Steel Magnolias is a stage play by American writerRobert Harling, based on his experience with his sister's death. The play is a comedy-drama about the bond among a group of Southern women in northwest Louisiana. The title suggests the "female characters are as delicate as magnolias but as tough as steel". The magnolia specifically references a magnolia tree they are arguing about at the beginning.
Synopsis
Set in the fictional northwestern Louisiana parish of Chinquapin, the play opens at Truvy's in-home beauty parlour where a group of women regularly gather. They discuss Shelby's upcoming wedding to her fiancé, Jackson. The plot covers events over the next three years relating to Shelby's Type 1 diabetes, and with how the women cope with their conflicts, while remaining friends: Shelby's decision to have a child despite jeopardizing her health, Clairee's friendship with the curmudgeon Ouiser; Annelle's transformation from a shy, anxious newcomer in town to a good-time girl then repentant revival-tent Christian; and Truvy's relationships with the men in her family. Although the main storyline involves Shelby, her mother M'Lynn, and Shelby's medical battles, the group's underlying friendship is prominent throughout the drama.
Historical casting
Background
The play is based on the family experience of the death of author Robert Harling's sister, Susan Harling-Robinson, in 1985 from diabetic complications after the birth of his namesake nephew and the failure of a family-member donated kidney. Following the death, a writer friend advised him to write it down to come to terms with the experience. He did but originally as a short story to give his nephew an understanding of the child's deceased mother. It eventually evolved in ten days to a play performed Off-Broadway before being adapted for the Steel Magnolias movie. Harling, maybe based on his short, dry experience in the field of law, felt it important to include the way the characters used humor and lighthearted conversations to cope with the seriousness of the underlying situations. Harling wanted the audience to have a true representation of what his family endured during his sister's experience.
Production history
US productions
The play originally opened Off-Broadway at the WPA Theatre, in New York City, on March 28, 1987, with Pamela Berlin as director. The production transferred to the Lucille Lortel Theatre on June 19, 1987, and closed on February 25, 1990 after 1,126 performances. Replacements during the original Off-Broadway run included Anne Pitoniak, Bette Henritze, Rita Gardner, Maeve McGuire, and Stacy Ray. A U.S. national tour was launched in 1989. Marion Ross joined the tour as Clairee late in the run. The play made its Broadway debut in 2005 and opened at the Lyceum Theatre, in previews starting on March 15, 2005, and officially opened April 4, and closed on July 31, 2005, after 23 previews and 136 performances, directed by Jason Moore. Guthrie Theater did a production from October 26, 2019 to December 15, 2019 directed by Lisa Rothe.
Ireland Staged at the Gaiety Theatre, Dublin September 11–22 September 2012, Ben Barnes, director and on country-wide tour until October 19, 2012. The cast included Mischa Barton and Anne Charleston. France Coiffure et Confidences, the French-language adaptation by Didier Caron directed by Dominique Guillo, premiered in Paris at the Théâtre Michel in October 2014. After three successful runs in Paris and multiple nationwide tours, its final performance, attended by Robert Harling, was filmed on June 12, 2017 and released on the French channel C8 a few months later. Cast: Thérèse - Marie-Hélène Lentini / Isabelle Ferron Jeanne - Astrid Veillon / Élisabeth Vitali / :fr:Anne Richard|Anne Richard Magalie - :fr:Léa François|Léa François Agnès - Sandrine Le Berre Claire - Isabelle Tanakil / Isabelle Ferron / Élisabeth Buffet Odette - Brigitte Faure Japan Staged by the Haiyuza Theatre Company on November 14–25, 2007, in Tokyo, translated and directed by Hajime Mori. Cast: Mayuko Aoyama as Truvy, Kaoru Inoue as Annelle, Mayumi Katayam as Clairee, Midori Ando as Shelby, Atsuko Kawaguchi as M'Lynn and Minae as Ouiser. Poland It premiered at the Aleksandra Wegierki Dramatic Theatre in Bialystok on April 14, 1992. Jean Korf was the director and the play was translated by Catherine Peebles and Andrzej Jakimiec. It was organized with help from the Embassy of the United States, Warsaw, especially the Cultural Attache, Bruce Byers. On March 29, 2017, the U.S. Embassy Warsaw held two English-language staged readings at Teatr Polski Arnold Szyfman Theatre in Warsaw as the capstone to its Women's History Month Programming. The production was directed by Deputy Press Attache Stephen E. Dreikorn and featured an all-embassy employee cast consisting of both American and Polish employees. Polish director and actorAndrzej Seweryn spoke before one of the performances and called the Embassy's production a "great initiative". Sweden Premiered November 16, 2008 at Vasateatern in Stockholm titled "Blommor av Stål"; directed by Emma Bucht and translated by Klas Östergren and Edward af Sillén. The cast: Cecilia Nilsson as Truvy, Pernilla August as M'Lynn, Melinda Kinnaman as Shelby, Suzanne Reuter as Ouiser, Linda Ulvaeus as Annelle and Gunilla Nyroos as Clairee.
Screen adaptations
Film
Steel Magnolias
The play was adapted as a film in 1988 and released in 1989, with a screenplay also by Harling and directed by Herbert Ross. The film was able to expand the story of the play with additional background stories and characters. Julia Roberts was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance as Shelby.
CBS-TV produced the two-hour Steel Magnolias sitcom pilot in April 1990 in Robert Harling's childhood hometown of Natchitoches, Louisiana, he was screenwriter with his script being a continuation of the Steel Magnolias play and Steel Magnolias film following the death of Shelby. Thomas Schlamme directed; cast: Cindy Williams as M’Lynn, Sally Kirkland as Truvy, Elaine Stritch as Ouiser, Polly Bergen as Clairee, and Sheila McCarthy as Annelle. Ultimately, CBS passed on the series giving the pilot a single airing on August 17, 1990.
