“Moonlight and Magnolias” Gives Insider View of “Gone With the Wind”

“Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn,” may be the most famous line in movie history. But what about the hundreds of pages of Gone with the Wind script that preceded that line? Hollywood legend has it that it wasn’t all moonlight and magnolias writing that screenplay.

In fact, it was downright hell. At least, that’s the premise of the play Moonlight and Magnolias, opening on Friday, June 1, at Lakeville Community Hall, Lakeville. Produced by the Diva Production Company of Scranton, and hosted by The Lakeside Players, the slapstick comedy continues on June 2, 8, 9, and 10. Friday and Saturday performances are at 7:30 p.m.; Sunday matinee is at 2 p.m.

Loosely based on fact, the comedy by Ron Hutchinson takes place in 1939 and features three frazzled Hollywood types locked in a room, frantically rewriting the movie script for Gone with the Wind. Legendary producer David O. Selznick has shut down production of the Civil War epic because the screenplay just isn’t working. So he pulls screenwriter Ben Hecht and director Victor Fleming from the set of The Wizard of Oz and orders them to rewrite the script – in five days! Subsisting on a diet of bananas and peanuts, the trio labors over the lines, hilariously acting out the parts of Scarlet, Rhett, and the other characters as they go along.

Directed by Paige Balitski, the play stars Bob Balitski as David. O. Selznick, Frank DeSando as Ben Hecht, Chris Hughes as Victor Fleming, and Mrs. Balitski as Miss Poppenghul, the hapless secretary.

“ . . . a lot of fun . . . dispenses a good deal of insider’s dope on the professional and personal dynamics that fueled the production [of Gone With the Wind] – NY Post.

“. . . a Hollywood dream-factory farce . . . at once a hyperventilating slapstick comedy, an impassioned love song, and a blazing critique of Hollywood – Chicago Sun Times.

Community Hall is located on Route 590 in Lakeville, across from Caesars Cove Haven. Tickets are $12/person; $10/person for groups of 10 or more. Call 226-6207 to make reservations. Visit www.lakesideplayers.net for more information on this play and on The Lakeside Players summer and fall season.