Steel Magnolias

May 20, 2019 at the lucille lortel theatre

Written by Robert Harling 

Directed by Emmy Award Winner, and original Shelby, Blanche Baker

Starring Tony Award Nominee Brenda Braxton as Truvy, star of Dear Evan Hansen Lisa Brescia as M’Lynn, five-time Tony Award nominee Sandy Duncan as Clairee, star and creator of Hulu’s “Difficult People” Julie Klausner as Annelle, Tony Nominee Nancy Opel as Ouiser, and from Broadway’s Kinky Boots, Carrie St Louis as Shelby.

The action is set in Truvy’s beauty salon in Chinquapin, Louisiana, where all the ladies who are “anybody” come to have their hair done. Helped by her eager new assistant, Annelle (who is not sure whether or not she is still married), the outspoken, wise-cracking Truvy dispenses shampoos and free advice to the town’s rich curmudgeon, Ouiser, (“I’m not crazy, I’ve just been in a bad mood for forty years”); an eccentric millionaire, Miss Clairee, who has a raging sweet tooth; and the local social leader, M’Lynn, whose daughter, Shelby (the prettiest girl in town), is about to marry a “good ole boy.” Filled with hilarious repartee and not a few acerbic but humorously revealing verbal collisions, the play moves toward tragedy when, in the second act, the spunky Shelby (who is a diabetic) risks pregnancy and forfeits her life. The sudden realization of their mortality affects the others, but also draws on the underlying strength—and love—which give the play, and its characters, the special quality to make them truly touching, funny and marvelously amiable company in good times and bad.

Check out photos from the one night only performance:

THEATER MANIA: Steel Magnolias Set for Special Reading Presented by Abingdon Theatre Company

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