Crowds Are Cheering for
“Moonlight and Magnolias!”
This past weekend, Moonlight and Magnolias, TheatreWorks’ new fast-paced comedy about five factual and fictional days in the making of the epic film, Gone With The Wind, premiered to sold out houses on opening weekend and the buzz is out that Moonlight… is a laugh riot.
Don’t believe us? Click here to view a few short clips from opening night.
The way it’s going, tomorrow might not be another day…for tickets. Purchase yours today by clicking here. Please note that Saturday, May 3rd is nearly sold out.
“Gone With the Wind” Factoids
Moonlight and Magnolias playwright Ron Hutchinson took lots of creative liberties with what may have happened for five wild days behind closed doors between producer David O. Selznick, director Victor Fleming, and screenwriter Ben Hecht. However, there’s lots of true production facts mentioned in the play (and some that aren’t). Here’s a sampler for your edification…
- For the premiere in Atlanta on December 15, 1939, the governor declared a state holiday. Ticket prices for the premiere were 40 times the usual going rate. It was supposedly the first time that David O. Selznick had been in the South.
- Vivien Leigh was instructed to really hit Butterfly McQueen (Prissy) in the scene when Melanie is in labor. After many takes, McQueen started to cry, refused to be hit again, and Leigh (who had refused to do the scene in the first place) could not go on with the scene. Someone in the back clapped while Leigh pretended to hit McQueen from then on.
- Margaret Mitchell, author of the novel, was begged by Selznick to critique every aspect of the production. An intensely private person, Mrs. Mitchell gave one criticism of the facade of the design for Tara (which was ignored), and thereafter refused to make any comment whatsoever on the film — before, during, and after production.
- After the opening titles, there is a scene-setting crawl which was originally written by Ben Hecht. Nothing like this appears in the novel and, privately, Margaret Mitchell was none too enthused by it.
- The first rough cut in July 1939 ran four and a half hours — 48 minutes longer than the final release.
- Margaret Mitchell wrote her novel between 1926 and 1929. In her early drafts, the main character was named “Pansy O'Hara” and the O'Hara plantation we know as Tara was called “Fountenoy Hall.”
- Before casting had actually started, Margaret Mitchell was asked (during an interview) who, she felt, should play Rhett Butler. She replied, “Groucho Marx.”
- Selznick, in a memo from October 1939, about the movie's writing credits: “You can say frankly that of the comparatively small amount of material in the picture which is not from the book, most is my own personally, and the only original lines of dialogue which are not my own are a few from Sidney Howard and a few from Ben Hecht and a couple more from John Van Druten. As to construction, this is about eighty percent my own, and the rest divided between Jo Swerling and Sidney Howard, with Hecht having contributed materially to the construction of one sequence.”
Courtesy of the Internet Movie Database (www.imdb.com)
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Moonlight and Magnolias Is Rolling at TheatreWorks
Get Your Tickets Today!
When: April 18,19 25,26 May 2,3 4, 9,10
Time: Fri & Sat - 8:00PM / Sun, May 4 - 2:00PM
Where: TheatreWorks, 5 Brookside Ave, New Milford, CT
How much: $20.00 (Includes $1.50 Service Fee)
Seating: Reserved Seating
PEOPLE WITH SEVERE NUT ALLERGIES SHOULD AVOID THIS PRODUCTION.
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Moonlight and Magnolias
Featured Actor…
Glenn R. Couture
The real life Ben Hecht is perhaps best known for his scathing comedy-drama, The Front Page, a sardonic stage portrait of the Chicago newspaper business…a subject of which Hecht was all too familiar. However, after Hecht’s 1928 play received rave reviews, he went on to become one of Hollywood’s best known “script doctors,” frequently rewriting screenplays and receiving screen credit not nearly as often as he should have.
For TheatreWorks’ production of Moonlight and Magnolias, Hecht is portrayed by Ansonia actor and Norwalk High School physics teacher, Glenn R. Couture. “Hecht didn’t take writing credit for Gone with the Wind,” notes Mr. Couture. “The reason I think was two-fold: he didn’t believe in the message and was not willing to support a cause he didn’t believe in (the belief that the film was an elegy for the “Old South”). Secondly, he really did adapt Academy Award-winner Sidney Howard’s script. He and I are much the same in this respect.”
Mr. Couture made his TheatreWorks debut in December 2002 in Holiday Memories. Since then, he has been featured in TheatreWorks productions such as Bat Boy: The Musical, The Laramie Project, Ghost of a Chance (2005), and Urinetown: The Musical. Last spring he helmed the popular and critically acclaimed production of Neil Simon’s Brighton Beach Memoirs. “I was immediately drawn to TheatreWorks’ group professionalism and that of its performers. I have never looked back. I am proud to have made TheatreWorks part of my life and family,” Mr. Couture said.
Growing up in eastern Connecticut, Mr. Couture performed in many productions in high school. When the school was not willing to support the financial needs of the program, he took the shows outside school and created the Northeast Repertory Theatre group. This became regional, and eventually the group moved into the Bradley Playhouse in Putnam, CT., where it still flourishes today.
Mr. Couture’s journey towards the role of Ben Hecht was an unexpected one according to the actor…
“When the show came up for production, I jumped at the chance to audition for Victor Fleming, and I even considered Selznick. I can remember saying to [director] Sonnie [Osborne], I didn’t care which part she considered me for…but Hecht was my least favorite. I auditioned with a gravelly Lauren Bacall voice and a 101-degree fever and was surprised that Sonnie ‘saw’ me as Hecht. I believed in her faith in me and the fact that she saw the character within me. Hecht and I are similar in vision and beliefs. This posed a particular challenge because I realized he is very close to who I really am, and I guess I am not exactly comfortable to show people the ‘real’ side of me.”
One thing Mr. Couture certainly is, is funny. That’s one part of himself that he brings to the character of Ben Hecht that has kept audiences laughing. He is an essential ingredient of this quartet of players as he keeps the one-liners flying fast and furiously.
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