[NEohioPAL] Review of "Steel Magnolias" at Rabbit Run Theater

[Bob Abelman]

Rabbit Run opens season with southern comfort comedy 'Steel Magnolias'

 

Bob Abelman

News-Herald, Chagrin Valley Times, Solon Times, Geauga Times Courier

Member, International Association of Theatre Critics 

 

This review will appear in the News-Herald on 6/7/13

 

 

Rabbit Run Theater in Madison Township opens its summer stock season of movie-themed productions with Robert Harling's "Steel Magnolias."  It's no Dickens masterwork (the subject of last season's productions), but the play has become a true classic on the community theater circuit since the film's release in 1989. 

 

This estrogen-driven tearjerker of a comedy is set in Truvy's Beauty Shop in Chinquapin Parish, Louisiana, where the drawling dialogue revolves around local gossip, recipe exchanges, and saccharine observations on life and love.

 

The story centers on Shelby (Mackenzie Possage), an endearing young women whose diabetes and disappointing marriage lead to personal setbacks, medical complications, and tough-love doled out by her ever-vigil but adoring mother, M'Lynn (Maria Thomas Lister).  

 

Yet, "Steel Magnolias" is very much an ensemble piece that features salon owner Truvy Jones (J. Sunshine Sprague), her assistant Annelle (Colleen O'Leary), and a core of lovable and devoted locals (Ingrid Balstad as Clairee and Linda Fundis as Ouiser) who come in for a wash and a rinse, but stay to dish.  Throughout the play, they share in Shelby's pain and pleasure and, by doing so, invite us to do the same.  

 

All this personal disclosure and the casual manner in which it unfolds is stuff suitable for the Lifetime Channel, but these affable and charming characters and the witty repartee they are provided make for a very pleasant evening's entertainment for everyone.

 

As with all plays that have become popular films, it is impossible not to compare one with the other.  And with Sally Field, Shirley MacLaine, Olympia Dukakis, Dolly Parton, Daryl Hannah and Julia Roberts as their cinematic counterparts, our local players have huge shoes to fill.  Despite some overacting and overreacting in this Rabbit Run production, everyone turns in a truly delightful, believable performance.  The comic timing is also superb, which is clearly director Nancy Shimonek Brooks' influence. 

 

Mackenzie Possage is a very accessible Shelby, and her underlying vulnerability is the styling gel that serves to bond the ensemble and turn the audience into a supportive and collective whole.  These qualities are also required to turn the final scene of the play into a two-tissue tearjerker, which it does.

 

J. Sunshine Sprague and Ingrid Balstad are particularly wonderful as Truvy and the wealthy Clairee, respectively.  They deliver country-fried witticisms, barbs and sassiness with equal ease but with a distinctive manner of presentation that keeps this production interesting.    

 

While the film has the luxury of location shots, the stage version of "Steel Magnolias" is set exclusively in Truvy's Beauty Shop. This places quite a burden on scenic design, for the salon needs to establish from the get-go the down-home charm that defines this play and these people.  

 

Julie Harter and her crew have created an attractive but merely functional space.  Void of clutter, wear and tear, or local flavor, it feels as if Trudy's is only lived in during the two hours of the performance.  Still, with imaginary mirrors supposedly hung from the proscenium arch and actors facing the audience during bouts of grooming, we are brought into the action despite the set's lack of appeal.    

 

By the end of the show, patrons are likely to be checking their toes for cotton balls and leaving a few dollars on the counter on the way out.  That's the sign of a good production of "Steel Magnolias."

 

"Steel Magnolias" continues through June 8 at Rabbit Run Theater, 5648 W. Chapel Rd., in Madison Township. For tickets, $19 to $21, call 440-428-7092 or visit www.rabbitrunonline.org.  
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