Steel Magnolias

I will study the script for upcoming auditions at the local community theater. This is a fabulous play that needs no promotion.

I'm glad I was able to find this book since our booksellers don't carry it. I had a project for school and this play was suggested. After reading the script along with the movie I absolutely loved it. The story touched me through the up and down friendship between the five women.

A touching play telling the story of six Southern women, all the action is set in the beauty shop in which they spend their Saturdays and spans the course of a couple years. Each of the women have their own conflict that they come to terms with over the course of the play, most of them dealing with their relationships with one another and other people in their lives. From Clairee and Ouiser, aging women dealing with the losses of their husbands, Truvy with her own dead-beat husband and the appearance of Annelle in her life, to Annelle seeking direction in her life and reconciliation with her past. The center of the story is M'Lynn and her newlywed daughter Shelby, as they try to find the happy medium in their relationships with their husbands and with each other. Every woman, though, gets her moment in teh spotlight and all of them change significantly over the course of the play. The play is well written, with natural dialogue and a perfect blend of humor and tragedy, truly displaying the strength of these Southern "steel magnolias."

I haven't read this play but I recently saw it performed. It was abosolutely wonderful! It is this story of six women who live in a small town in Louisiana, who spend their Saturdays in a beauty shop. One of the characters, Shelby, gets married towards the beginning of the play. She has diabetes and is told by her doctor that she shouldn't have children, but she wants children so badly that she has a baby anyway... I think you see where this is going. This is a very touching and humorous play and recommend this to everyone.

Being privelaged to see the New York premiere of this work many years ago, I was thrilled to see the movie when it came out (also many years ago). This is a "one-of-a-kind" play and really can't be put into any category with the exception of "Southern." That said, it holds up as well today as it did when it first came out. Funny, sad, well-paced, and above all, well-written, this stellar tour-de-force piece of theatre will take you through all the emotions--and then some. Also recommended: McCrae's BARK OF THE DOGWOOD