Nunn hopes a shorter 'Gone with the Wind' will make the critics sweeter

How do theatre executives begin to salvage a multimillion-pound West End musical after a barrage of poor reviews and accusations that the stage drama is too long and unwieldy to be successful?

For producers of the musical adaptation of Hollywood classic Gone with the Wind, which opened to a critical mauling last week, the answer is straightforward: make it shorter. With rumours that managers planned to paste a closing announcement at the New London Theatre this weekend, the show's producer has pledged to shave 15 minutes off its running time in the hope of holding the attention spans of audiences.

Aldo Scrofani, the lead producer, confirmed that the play was going to be cut. "Even the people who love the show have said it's a bit long. It is long – and it's going to be cut," he said.

Some audiences have responded to the length with standing ovations while other viewers have left before the end. Mr Scrofani said this may be because people have trains to catch, adding: "I don't think they want to leave."

The creative team had agreed to the running time cut, Mr Scrofani added, although he denied that the director of the show, Trevor Nunn, had been forced into truncating it. Once the running time is shortened, he said, the "story itself will be more highlighted".

One of the most prominent concerns over the £4.75m adaptation of Margaret Mitchell's novel about the American civil war, and its feisty heroine, Scarlett O'Hara, was its length. Originally weighing in at a mighty four-hours , the latest cut means it has now shrunk to just three hours and 15 minutes.

Mr Scrofani said that far from pasting closing notices, he was strongly committed to keeping the production going through the traditionally rocky months of May and June, after which he hoped to see an upturn in ticket sales. "We've never posted a closure notice, nor discussed it," Mr Scrofani said.

The musical's actors, led by Jill Paice as Scarlett O'Hara and Darius Danesh as Rhett Butler, have vowed to continue. Terri Paddock, of Whatsonstage.com, said advisers to the show had already recommended a three-hour performance length. "They were always trying to get it down to three-hours," she said.

Ms Paddock admitted that audiences may be put off by the negative attention the show had received, but said she remained optimistic. Other shows, such as The Lord of the Rings, which was originally over four-hours long, had managed to make adjustments, she said.

Billed as "a play with music", Gone with the Wind was to be the West End's opening of the year, although many questioned how its director could condense a 1,000-page tome into a stage play.

Frankly ... what the critics said

*Guardian: "Feels like a hectic, strip-cartoon account of a dated pop classic"

*Observer: "Looks both spendthrift and threadbare"

*Independent: "Neither as bad as one feared nor as good as one has a right to expect"

*Independent on Sunday: "[Danesh] kisses Scarlett like a frenzied dental hygienist"

*Sunday Times: "Frankly, I fear, you won't give a damn"

*Sunday Telegraph: "Darius Danesh and Jill Paice . . . Frankly, my dear, they are all ham"

*Times: "It just doesn't have the variety, the quirkiness or the moral power"