Review: Steel Magnolias

Robert Harling’s Steel Magnolias has been a popular staple of community theater since its thousand performance-plus run in New York between 1987 and 1990. Based on the real life and death of Harling’s sister, the story (made even more popular by the 1989 film) showcases the friendship of six women in Chinquapin, Louisiana, who meet regularly at Truvy’s Beauty Salon to chat and gossip.

Now at the Woodland Opera House, this show gets yet another staging. Here, directed by Jason Hammond, it’s held up by good acting. Deborah Hammond is exceptional as salon proprietor Truvy, full of charm and charisma. Lenore Sebastian shines as Clairee, eager to share gossip, but with a heart full of compassion. She particularly relates to cantankerous Ouiser (Nancy Agee), very definitely her own woman, with lots of walls built up to keep emotions at bay.

Patricia Glass is Annelle, the timid new hire, who finds strength as she becomes a born-again Christian.

But it is the relationship between M’Lynn (Emily Delk) and Shelby (Danielle Barnett) as mother and daughter in a complicated relationship primarily due to Shelby’s chronic illness, which dominates this story.

In lesser hands, this could be come a sappy situational comedy with maudlin overtones, but these actors give it a life and reality that will engage anyone who has ever needed a group of friends with whom to share her joy and sorrows.