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Posted by Faye Bell on March 26, 2008 at 16:36:01:
'GONE WITH THE WIND' CURTAIN DOESN'T RISE IN THE SOUTH
London will stage musical version of Margaret Mitchell classic
By JILL VEJNOSKA
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 03/18/2008
Talk about holding a grudge.
One day you toss the tyrannical mother country's load of Lipton into Boston Harbor. The next — give or take some 235 years — she retaliates by turning your beloved "Gone With the Wind" into, gulp, a musical.
(A musical, we hear, where Melanie sings a ditty entitled "Desperate Times" after Scarlett kills that nasty Yankee soldier who tried to get into her pantaloons. Fingers crossed there'll also be tap-dancing!)
Directed by Mr. "Cats" himself, Sir Trevor Nunn, "Gone With the Wind: The Musical" officially opens Apr. 22 in London's famed West End.
That's about 4,200 miles as the Delta bird flies for Atlantans itching to see homegirl Margaret Mitchell's literary classic onstage. Throw in some pricey admission ($55 to $120) and few of us likely will get to witness Glasgow native Darius Danesh (aka Capt. Butler) croon "I don't give a damn" live.
Fortunately, TCM is making an exclusive behind-the-scenes documentary about the musical to air Apr. 20. Unfortunately, you'll have to be watching television in England to see it.
Blimey! What's going on here?
Like Mitchell, Ted Turner's classic movie channel was born in Atlanta. But TCM now airs in 40 different territories worldwide, with separate budgets and programming. The "Wind" documentary is a British TCM production its American counterpart has no role in.
"We all communicate about our ongoing original projects [and] give each other an opportunity to get involved in them," said Charlie Tabesh, senior vice president of programming for TCM in the United States. "It [the documentary] was pretty local to what was going on in the U.K."
Little news has leaked about the show, which was written by California sociologist Margaret Martin. In an interview with John Wiley, editor of the Virginia-based fan quarterly "The Scarlett Letter," Martin described Scarlett as "a stressed-out, teenage single mom." She also promised songs from Mammy, Prissy, Pork and Rhett (a lullaby!).
England's bigfooting of this Southern classic might seem to make as much sense as serving shepherd's pie at the Twelve Oaks barbecue.
Or maybe not.
"We got a Brit to play Scarlett in the movie," said Wiley, referring to Oscar-winner Vivien Leigh. "Maybe they're pulling the reverse."
Meanwhile, TCM's Tabesh doesn't totally rule out the documentary airing here someday.
"It will be available to be acquired if there's interest," he said. "I think there might be."
Translation: Tomorrow is another day.