Munk's STEEL MAGNOLIAS review
Munk's STEEL MAGNOLIAS review
Munk's STEEL MAGNOLIAS review#0
Posted: 4/30/05 at 11:51pm
I don't know EXACTLY what to say about this show. It doesn't set out to be anything other than cute and charming - it's certainly Broadway's version of a chick flick - but even when taking that into consideration, the show never quite takes off.
All six women in this show exemplify both the stereotypical southern woman and the late 1980's - particularly in their clothing. Relying on almost every southern stereotype in the book, it is sometimes funny - but for the most part, it's a big 2.5 hour bore.
Delta Burke seems quite at home here as Truvy - basically playing herself, but she doesn't falter or seem out of her element. This is the perfect part for her and she does just fine.
Lily Rabe is appropriately shy and quirky as Annelle, and grows nicely into a more confident, peaceful, and pregnant hair stylist. Like Burke, her performance never falters and she is quite good.
Frances Sternhagen, who provides the most "laughs" as Clairee, looks like she's having a fine time on stage. Most of her funny lines are at the expense of Ouiser, but they are nonetheless funny. She does just fine, like everyone else, but nothing to write home about.
The gorgeous (Laura Benanti?!) Rebecca Gayheart is fine as Shelby. I honestly don't know what else to say about her performance - when considering what she's provided with, she does the material justice. Unfortunately, there is nothing about her performance or her character that makes the audience care about her health. When she dies, the only one I feel bad for is her mother, M'Lynn, portrayed by Christine Ebersole. Ebersole certainly seems the most confident and seasoned of the group on stage, but like the rest of the characters, she is very one-dimensional and it isn't until her random emotional outburst at the end of the play that you know for sure this woman has a heart.
And finally, four-time Academy Award nominee Marsha Mason, as the miserable and cynical Ouiser. She, like the rest of the women, does just fine. Sometimes her choices are strange and her line delivery is sometimes forced - but she gets away with it, for the most part.
The set and costumes are delightfully tacky and just what they should be. Has Delta Burke raided her closet for this production? Overall, the show just doesn't quite work. It's a very weak play to begin with that takes itself a little too seriously. Jason Moore, like other single element of the show, is just fine here. It's hard to judge one's talents when surrounded with such mediocre material, but I think all 6 actresses, and Mr. Moore, with escape this production unscathed. I don't know if I can say the same for the audience, however. For most of the play, I was beyond bored and just wished that they would speed things along. This show will do just fine if it tours (in small theatres) or should just perhaps move down to Fort Myers, Florida for a long, healthy run. STEEL MAGNOLIAS playing in New York just doesn't quite work. While there are moments of the show that are a sheer joy to watch (Delta Burke doing hair and nails is one of them,) there is too much dead time to make the experience salvagable.
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/29/04
re: Munk's STEEL MAGNOLIAS review#1
Posted: 4/30/05 at 11:55pm
That's too bad. I'm still looking forward to seeing it, though.
You really think that STEEL MAGNOLIAS is mediocre material? I think it's pretty good. Then again, my sisters and I have an unnatural obsession with this play, even moreso with the film. So, perhaps, I'm biased.
Updated On: 4/30/05 at 11:55 PM
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/13/04
re: Munk's STEEL MAGNOLIAS review#2
Posted: 4/30/05 at 11:56pmI really really enjoyed this production of Steel Magnolias when I saw it. Great review as always.
re: Munk's STEEL MAGNOLIAS review#3
Posted: 5/1/05 at 12:01amYes Joshua I think that STEEL MAGNOLIAS is incredibly weak and just blah .
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/29/04
re: Munk's STEEL MAGNOLIAS review#4
Posted: 5/1/05 at 12:05amPardon me! Geez! I explained on another thread that I like to bold and capitalize the titles of plays and musicals. Perhaps I'll stop because people seem to be so incredibly offended and annoyed by it. Yikes.
re: Munk's STEEL MAGNOLIAS review#5
Posted: 5/1/05 at 12:20amHahaha chill, I think think it's weird.
re: Munk's STEEL MAGNOLIAS review#6
Posted: 5/1/05 at 2:01amHas anyone else seen this? Comments?
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/15/05
re: Munk's STEEL MAGNOLIAS review#7
Posted: 5/1/05 at 2:44amQuestion ( and yes it might be a dumb question ) is this show based on the movie or vice versa? or is this not even a movie or whatever? Can someone explain the source material.
re: Munk's STEEL MAGNOLIAS review#8
Posted: 5/1/05 at 2:46amIt was originally an Off-Broadway play in 1987. The movie is based off of the play.
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/15/05
re: Munk's STEEL MAGNOLIAS review#9
Posted: 5/1/05 at 2:56amOh okay, thanks, I thought so, but wasn't sure.
re: Munk's STEEL MAGNOLIAS review#10
Posted: 5/1/05 at 8:33amI've seen it and didn't like it at all. Nothing special to talk about besides i am happy i got the seats half price.
re: Munk's STEEL MAGNOLIAS review#11
Posted: 5/1/05 at 8:42am
I'd just like to comment on Munk's ever changing icons! Great choices!
Also, great review!I'd have to agree with you. good acting for the most part, but weak overall.
re: Munk's STEEL MAGNOLIAS review#12
Posted: 5/1/05 at 9:17am
well, i'm dissapointed to read that, but Munk and I seem to have differing opinions on a lot of things, so I think i'd still enjoy this, beccause I never found the play weak in the first place!!
