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Lots of folks turned out for the last Saturday night performance of Roy Hutchinson's Moonlight and Magnolias by the Gaslight Baker Theatre. Word of mouth had been at work down in Lockhart about this guys' screwball comedy.There is a dame in the cast. Esther Williams has only a few lines in her role as Miss Poppenghul, the earnest and attentive secretary to Hollywood producer David O. Selznick (David Schneider). Most of those are variations on "Yes, Mr. Selnick" and "Right away, Mr. Selznick." In the midst of the rowdy five-day shouting match carried on by Selznick, screenwriter Ben Hecht (Randy Wachtel) and film director Victor Fleming (Steve Lawson) as they labor to save the script of Gone with the Wind, Miss Poppenghul's increasing disarray and wide-eyed apprehension are a running gag that neatly upstages the battle royal.Playwright Hutchinson latched onto a remarkable moment in Hollywood history. Wikipedia quotes Ben Hecht's biographer William McAdams: "At dawn on Sunday, February 20, 1939, David Selznick ... and director Victor Fleming shook Hecht awake to inform him he was on loan from MGM and must come with them immediately and go to work on Gone with the Wind, which Selznick had begun shooting five weeks before. It was costing Selznick $50,000 each day the film was on hold waiting for a final screenplay rewrite and time was of the essence." The three men locked themselves up in Selznick's office for five days (Hecht later said it was for eight days). Because Hecht hadn't read the novel, the other two acted out the principal scenes and Hecht turned that into a script.
Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .
More about the play, received directly from the Gaslight Baker Theatre in Lockhart:
Hollywood never looked so funny
By Janet Christian
Have you ever seen a grown man lying atop a desk, pretending to be in labor? No? How about three grown men standing in a triangle performing a mesmerizing array of cheek slaps, to see which will look best on camera? Not that either? Well, then, how about a harried but hard-working woman doing her best to handle three hungry, sleep-deprived, slightly crazed men? Yeah, probably!
All these scenes and many more are yours for the viewing when you attend the Gaslight-Baker Theatre's production of Moonlight and Magnolias directed by Todd Martin, one of our best local directors. The plot was conjured by writer Ron Hutchinson from a real Hollywood incident.
In February 1939, Producer David O. Selznick shut down production of Gone with the Wind and fired screenwriter Sidney Howard and director George Cukor. Selznick then pulled Director Victor Fleming off of the Wizard of Oz and summoned famous screenwriter Ben Hecht.
The plot of Moonlight and Magnolias springboards off these actual facts to take a hilarious behind-the-scenes look at how Selznick, Fleming, and Hecht managed in a few days to rewrite the screenplay and establish a whole new direction for the action and plot. Especially if, as the play claims, Hecht had never actually read the famous novel!
Hecht and Fleming are convinced they'll fail, until Selznick states, "Movies are a series of moments frozen in time by the only time machine ever invented." Inspired by Selznick's words, and surviving solely on a diet of bananas and peanuts, the men get to work. Selznick and Fleming re-enact every major "moment" in the book while Hecht turns their comical acting skills into actual screenplay scenes.
David Schneider creates the perfect persona for the harried, financially committed Selznick, who knows that this picture can make or break him. Steve Lawson plays the talented and pompous but secretly vulnerable Fleming for all he's worth. Randy Wachtel brings to vivid life the idealistic Hecht, perfectly depicting the writer's frustration at not only being expected to write a screenplay for a story he's never read, but for even being asked to write about such an unpopular theme as slavery and supremacy in the Old South. And Esther Williams memorably plays the ever-patient and ever-unappreciated Miss Poppenghul, Selznick's personal secretary.
If you love Gone with the Wind this play is a must see. Even if you've never read the book or seen the movie, you'll still enjoy this peek at how the Big and Powerful in Old Hollywood might have made things happen!
Moonlight and Magnolias opens Friday, January 29 and runs through Sunday, February 14, with performances each Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. and two matinees at 2 p.m. -- one on Saturday, February 6 and the other on Sunday, February 14. Rated PG for mild language.
