Frankly, my dears ...

Time and again, the air is agitated by the panting and screeching of apes -- sounds more associated with this city’s famous zoo than the main stage of its Balboa Park neighbor, the Old Globe.

A comedy there imagines what happened when Hollywood producer David O. Selznick, already three weeks into production on “Gone With the Wind,” called upon rewrite expert Ben Hecht and director Victor Fleming to improve the screenplay.

The forceful producer locks the men in his office and, not wanting to lose time or energy to meals, feeds them nothing but bananas and peanuts. Soon, the pressure -- not to mention the steady diet of zoo food -- reduces them to nervous, excitable animals.

Ron Hutchinson, himself a movie rewrite man, has struck upon a marvelous idea here: a ripped-from-history situation rife with potential for drama as well as humor. What’s more, the material’s recognition factor is tremendously high. As the characters, as part of their creative process, enact scenes from the magnificent 1939 film, the audience responds with laughs and squeals of recognition.

Already given productions in Chicago and New York, “Moonlight and Magnolias” seems just the sort of audience-pleaser that programmers at the nation’s regional theaters will be eager to include on season schedules.

Problem is: The script skates along on its nostalgia factor while playing fast and loose with what is known about what went on among Selznick, Hecht and Fleming.

Hutchinson -- whose rewrite work includes the recent movie remake of “Flight of the Phoenix” -- reduces the historical figures to mouthpieces for fairly run-of-the-mill ramblings about moviemaking ideology and social dysfunction.

Lurching between broad comedy and pedantry, the material jerks along like a film that is slipping the sprockets and jamming inside a projector.

Film history books record that in addition to lead screenwriter Sidney Howard, the notoriously fussy Selznick hired at least 10 additional writers -- including Jo Swerling, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Hecht -- to refine the script. After 2 1/2 years of tweaking, Selznick finally ran up against scheduling deadlines and, although he still didn’t have a finished script, was forced to begin filming.

Not quite three weeks into production, he abruptly fired the original director, George Cukor, and asked to have Fleming pulled off “The Wizard of Oz” as Cukor’s replacement. He also called upon Hecht, a noted playwright (“The Front Page”) and Oscar-winning movie writer (“Underworld,” “The Scoundrel”), for help.

The diet of bananas and peanuts, as well as Selznick and Fleming’s enacting of scenes for the benefit of Hecht, who hadn’t read Margaret Mitchell’s novel, are attested to in Hecht’s autobiography, “A Child of the Century.” What actually happened in the brief period of Hecht’s involvement, and how much of his work ended up on screen, got muddied in the self-promoting myth-making that followed. This leaves Hutchinson considerable room for invention.

The action unfolds over a week in February 1939, once Hecht (David Manis) has been summoned to the office of Selznick (Dan Castellaneta, of Homer Simpson voice-acting fame) in Culver City. Hecht dismisses Mitchell’s story as a melodramatic stew of “moonlight and magnolias” -- hence, the play’s title -- but listens to Selzick’s entreaties anyway.

Soon joining the pair in the sleek Art Deco surroundings -- designed by Alexander Dodge -- is the foul-tempered Fleming (Tom McGowan), who almost immediately comes close to exchanging blows with Hecht as they belittle each other’s film work.

A cowering, squeaky-voiced secretary (Meagen Fay) is the only person then allowed to enter or leave the office as Hutchinson contrives to heat the situation to pressure-cooker proportions.

With director John Rando (a Tony winner for “Urinetown”) shaping the proceedings, the high-energy first act culminates in a raucous slap-fest as the on-edge collaborators -- testing an emotionally fraught movie scene -- vent their frustrations. But by then, Hutchinson has already ground the proceedings to a halt with debates about the art versus the escapism of movies as well as the proprieties of Jewish filmmakers -- themselves a minority -- perpetuating Civil War-era stereotypes about African Americans. The second act turns still more talky.

No question, the comedy as well as the serious discussion have a place in this story. But even as Hutchinson romanticizes his characters, he leaves them underwritten (particularly Hecht, whose contribution seems limited to merely transcribing the scenes playacted by Selznick and Fleming). And those abrupt shifts of mood prevent full immersion in the story.

Perhaps the real Hecht, whose life force endures here, however weakly, can channel some additional rewrites Hutchinson’s way.

*

‘Moonlight and Magnolias’

Where: Old Globe Theatre, Balboa Park, San Diego

When: 7 p.m. Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Sundays; 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays; 2 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays

Ends: Aug. 14

Price: $19 to $55

Contact: (619) 234-5623; www.TheOldGlobe.org

Running Time: 2 hours, 10 minutes

Dan Castellaneta...David O. Selznick

David Manis...Ben Hecht

Tom McGowan...Victor Fleming

Meagen Fay...Mrs. Poppenghul

By Ron Hutchinson. Director John Rando. Production supervision Craig Noel. Sets Alexander Dodge. Costumes Robert Morgan. Lights Phil Monat. Sound Paul Peterson. Stage manager Lisa Porter.