Theater Review—

High Level Acting Propels ‘Steel Magnolias’ In Sherman

By Julie Stern

SHERMAN — Blessed with an excellent cast, director Craig David Rosen has done a masterful job in staging Robert Harling’s 1980s comedy-drama Steel Magnolias for Sherman Players. Set entirely in Truvy’s Beauty Salon in Chinquapin, Louisiana, the story transcends its sitcom format of life in a beauty parlor to become a celebration of the power of friendship as its six female protagonists deal with life, love and mortality over a 2½ year period.

Annie Muoio is the good-hearted, cheerful Truvy Jones, whose beauty parlor, attached to her house, is the social center of Chinquapin. Here she dispenses advice, kindness and hair styling to all the local women who matter. In the first scene she has opened the establishment early, on a Saturday morning, to prepare for the wedding of Shelby Eatenton, the prettiest girl in town, to good ole boy Jackson Latcherie, an up and coming young lawyer.

Shelby’s mother, M’Lynn (a counselor at the local mental health clinic, who knows all kinds of things about people in town but won’t name names); prominent society widow and first football fan Clairee Belcher, and the local millionairess curmudgeon Ouiser Boudreaux are all there to be gussied up by Truvy, and her painfully shy new assistant, Annelle Dupuy.

As time passes, the power struggle between Shelby and her mother, which begins with playful squabbles over color schemes and hair lengths, expands to reveal the real nature of the problem: Shelby is a diabetic, who has been told by doctors that she must not get pregnant. Her eventual decision to disregard this warning leads to dire consequences, and tests the resilience of all of them.

All the acting is high level. It is difficult to believe that Annie Muoio, who plays Truvy, is not really a professional beautician. Nothing like Dolly Parton, who played the role in the movie, she is totally convincing, as a humanistic good soul, happy with what she has made of her life, and ready to comfort and encourage others.

Rachel Corn invests Shelby with a mixture of youthful sweetness and inner courage. Lori Franzese, as the mother of the bride, not ready to be a grandma, mixes sardonic intelligence with an iron will. Ellen Burnett has fun with the comic role of the misogynistic Ouiser, who claims to love nobody but her dog, the mangy brute we only hear barking offstage.

Bianca Harlacher, fresh out of high school, gives an amazingly adult performance as the protean Annelle, who goes from child bride to party girl to evangelical fanatic as she seeks to discover her place in life.

My favorite above all, however, is Katherine Almquist, as the elegant Clairee (“after all, the only thing that separates us from the animals is our ability to accessorize”) dispatcher of one-liners (“Ouiser, keep off the grass signs are not Christmas decorations!”). The former First Lady of Chinquapin before her husband died, she is still the clearly accepted social leader of the community, but within the confines of the salon, she is a genuine friend.

The play captures the frilly mores and trappings of the magnolia laden south, but when the going gets tough, these magnolias prove to be made of  trusty steel. It was delightful to be in their company for an evening.

(Performances continue Friday and Saturday evenings at The Sherman Playhouse until October 6.

Tickets are $15 for adults and $13 for students and seniors. Call 860-354-3622 for reservations or directions if needed.)