The enthusiastic promotion of Avatar’s success only gets it half right. James Cameron’s sci-fi film is only the most successful film of all time right now. Gone With The Wind was the single most successful film ever . . . when one takes inflation into account. Taking inflation into account, Avatar is merely the 14th most successful film ever. (Doesn’t exactly look good in a Blu-ray/DVD commercial . . . )
It’s interesting that the secret behind the success of the most successful film of all time has been the subject of a couple of stage plays. A group of Hollywood writers sequester themselves in an office and bang out a quick adaptation of a popular novel by Margaret Mitchell. It’s really good material for classic comedy depicting the golden age of Hollywood.
In August of 2007, Milwaukee Chamber Theatre staged a cleverly comic production of Ron Hutchinson’s Moonlight and Magnoliasa solidly comic play about the writing of the script for David O. Selznick’s masterpiece. At the end of this month, Racine Theatre Guild stages Don’t Cry For Me Margaret Mitchella play covering the same subject in a distinctly different comic way written by Duke Ernsberger & Virginia Cate.
Racine Theatre Guild’s Don’t Cry For Me Margaret Mitchell runs October 15th – 31st.
