Roxy Payne and Katrina D. Richard (Photo by Michael Hardy Photography)
Reviewed by Dana Martin
Long Beach Playhouse
Through June 14
Steel Magnolias, an 80s relic by Robert Harling about sweet Southern friendship in small town Louisiana now playing at the Long Beach Playhouse, is too precious for words.
It’s springtime in Chinquapin Parish and Truvy’s Beauty Salon is ripe with excitement. Salon owner Truvy (Katrina D. RiChard) and new-hire-with-a-past Annelle (Roxy Payne) prepare for a big work day. That’s because Shelby (Gioia Moen), daughter of salon regular M’Lynn (Sarah Green), is getting married and the salon is a gathering place for wedding intel and the dirty details of a domestic dispute between Ousier (Phyllis M. Nofts) and M’Lynn’s husband Drum. Even prominent community member Clairee (Andrea Stradling) drops by for a wash and press and stays for the tea.
The play focuses on M’Lynn and Shelby’s mother-daughter relationship and follows the group of women through Shelby’s wedding, the birth of her son, her declining health, and her eventual death. The women’s friendships are the heart of the story. The play’s most enduring themes encapsulate the power and affirmation of female relationships juxtaposed with the weaknesses and the destructive nature of men. While the men in the story never physically appear, they maintain an indelible if completely useless presence throughout.
The play is mostly fast-paced chatter and a lot of activity, and vacillates sharply between comedy and drama which the cast handles relatively well. The actors have solid chemistry but seem to exist in different worlds; some performances are solidly sitcom while others are grounded in reality. RiChard delivers a standout performance as the smart, quick-witted salon owner Truvy. Green’s M’Lynn oscillates between motherly softness and steely spitfire. Payne’s Annelle makes the most interesting evolution.
Director Phyllis B. Gitlin brings the world of the play to life and has a solid grip on its pacing and constant activity. Set designer David Scaglione does much to create a long indoor/outdoor playing space that fits nicely on the theater’s large three-quarter thrust stage, though the staging still feels tight. Miranda Richard’s lighting design is broad yet warm. Christina Bayer’s costumes are detailed, delightfully 80s and spot-on for every character. Alex Shewchuk’s sound is unobtrusive and solidifies the time period.
The movie version of Steel Magnolias propelled the play into cult classic status. It’s an homage to female 80s movie stars (Sally Field, Dolly Parton, Olympia Dukakis, Shirley McClain and Julia Roberts?) and has a litany of quotable lines like “an ounce of pretension is worth a pound of manure” or “if you don’t have anything nice to say, come sit by me.”
Steel Magnolias is a diorama from another time and place. But beyond the Southern slang, kinship and curlers, there is something timeless and empowering about seeing women — in the absence of men — navigating life’s most joyful and sorrowful moments together. The women offer stalwart support of one another and always have something sweet and a little spicy to say because “a dirty mind is a terrible thing to waste.”
Long Beach Playhouse, 5021 E. Anaheim St., Long Beach; Thurs.-Sat., 8 pm; Sun., 2 pm; thru June 14th. https://lbplayhouse.org. Running time: two hours and 10 minutes with an intermission.