The Baker Theatre is located at 216 S. Main, one block south of the Lockhart town square For more information, contact the theatre at 512-376-5653 or visit their web site: www.GaslightBakerTheatre.org
Found on-line:The Gaslight Baker Theatre
begins its 2010 Season with the hilarious Hollywood romp
Moonlight and Magnolias
by Ron Hutchinson,
January 29 through February 14, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m.
with matinees on Saturday, February 6 and on Valentines Day, Sunday, February 14 Purchase Tickets Here
It is 1939 and Hollywood is buzzing. Legendary producer David O. Selznick has shut down production of his new epic, Gone with the Wind, a film adaptation of Margaret Mitchell’s novel. The script, you see, just doesn’t work.
So what’s an all-powerful movie mogul to do? Selznick sends a car for famed screenwriter Ben Hecht and pulls formidable director Victor Fleming from the set of The Wizard of Oz. Summoning both to his office, he locks the doors, closes the shades, and on a diet of bananas and peanuts, the three men labor over five days to fashion a screenplay that will become the blueprint for one of the most successful and beloved films of all time.
Moonlight and Magnolias features some of The Gaslight Baker Theatre’s most accomplished and recognizable actors. David Schneider leads the cast as David O. Selznick, along with Steve Lawson as Victor Fleming, Randy Wachtel as Ben Hecht, and Esther Williams as Miss Poppenghul. The production is directed by Todd Martin with the assistance of David Young.
Compression facilitates explosion.
This is a relatively simple application of basic physics. External pressure applied to a volatile gas speeds combustion, renders it the violent and maximizes heat. That's one of the principles that runs your automobile with its internal combusion engine.
Director/designer David Schneider at the Gaslight Baker Theatre in Lockhart applies the principle to Jeff Daniels' sardonically titled "Boom Town."
Schneider shrinks the focus within the wide proscenium by masking the wings with black curtains, and sharply narrowing the playing space to a nearly claustrophobic kitchen set.
He has cast the three roles for maximum credibility. There's not a breath of comedy or of exaggeration here. Two men and a women are linked by a failing business in a failing small town. They constitute a triangle. . . in geometry the most stable of figures but in human relations potentially the most volatile.
Read More at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .
UPDATE: Click for ALT review of May 27
Boom Town
This season's most intensive drama, was, surprisingly, written by Jeff Daniels (of "Dumb and Dumber" fame).
This production features three of†the Gaslight-Baker's most talented and seasoned actors: Todd Martin("Almost, Maine", "Sleuth"), Christy Smith ("Almost, Maine","Bus Stop") and the Gaslight-Baker's Artistic Director, Randy Wachtel ("Glass Menagerie"). It is directed by David Schneider ("Sorry, Wrong Chimney")
Synopsis:
Angela Tompkins (Smith), has a husband (Wachtel), a failing convenience store and a dream of running off to Chicago with her lover (Martin), the local banker. In an explosive story that mixes small-town politics, love and betrayal, Angela is forced to face reality when her husband finds out the truth.
You will be sitting on the edge of your seat as you are drawn into the characters' lives and their interwined situation. As we have become a society of voyuers, enjoying reality television, this play delivers the same feeling - we are involved in, exposed to this train wreck of relationships playing out right in front of us, on the stage.
Friday and Saturday, May 22 - June 6 at 8:00 PM.
House opens at 7:30.
May 30 Special Matinee Performance at 2:00 PM.From the website:
Please note that this play is rated NC-17 and will contain strong language and adult situations.
Purchase Tickets Here
On-line tickets only are available for standard $12 ticket...any special promotions, group rates, senior / student prices, etc., will have to be purchased in person at the box office. Please contact us if you have any questions.
Lockhart, Texas, is about as far as you can get geographically from this mythical almost-town in the wilds of Maine, but that hardly matters. Director Randy Wachtel and the Gaslight Baker cast of 16 actors open a big box of valentines here. Warm, humorous, comic and sometimes slightly surreal, these nine skits with a little modification could have been played anywhere.
The Gaslight Baker motto is "Putting the ART in Lockhart." Anyone who has been following the fine work of this theatre organization will have the additional pleasure of recognizing familiar faces, reinforcing the message that the Gaslight Baker is both a community theatre and something of a repertory group. GB president Steve Lawson, for example, and Todd Martin Allen, who recently locked in deadly, earnest combat in GB's Sleuth, in separate pieces transform into taciturn, practical Mainers with surprisingly soft hearts. Billy Alexander, Stephen Reynolds, Christy Smith and David Young were in Amateurs. Terry Bennett was a familiar face from City Theatre's Christmas Belles.
