Perth Theatre's fast-paced farce, Moonlight and Magnolias tells the funny, improbable and true story behind the making of Hollywood epic Gone with the Wind.
Directed by Rachel O'Riordan (Someone Who'll Watch Over Me),the chaotic comedy receives its Scottish premiere in Perth Theatre from Fri 16 to Sat 31 March and frankly my dears, it's rip roaring, unmissable fun!
Three weeks into shooting the first Hollywood blockbuster, movie mogul David O.Selznick has closed down production, fired the director and, with his career on the line, has just five days to rewrite the whole screenplay of Gone with the Wind!
Enter script writer Ben Hecht - the only man in Hollywood who hasn't read the book - and director Victor Fleming stolen off the set of The Wizard of Oz. Together the three men lock themselves in a room with only ‘brain foods' peanuts and bananas for sustenance, and set about re-creating the epic, convoluted story, scene by scene, against the clock in a farcical marathon of creativity.
The cast includes Steven McNicoll, much loved by Perth audiences for his performance of Sir Toby Belch in Twelfth Night. He is joined by other familiar Fair City faces Benny Young (The Demon Barber, Phedre), Helen Logan (Proof, Death of a Salesman, Aladdin) and Joseph Chance, (Someone Who'll Watch Over Me).
Writer Ron Hutchinson drew on his own experience as a "rewrite guy" to create Moonlight and Magnolias, exposing the chaos that still goes on behind the scenes at the movies to this day. Irreverent and insightful, Moonlight and Magnolias rips away the glamour that pervades the movie industry, exposing the often painful reality behind the glossy finished product.
The Perth Theatre team has arranged special screenings of Gone with the Wind at Playhouse Cinema during the week running up to opening night, but, as Rachel O'Riordan says, you don't need to have seen the movie to appreciate the comedy:
"Moonlight and Magnolias is a crazy, slapstick farce about a man on the brink. David O. Selznick is prepared to go to ever increasing depths to dig himself out of a desperate situation - and he does! Ego, ambition, a brave dream and a frighteningly haphazard execution - if you can imagine Basil Fawlty as film producer - that's the high voltage Hollywood captured here so brilliantly in a play by a true tinsel town insider.
You don't need to have seen Gone with the Wind to appreciate the comedy, but those that have will never see it in the same light again!"
Moonlight and Magnolias is in Perth Theatre from Friday 16 until Saturday 31 March with special screenings of Gone with the Wind in Playhouse Cinema on Tuesday 13 and Wednesday 14 March. Ticket buyers can save £1 on their cinema visit if they buy tickets for both at Perth Theatre Box Office. Call 01738 621031 or click here.