Not that Hutchinson's script is necessarily bad.  The dialogue is well written, and the script may be funny.  It's difficult to tell from Generic's production of Moonlight and Magnolias because director Carol Wright does not seem to have a handle on how the evening should be paced, and many times the actors play quiet and somber in scenes that want to be yelled excitedly in rapid machine gun-like fashion.  The show would be much funnier if it just moved faster.  As it stands now,

many scenes play like reruns of Three's Company that have been extensively rewritten by Anton Chekhov.

There are some solid performances in the play.  Fran Peterson is wonderful as Hecht.  He performs the role with just the right combination of nebbish and revolutionary, and manages to get through Hutchinson's sermons without ever pushing them too far over the line.  He is thoroughly believable without ever becoming caricaturish, and sermonizes without ever becoming cloying. 

Casey Malone delivers a solid performance as Victor Fleming, although he seems too young to play the part.  The fact he is costumed in an oversized suit doesn't help his cause.  His performance is just fine.  However, he seems restlessly stifled by the direction and slow-motion pacing. 

Kathy Hinson is a welcome breath of fresh air every time she enters as Miss Poppenghul, Selznick's harried secretary.  She brings an energy to the play that is severely lacking.  Her performance is charming (even if it is a trifle caricaturish).  If only the whole show had the same breezy efficacy as those brief moments where Ms. Hinson is featured, it could be wonderful as opposed to just okay. 

Mark Haynie is saddled with the thankless task of doing his best despite the fact he is terribly miscast in the role of David O. Selznick.  He tries admirably, with tremendous conviction.  However, Haynie does not have the right look, and is a few years too old to play the role of Selznick, who was a powerful and wealthy movie mogul by the time he was thirty.  He was thirty-six when he produced Gone With the Wind.  I do not know how old Mr. Haynie actually is, but I daresay he looks a trifle older than thirty-six.  Haynie's rendering of Selznick is doubtless one of the strangest of all time.  Selznick was a notorious bulldog, a powerful business man who got what he wanted when and how he wanted it.  The real-life Selznick's feuds with director Alfred Hitchcock are the stuff of Hollywood legend, and do not jive with the latently homosexual milquetoast currently embodied by Mr. Haynie in Moonlight and Magnolias.  Haynie is funny in several moments, but by and large, just can't overcome the fact that he's simply the wrong person for the part.

But then, there is a carelessness and lack of thought and research that is ostensible throughout.  Repeatedly, characters refer to MGM studio head Louis B. Mayer as Louis (with the "s" pronounced, as in the city of St. Louis), as opposed to the way it was actually pronounced (Louis, like the kings of France and Louisville).  This is sloppy, as is another moment when Selznick points to a diploma that apparently confers on him the title of producer.  Mr. Selznick (like many of the early Hollywood impresarios) did not attend college, but learned his trade operating cameras on silent films.  These kind of

careless touches detract from, but do not destroy, the evening.

Hank Sparks's set and lighting design are very effective.  He has paid attention to period detail, and he makes interesting use of some rear-projection technology.  The costumes by Celia Burnett are period accurate, but do not fit.  Mr. Malone's suit is too large; Mr. Haynie's too small.  The ideas are great, but the execution is not, and it's a shame, because the costumes could have, and should have been a high point of the production.

I know it seems that I am harping on all of the things that are wrong with this production, and there are many things wrong with it. But even with these problems Moonlight and Magnolias is still an enjoyable evening.  It's worth seeing.  You see, the problem with Generic's production is not that it is a terrible evening at the theatre.  It's just not as funny, entertaining, or thoughtful an evening as it could or should be.