This style of theatre recalls the "blackout sketches" of American vaudeville, typically performed in front of the curtain as more elaborate acts were setting up backstage. Two or at most three actors would play a sketch or exchange banter to keep the audience entertained. With the punchline, lights would go down and action would continue. It was economical entertainment that was formative for the great radio and television comedians from the 1930s onward.The arriving audience is advised that the theatre may be chilly, in part to replicate the climate in Maine, and staff kindly make available blankets for those who arrive unprepared for February air conditioning. This measure not only sets the stage but also helps the actors, some of whom are wearing high-thermal winter wear (in some cases, in several layers). In contrast to the epic scenery built for Amateurs and for Sleuth, this stage is mostly bare, with looming white snowbanks on either side, and the nine scenes are furnished with modest changes. Locale is set with a park bench, a table, the exterior and back door of a house, or a couple of garden chairs. Welcoming the audience, director Randy Wachtel told us playwright John Cariani specified that these scenes are playing simultaneously on a night of great activity for the northern lights.Here's a gazeteer of Lockhart's creation of mythic Maine:
Pete (Billy Alexander and Ginette (Ashley Vogel) try to figure out how to get closer by getting further apart. Example: how to circumnavigate a snowball. . . .
Glory, a tourist hiker, turns up late at night to watch the northern lights. She posts herself in the snowy front yard of East, a repairman. He gradually comes to understand why she's here and what she is carrying in that bag that means so much to her. (Terry Bennett and Steve Lawson)
Jimmy, a heating and cooling guy, is asleep on the couch when Sandrine, his woman friend of eleven years, comes storming in with things to return to him. But how can they be measured? (Thomas Sandlin and Lydia Kettle)
Phil, a hard-working man, and Marci, his wife, go skating. But afterwards, she can't find her shoe. And why are they so angry, even though they don't want to admit it to one another? (David Young and Noelle Stroka)
On her way back to her bachelorette party, the honoree stumbles across a former boyfriend. His 
face lights up and he persuades her to talk. But that blonde waitress just won't leave them alone. (actors not identified in the program!)
An encounter in a laundromat on Friday night. The strangest things can happen from the most casual encounters -- including from an accidental whack on the head with an ironing board. What is pain and who's the one really feeling it? (Stephen Reynolds and Gillian Hickman)
Country boy Chad and country boy Randy are drinking beer in the park, sharing their most recent humiliations in dating. The winner will get to decide what they do for the rest of the night. Romance is bleak but there's always beer and bowling. Until a sudden slip occurs. (Todd Allen Martin and Thomas Sandlin)
Hope has traveled the world but comes rushing back to Almost, Maine (163 miles from the nearest airport in Bangor) to try to find Daniel, a guy who has not traveled the world. She owes him an answer to a question that she fled, years ago. But the man who answers the door looks nothing like the man who used to live there. (Tysha Calhoun and Braden Williams)
Snowmobiler buddies Rhonda and Dave get back to her place after doing twenty miles up the river and back. She exults that she has whupped him, once again. Dave gives her a present -- his own art, from a community class. It's one of those pictures that look like like a bunch of blobs until you can unfocus your eyes and sneak up on it and figure out what it really, really depicts. (Lori Z. Cordova and Todd Michael Wheel)
The cameos above provide you with the starting points for these sketches. Cariani takes them in some surprising and very comic directions, sometimes applying a deft dab of magical realism.
I was impressed by the consistently high quality of the acting -- believable individuals, perplexed, steering with changing winds of emotion, and played with an exquisite sense of comic timing throughout. One truth of the old vaudevillians was that nothing was as funny as silence -- the pause of befuddlement or enlightenment that telegraphs to the audience the amazement of the character. Randy Wachtel must be responsible for some of that accomplished pacing, but I suspect that one can credit, as well, the existence of a community of actors who learn from one another's work.
A PR plug -- the Gaslight Baker is presenting their second annual theatre gala and silent auction fund-raiser on Saturday, February 21, from 7 to 10 p.m. Tickets are $25 and include admission, theatre membership, food, wine, beer and spirits. Address is 426 W. Prairie Lea (corner with Cibilo Street). Lockhart's newest thespian resident, Jason Williams of the greater Tuna series, will be the featured guest of honor. Further info is available on the Gaslight Baker website.
