One of the things my paternal grandmother gave me, besides an addiction to soap operas and a moderate talent for knitting, is a huge appreciation for the genius of Gone With The Wind. I’ve read the book — all 1037 pages of it — 20 times and have seen the movie — all 238 minutes of it — double that many times. Put aside the la-di-da approach to slavery, the romanticizing of the Civil War, and the few boring chapters in the middle — it is the best book ever. For those of you who just don’t think you can handle such an in-depth read, or the bed sores that come from sitting through the movie, there’s good news! Gone With The Wind is opening as a friggin’ MUSICAL in London this week and we can only pray that it does so well there, that it comes to Broadway. The producers have managed to cut the script down to a mere 3.5 hours (whatever, that’s like a mini-marathon of Keeping Up With The Kardashians) and the musical’s writer says she stuck more to Margaret Mitchell’s original story than the movie. “The film reflected Depression-era values and completely ignored many things in the novel,” Martin said. “[Scarlett O'Hara] is madly heroic in all she does. Her experience, I think, will resonate with any woman.” We certainly give a damn about it! [CNN] Keep reading »
