Steel Magnolias as a play

[Jay Lerner-Z]

Posted: 8/18/12 at 6:53pm

Anybody care to share some thoughts?

I'll be seeing it on stage next month (in Ireland...then back to the US, yay) and was just curious. Anybody remember Margo Martindale as Truvy? What was she like? Fabulous, I'll bet.

How does it compare to the movie? (Mischa Barton will be playing the Julia Roberts role, so the movie's already one up...)

[dramamama611]

Posted: 8/18/12 at 6:56pm

I've never seen it done professionally, but I love it as a play. There are no men present (but they talk of them) which just focuses the women as a unit.

If itss done well, you should really enjoy it.

[Jay Lerner-Z]

Posted: 8/18/12 at 7:23pm

Thanks, I hope I will. I see that the original production ran for 1,126 performances at the Lucille Lortel - wow, I guess I vaguely knew that the movie was based on a play, but I didn't realize it was such a hit. I guess that's what happens when an all-star smash movie comes out.

Updated On: 8/18/12 at 07:23 PM

[AC126748]

Posted: 8/18/12 at 7:37pm

The 2005 revival wasn't very popular, but I actually loved it. Not that there was anything special about that specific production, but the acting (Ebersole, Mason, Sternhagen, and Lily Rabe in her first New York role) was phenomenal and I found it to be a well-made, enjoyable play.

[Scottsacto]

Posted: 8/18/12 at 8:52pm

I have to agree with AC126748, that the 2005 Revival (Though a Broadway Premiere) was Fun. THough I thought Mason was Channeling Shirley MacLaine playing the part of "Ouiser". I also, enjoyed Delta Burke as Truvy!

It just did not attract an audience.

[JoeMaMa2]

Posted: 8/18/12 at 11:33pm

My NJ theatre group (non Eq) was going to do it in the fall and our license was pulled because of a 'possible' NY production. Haven't heard anything else. The script is great. If you like the movie, I think you'll like the play even more.

[iluvtheatertrash]

Posted: 8/19/12 at 1:27am

JoeMa, we were scheduled to do a production at an actual salon in Queens this spring, but had our rights pulled too...

[mc1227]

Posted: 8/19/12 at 8:25am

I saw this production in 2005 and it was not something that I thought much about afterward. The main thing I remember is that the actresses onstage were more believeable as southern women than any of the movie's actresses. Overall, a pretty forgettable production.

[After Eight]

Posted: 8/19/12 at 8:31am

I found it to be sappy, maudlin, and very hard to take.

[jamessite]

Posted: 8/19/12 at 11:10am

I saw a wonderful version at the Cape May Regional theater with the following actresses, Karen Ziemba, Ellen Dolan, Nicole Lowrance, Kate McCauley Hathaway, Marlena Lustik, and Meredith Riley Stewart. It was a small stage but an awesome presentation. Good shows are not only done on mammoth stages.

[TimesSquared]

Posted: 8/19/12 at 11:33am

J Lerner, the play takes place entirely in Truvy's beauty parlor and the only characters are the 6 women. The movie was expanded to include more characters and locations. I liked that none of the men in their lives were ever seen in the play, which was only concerned with the bonds between women in a women-only setting.

I saw the original production at the Lortel, after Anne Pitoniak replaced Mary Fogarty as Ouiser. I knew nothing about it, but Ms. Pitoniak was a regular at the restaurant where I worked down the block from the Lortel, and she asked us to come see her in the play.

I loved it. It worked very well in the tiny Lortel Theater, and the cast was outstanding. The production avoided the movie's total descent into sappiness. I think the women were less sentimental in the play, so it hit harder when some of them broke down.

Although I loved the play, I always found it hard to believe that older women in a tiny Louisiana town would use such 80’s camp lingo. I do remember thinking that the play's humor had a distinctly downtown gay slant and that it might not do as well in a larger, more commercial venue.

[behindthescenes2]

Posted: 8/19/12 at 5:22pm

Saw it at the Lucille Lortel - Rosemary Prinz - M'lynn - I am from the south, she was spot on - brilliant; Margo was equally so and Constance Shulman as Annelle - spectacular - had they been in the movie - it would have made a hell of a difference.

[ComingUpRoses2]

Posted: 8/19/12 at 6:28pm

Being from the South, I must admit that the film is treasured by pretty much every woman I know and the play seems to get performed once a year somewhere in my state.

It's a strong play, perhaps a little sappy at times, but I like all the characters and with the right group of actresses, it can really soar.

I do notice some of the gayer lingo in the piece, which pretty much tells you right off the bat that this was written by a gay man, much in the same way that Sex and the City always felt like women speaking gay men's words. I enjoy it, though. I do notice that some women in the South do speak this way now. Gay men do tend to write the best female characters, though. I do have to admit that.