The Journal Review

Spoofing Scarlett for the Fun of It - Twin City Stage delivers the laughs
By Mary Martin Niepold
SPECIAL TO THE JOURNAL
Published: September 20, 2009

You can't make this stuff up, and in the new play at Twin City Stage, we get a dramatized comedy about the real deal behind the making of Gone With the Wind.

Moonlight and Magnolias is set in 1939 when Hollywood mega producer David O. Selznick actually locked famous writer Ben Hecht and film director Victor Fleming in his office for five days to save his production of Gone With the Wind.

Selznick fed them peanuts and bananas. He needed a new script to resuscitate what would become one of the most popular movies of all time and was willing to lose $50,000 a day while production was delayed and the men worked.

Knowing the plot of the movie means that audiences already have a good handle on the events and characters we see acted out by three grown men.

Director Stan Bernstein has parodied the actual events with restraint.

The whole situation is made for laughs, and the lead actors manage to bring some slapstick humor to reworking the movie's script, especially Melanie's giving birth and Scarlett's slapping of Prissy.

Anthony Liguori as Selznick carries the show.

He can deadpan lines as easily as he can bark out producer's edicts.

When he mimics Scarlett, he's hilarious.

His counterpoint, the morally earnest Hecht, is effectively portrayed by Chad Edwards.

It's a fun sendup of the famous melodrama.

Twin City Stage (formerly the Little Theatre of Winston-Salem) will present Moonlight and Magnolias at 2 p.m. today and Sept. 27 and at 8 p.m. Sept. 24-26 in the Arts Council Theater, 610 Coliseum Drive. Tickets are $22, $20 for seniors and $18 for students. For more information call the Twin City Stage box office at 336-725-4001.