'Moonlight' takes awhile to shine

MOONLIGHT AND MAGNOLIAS, through Oct. 7, Salt Lake Acting Company (363-7522 or www.saltlakeactingcompany.org), running time: two hours (one intermission)

"Moonlight and Magnolias" gets funny partway through the first act, when two men dramatize the childbirth scene from "Gone With the Wind." Then the audience guffaws.

On opening night of the Salt Lake Acting Company's production of Ron Hutchinson's play, there was a certain amount of relief in our laughter. We'd been worried. The funny bit is a long time coming.

The story begins as movie producer David O. Selznick (played by David Spencer) decides to stop production on "Gone With the Wind" because he hates the way it's going. He's found a new writer (Ben Hecht, played by Paul Kiernan), and now he is waiting for the arrival of his new director (Victor Fleming, played by Morgan Lund). The three of them are going to lock themselves in his office for a week and come up with a new script.

Unfortunately Hecht never read the book.

Selznick's other problem is that his secretary, played by Annette Wright, can't find Fleming.

Selznick keeps talking about the book. Hecht keeps saying, "I didn't read it." Selznick keeps giving orders, and the secretary keeps saying, "Yes, Mr. Selznick."

The actors are droll enough. Their pacing is fine. But the repetition of those lines is just not amusing.

Lund, when he does appear on the stage, is twinkly. He's a nice foil to Wright's sternness. Still, there doesn't seem to be much director Keven Myhre and these veteran actors can do — until, eventually, they are allowed to get zany.

Myhre also designed the set. The faux wood of Selznick's office fits in nicely with all the other allusions to falseness.

In real life, in 1939, while he was working as a writer in Hollywood, Hecht was trying to get Jews out of Europe. In the play he is upset — though not as upset as he should be — at Selznick's ignorance about what it really means to be Jewish.

Hecht does not want Americans watching "Gone With the Wind" when they should have their eyes on Hitler. He can't convince Selznick.

In the end, the audience for "Moonlight and Magnolias" does come away feeling a bit uneasy about the way Hecht was ignored. And we come away having laughed.

Sensitivity rating: Some swearing. One crude sexual remark.

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E-mail: susan@desnews.com