COVID-19 shut down Moonlight and Magnolias early at Little Theatre of Alexandria. It was a fun show, a "great escape," a behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to put together a movie script fast. It can be done!
I want to be bold and suggest a new title for this play, namely, Moonlight and Madness, because that's what they did to each other, a trio of Hollywood masterminds who drive each other insane while trying to write a new script for Gone With the Wind, and who hasn't seen that? (Excuse me, Millennials.)
The title is a bit misleading, after all, "magnolias" suggesting the South, since the show is not all Southern. It's about "something Southern," namely, the movie that, according to Wikipedia, remains the highest grossing film of all time (after inflation) and which presents a jaundiced view of the South which Northerners relish and nurture to this day.
That the playwright, Ron Hutchinson, is an Irish screenwriter himself, says a lot.
Producer David O. Selznick (1902-1965) confined a top screenwriter, Ben Hecht (who had never read GWTW), and a director, Victor Fleming (whom Selznick jerked from The Wizard of Oz) to work non-stop for five days on a replacement script for the awful one Selznick had.
Dashing Clark Gable, the woman slayer, and Vivian Leigh were to be the stars of the film. (Ordered Selznick: "Show her cleavage, cleavage, cleavage!" and they did.)
The year was 1939, before the start of World War II, when many wished the looming conflict was all a bad dream. Was there an escape from it all? (Like the LTA show was a "great escape" from coronavirus!)
Producer Selznick (acted here by lookalike Griffin Voltmann) believed there was, and he was right, although many skeptics thought the movie would flop like magnolia trees which fall to the ground. (Oh, please.) (The movie became the pinnacle of Selznick's success which he was never able to duplicate.)
Producer Selznick didn't give a damn about anything else Hecht and Fleming had to do. The show must go on! And Director Juli Tarabek Blacker made it do just that.
Michael J. Fisher made a hoot of Victor with wild antics, aided by a flustered Ben, effectively captured by J.T. Spivey, both roles bolstering the centerfold, Mr. Voltmann.
The threesome fight, they argue, they dance and scream and wear each other out, but they finish! (Translated: Don't give up the script.)
The action all takes place in Selznick's office which set decorators Stacey Becker and Ken Brown must have modeled after the actual to explain the jarring blue couch, the centerpiece and major detractor from the show.
As time passes, the set fills with papers, bananas, peanuts (to help keep them going) and general disarray to match the progressive dishevelment of the characters, their talk and writing interrupted every so often by the prissy Miss Poppenghul (that's the best name the playwright could come up with) who pops in and out from her side office to tidy up the place, serve snacks, deliver messages, and play phone duty, general "step and fetch it" like any good servant would do. What else was a ghul to do in 1939? (In her first role out of college, Hillary Leersnyder was splendid!)
We know how this shows ends but it was a funny time to watch these characters puff and grind and sling it out.
Moonlight has ended at LTA but all is not lost for the season. After all, April has another play, Blue Stockings, which may open the 25th. Check the website.
Other members of the LTA Moonlight creative team were Rachel Alberts and Russell M. Wyland, producers; Alexander Bulova, assistant director; Sherry Clarke and Margaret Evans-Joyce, stage managers; Stefan Sittig, combat choreographer; Kathy Ohlhaber, set painter; Helen Bard-Sobola and Bobbie Herbst, properties; JK Lighting Design; Alan Wray, sound; Ceci Albert and Mary Wallace, costumes; and Hilary Adams, hair and makeup.
Note: It was just a few years ago that Olivia de Havilland (b. 1916) visited St. John's Episcopal Church at Lafayette Square in Washington, looking as beautiful and easily recognizable as she was in GWTW a few years ago.
Where: Little Theatre of Alexandria, 600 Wolfe Street, Alexandria, VA 22314
Tickets: Start at $21. Go here.
Public transportation: Check the Metro website.
Parking: On the streets and in many garages nearby with free theatre parking at the Capital One Bank at Wilkes and Washington streets (when the bank is closed).
For more information: Box Office: 703-683-0496
Business Office: 703-683-5778; Fax: 703-683-1378
asklta@thelittletheatre.com
patricialesli@gmail.com
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