History Theatre / MoonlightAndMagnolias

* TheGoldenAgeOfHollywood: Fleming feels the era is going on as strong as ever, while Selznick believes it's about to collapse due to stereotyped characters and plots, and wants to show Hollywood how a movie ''should'' be made before the whole industry dries up.

* ActingForTwo: As Selznick and Fleming play out Melanie's pregnancy, Fleming has to portray both Melanie and Prissy, sometimes switching between the two in the space of a sentence. In the course of the play, Fleming winds up portraying everyone who isn't Scarlett O'Hara (who's being covered by Selznick).

* DoubleEdgedAnswer: David Selznick resorts to this when trying to explain the ambiguous ending of ''GoneWith The Wind'' to Hecht.

* DoubleEdgedAnswer: David Selznick resorts to this when trying to explain the ambiguous ending of ''Literature/GoneWithTheWind'' to Hecht.

* DoubleEdgedAnswer: David Selznick resorts to this when trying to explain the ambiguous ending of [[''Literature/GoneWithTheWind'']] to Hecht.

* DoubleEdgedAnswer: David Selznick resorts to this when trying to explain the ambiguous ending of [[''Literature/Gone with the Wind'']] to Hecht.

* DoubleEdgedAnswer: David Selznick resorts to this when trying to explain the ambiguous ending of ''Literature/Gone with the Wind'' to Hecht.

* LockedInARoom: At the start of the play, Selznick gives Miss Poppenguhl instructions to lock himself, Hecht and Fleming in his office and hold all calls for the next five

* LockedInARoom: At the start of the play, Selznick gives Miss Poppenguhl instructions to lock himself, Hecht and Fleming in his office and hold all calls for the next five days.
* LooselyBasedOnATrueStory: According to his biography, Hecht was indeed called in for a week-long marathon rewrite session despite having never read ''Gone With The Wind,'' he did have Selznick and Fleming acting out the scenes for him, and it was largely fueled by peanuts and bananas. However, in real life, Hecht only rewrote the first half of the screenplay rather than the whole thing.

* ExecutiveMeddling: In-universe, this is David Selznick in spades. His idea of collaboration is "You write/direct the movie exactly the way I want it done." His secretary is run ragged at the sheer volume of memos he dictates at every waking moment, encompassing details as small as using crushed ice on set instead of ice cubes, in order to be true to the period.

* LoadsAndLoadsOfWriters: In-universe. Selznick shows Hecht the attempted drafts of nine previous writers, including Hecht's frequent collaborator Charles [=MacArthur=] and even Creator/FScottFitzgerald. (This is TruthInTelevision; by the time Hecht was recruited, 17 writers had worked on the screenplay.)

* LowestCommonDenominator: In-universe. Selznick knows that ultimately it's the mass movie audience that holds the real power in Hollywood and he hates that fact - but he also knows he can't afford to ignore what his audience wants and expects.

* AndYouThoughtItWouldFail: In-universe, Selznick expects to push his success in the world's face when he eventually collects his Academy Award.

* BuffySpeak: As Fleming portrays several of Mitchell's characters for Hecht (see Show Within A Show), his spur-of-the-moment lines are often far more casual and contemporary than the actual dialogue. For example, part of his final speech as Rhett Butler declares: "It's goodbye, Toots - forever. You're easy on the eye and a hellcat in the sack - but it's time to blow."

--> '''Selznick:''' I'm going to show everybody how it should be done - and if it takes a crazy Jew to do it, what the hell, somebody else can figure out what that means. Frankly, I don't give a damn. ''(Pause)'' That's it. That's the handle. ''Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn.''

* MoralEventHorizon: In-universe. Hecht fights hard against having Scarlett slap Prissy, considering it a point of no return for both the movie and Selznick.

* TheThreeFacesOfAdam: Fleming is the Hunter: brash, physical,in-your-face, and wanting to just get everything done without worrying about why. Selznick is the Lord, the authority figure trying to hold the entire movie together (and by extension, the studio) against an uncaring universe. Hecht is the Prophet, trying to push the other two to look deeper into what the story is actually saying, and what that in turn says about the prejudices and expectations of society.

* WritersSuck: Fleming tells Selznick that they don't have to use the high-priced, argumentative Hecht - they can just throw the script to "one of those bastards in the Writer's Building ... one of those failed poets and dollar-a-line hacks who earn more in a week than an average Joe in a year and do nothing but bitch about it."
** Also evoked in a Hecht monologue about how screenwriting is like seducing a beautiful woman and getting to the point where she's ready to make love, only to have the director suddenly walk in and say "OK, I'll take over now."

* LoadsAndLoadsOfWriters: In-universe. Selznick shows Hecht the attempted drafts of nine previous writers, including Hecht's frequent collaborator Charles [=MacArthur=] and even Creator/FScottFitzgerald. (This is TruthInTelevision; by the time Hecht was recruited, 17 writer had worked on the screenplay.)