Kelly-Young, Marlow, Ford Photo by Ed Krieger

Margaret Mitchell wrote Gone With the Wind in 1936. It is now listed as among the best-selling novels of all time. Three years later, in 1939, Mitchell's Civil War epic became a cinematic sensation, garnering eight Academy Awards: including Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Screenplay. The story of the making of the film is nearly as fascinating as GWTW itself. Producer David O. Selznick's heroic effort to bring Mitchell's antebellum tale to the silver screen is the stuff of Hollywood legend.

At Laguna Playhouse, through November 1, audiences have the opportunity to learn the story behind the story of Gone With the Wind. Written by Ron Hutchinson and initially produced in 2004, at Chicago's Goodman Theatre, Moonlight and Magnolias dramatically chronicles events leading to the capture of GWTW on film. Exquisitely directed by Andrew Barnicle, Moonlight begins subsequent to Selznick's firing of director George Cukor nineteen days into shooting. Having exhausted several screenwriters, including Sidney Howard and F. Scott Fitzgerald, Selznick brings in Ben Hecht to doctor the inchoate script. Victor Fleming, who is busy helming production of The Wizard of Oz, is brought aboard to bring direction to GWTW. Both men are virtually imprisoned in Selznick's studio office for five days—dining on nothing but peanuts and bananas—as the three of them collaborate and create.

Meanwhile, theatergoers get a bird's-eye view of the well-documented processes and shenanigans the filmmakers go through to mold a movie out of a literary haymaker. A three-way slap-fest that ensues as the men improvise scenes from the novel is a lesson in comedic fight choreography that leaves us laughing in admiration.

Jeff Marlow portrays David O. Selznick with biographical exactitude. Completely convincing in each moment of his characterization, Marlow's incarnation of Selznick is a pinched-nerve of a performance, replete with energetic neurosis.

As Ben Hecht, Leonard Kelly-Young is a cynical, dry-witted delight. In one instance, Kelly-Young is convulsed in laughter; it is so genuine a moment that the guffaws quickly become contagious.

Brendan Ford plays auteur Victor Fleming as a forceful lug. It's easy to envision Ford's Fleming as a Bligh-like tyrant on the sound stage. After all, Fleming was accused of slapping the young Judy Garland.

Also, Emily Eiden, as Selznick's secretary, Miss Poppenghul, has several wonderful moments of comic naturalism. Her rear entrances are fetchingly amusing and sexy to boot.

Moonlight and Magnolias is a simple but marvelous notion: a play about the making of a movie from a novel. What's more, with Bruce Goodrich's convincing 1930s office setting, Julie Ferrin's rich sound-scape, Paulie Jenkins's lighting design, and Julie Keen's spot-on costuming, The Laguna Playhouse provides for us an entertaining and informative staging of this enjoyable show.

Moonlight and Magnolias continues at The Laguna Playhouse—606 Laguna Canyon Road, Laguna Beach—through November 1. Show times are Tuesday – Saturday at 8 p.m. There are two Thursday matinees on October 8 and 22 at 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday matinees are at 2 p.m. For reservations, dial (949) 497 – 2787. For more information, visit HYPERLINK "http://www.LagunaPlayhouse.com" www.LagunaPlayhouse.com.