Tennessee Repertory Theatre Mounts Ron Hutchinson's Moonlight and Magnolias With Mixed Results

How do you take three legendary Hollywood figures, lock them in a room with only peanuts and bananas for sustenance, then hope their extreme personalities will give forth with the funny for two solid hours?

That's the challenge Tennessee Repertory Theatre faces with its current production, the Nashville premiere of Moonlight and Magnolias. Originally produced in 2004 at Chicago's Goodman Theatre and later at the Manhattan Theatre Club in 2005, the comedy received tentative early reviews. It centers on a fictionalized Tinseltown premise in which Gone With the Wind producer David O. Selznick summons screenwriter Ben Hecht and film director Victor Fleming to a madcap skull session, wherein the three resolve the Civil War epic's lingering script problems.

Playwright Ron Hutchinson has done his research: GWTW indeed had production problems, with Selznick bringing in more than a dozen writers and eventually using three directors (not including himself) to finish the shooting. But too often, the author's humor—based on jokey theoretical characterizations—lapses into Three Stooges-style slapstick (including some literal "slap").

Defending against total implosion requires strong performances to trump the corn. Martha Wilkinson's freewheeling staging ensures that the four talented cast members milk the basic idea when it's legitimately funny and supersede it as quickly as possible when the dialogue gets repetitive. They're not entirely successful, but it's not their fault that Hutchinson's script teeters on its spindly conceptual legs.

Neither Pete Vann as Hecht nor Eric Pasto-Crosby as Fleming are near the authentic ages of their characters. Not that historical accuracy matters, since this is farce, and the resolution—the transformation of Margaret Mitchell's 1,000-page melodrama into a workable screenplay—pointedly becomes the constant distraction. Pasto-Crosby has an easier time finding cheaper laughs with Fleming's "man's man" persona than Vann does with Hecht's heavy-handed sociopolitical concerns and snobbish outlook on middlebrow fiction. (The idea that Hecht would seriously waste time haranguing Selznick about the studio boss's Jewish inferiority complex seems remote—then again, this is a reimagining.) That said, Vann does well overall with words not of his own choosing, and gets chuckles when he's not pontificating at his shrillest.

The Rep debut of Shane Bridges as Selznick is credible enough, if a tad cartoonish. He certainly brings commitment to his performance, and he's well cast physically. Simply pulling off the manic ringleader aspects of his role requires a singular focus, and Bridges sees his over-the-top portrayal through to the very end. Evelyn Blythe has a pivotal bit role as the movie mogul's secretary, and she's delightfully demure, dutiful and dumped-on. Her mantra: "Yes, Mr. Selznick."

Gary Hoff's set—Selznick's well-appointed inner sanctum—is richly crafted, and Trish Clark's '30s costumes ring true to the period.

With its focus on cinema's most treasured Old South heirloom, Moonlight and Magnolias should appeal to many Nashville theatergoers. It's diversion theater produced at a fairly high level. Despite the less than perfect script, it's an entertaining production, assuming you don't arrive with high expectations.

Honky Tonk Heaven
Ted Swindley's The Honky Tonk Angels is a country-music theatrical revue with a workable setup, undemanding humor and dozens of classic tunes delivered by talented singers. Three ladies meet on a bus, exchange their stories, then head into Music City to fulfill their showbiz dreams. We get a vague impression here of, say, Faith, Wynonna and Martina, but Sunny Fitz, Rusti Ray and Melissa Shicks are certainly their own women when it comes to crooning and belting out the diverse score, sometimes with lilting harmonies.

Throughout, we get stock white-trash imagery, some leggy showmanship, waifish rural charm, a Minnie Pearl imitation, a couple of Deepak Chopra jokes (just to make sure everyone's paying attention), and a good deal of gratifying energy.

Ultimately, the show's about great country songs, and they're here in abundance. Three Loretta Lynn selections—including the witty "Don't Come Home a-Drinkin' "—serve as apt reminders of her considerable writerly gifts. Then there are humidly bluesy versions of Willie Nelson's "Night Life" and Bobbie Gentry's "Ode to Billy Joe," a super-big-hair rendition of Tom T. Hall's "Harper Valley PTA," timeless numbers by Dolly Parton ("I Will Always Love You") and Billy Sherrill ("Stand by Your Man"), as well as traditional standbys ("Amazing Grace," "Will the Circle Be Unbroken"). The wigged-out showstopper is "Cleopatra, Queen of Denial," which emerges as schlocky but exalted fun (kooky Egyptian costumes courtesy of Jane Schnelle).

Kaine Riggan staged the action, and musical director Rolin Mains leads the countrified, pocket-tight sextet.

The Nashville premiere of The Honky Tonk Angels continues through Nov. 23 at Nashville Dinner Theatre in Donelson.