Munk, this might sound dumb, but, you *are* a guy right? Maybe that's why this play doesn't effect you? Just a thought 
re: Munk's STEEL MAGNOLIAS review#13
Posted: 5/1/05 at 9:47am
I think this play is just another example of a show running better when it plays a more intimate space (wasn't it at the Lortel when it ran off-Broadway?). IT's a show set in a beauty salon (and god knows it's my life: my mother is a hairstylist and half the crap that happens in this play could have come directly from her workplace) and works when you can really be drawn into that world. Even the smaller Broadway houses just seem too big to create anything along the lines of intimate.
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/11/03
re: Munk's STEEL MAGNOLIAS review#14
Posted: 5/1/05 at 11:20am
I think it was too choppy, like random puzzle pieces that you can't quite fit together because you lost the ones in between. I think the movie had more heart than the play. The first hour and a half suggests a light hearted comedy and then BOOM, water works are flying. It just seemed too forced to me.
I agree, I didn't feel like Shelby was portrayed as a sympathetic character most of the way through... very wishy washy. I'm trying very hard not to compare to the movie, but I feel like Shelby was a much stronger character there... here I felt as though she was just a spoiled little southern girl who always got her way and was too damn "sweet" for her own good.
I felt like it was lacking a level of depth. I laughed a LOT and hell, I even cried when M'Lynn burst into tears. (I'm just very emotional and would cry if any one of you burst into tears, too...)
I was kind of left feeling cold. I don't think it was bad, I just think the production on a whole was too surface and very one dimensional 99% of the time.
~Stewart Gilligan Griffin
re: Munk's STEEL MAGNOLIAS review#15
Posted: 5/1/05 at 11:29am
I saw the original Off-Broadway production and I thought it was rather lightweight material and I was actually surprised when I heard that it was being made into a movie which I understand did quite well. I never thought it was bad play but it's definitely not something I would go out of my way to see again.
re: Munk's STEEL MAGNOLIAS review#16
Posted: 5/1/05 at 11:34am
Wow...
You know I usually agree with you Munk (Sweet Charity!), but I really, really enjoyed "Steel Magnolias." I went two weeks ago today..and was very upset to see that Delta Burke was out. Her understudy, Sally Mayes, did fine, but I would have liked to have seen Burke. Anyways, I found it warm, moving and funny. Had a good laugh, a good cry and thoroughly enjoyed myself. I would easily give a Tony to Frances or Lily for their performances.
re: Munk's STEEL MAGNOLIAS review#17
Posted: 5/1/05 at 11:58amThat's the first review of this show I've read where ALL the actress got good remarks. Still, if I get to go to NY, I want to see this. It has a good cast, and I'm guessing that it won't be sold out!!!!!!
Leading Actor Joined: 5/16/03
re: Munk's STEEL MAGNOLIAS review#18
Posted: 5/1/05 at 12:09pmI thought the show lacked warmth and emotion. The movie, in places, is too emotional but I believed that these ladies were there for one another always. The current Broadway show does not do that for me at all. Everyones performance is fine - the chemistry isn't there for me. Lily Rabe is a standout. Frances Sternhagen I ABSOLUTELY adore in ANYTHING!!! I think, its place is not on Broadway, but rather regional and community theatre productions. We'll see what the Tony committee has to say this week.
Swing Joined: 3/28/05
re: Munk's STEEL MAGNOLIAS review#19
Posted: 5/1/05 at 12:12pm
I saw the show right at the end of Previews and thought the main problem was that the show was missing the texture and shading that can come from a good director. Also, the pace was a bit slow for my tastes. Louder Faster = Funnier. I know that's a tired theatre axiom but in a show filled with one-liners, they need to come rapid fire.
Casting also seems to be a slight problem here too. While i adored Frannie Sternhagen & Christine Ebersole, i thought that Delta Burke (while a very fine comic actress) was very unsure of the role. In fact as a gay guy, i can quote the show within an inch of it's life and i know she was blowing lines like crazy. Marsha Mason is WAY mis-cast in my opinion. She was playing for laughs ALWAYS. Other than that, i agree that the rest of the cast was "fine" as put by MUNK.
Just my two cents. Off to rehearsal and it's GREASE. Again. Pray for me.
Stage Manager Jim
re: Munk's STEEL MAGNOLIAS review#20
Posted: 5/1/05 at 1:43pm
Thanks for the feedback, guys.
Princeton: You would really give Frances and Rabe a tony for their "performance?" Have you even seen the other featured actress nominees of the year? They all blow them clean out of the water.
re: Munk's STEEL MAGNOLIAS review#21
Posted: 5/1/05 at 3:47pm
Honestly, I've seem mostly musicals this year.
I should ammend that and say that I thought their performances were Tony-worthy..not necessarily that they should or will win this year. I just feel that they were the only two that completely embodied the characters. Frances was being Frances, but I won't fault her for that. Lily actually made me like a character that I didn't like in the movie or in other stage incarnations i've seen. I felt her character was the most complete.
re: Munk's STEEL MAGNOLIAS review#22
Posted: 5/1/05 at 3:53pmChristine Ebersole looks exactly like my grandmother, it's soooo freaky!
re: Munk's STEEL MAGNOLIAS review#23
Posted: 5/1/05 at 5:53pmEbersole and Sternhagen are too talented to be in this production...they need to be in something that does their talent justice!
re: Munk's STEEL MAGNOLIAS review#24
Posted: 5/1/05 at 6:29pmI do agree that like Little Shop and Godspell, the show belongs Off Bway in an intimate, small theatre. When Little Shop and Godspell were moved to the Bway stage, they lost their magic. Perhaps the same has happened here...though I *still* enjoyed it. Maybe the Helen Hayes Theatre would have been a better fit.
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