Southern comfort comedy ‘Steel Magnolias’ both hilarious and historic Bob Abelman Cleveland Jewish News, The News Herald, The Morning Journal Member, International Association of Theatre Critics Robert Harling’s “Steel Magnolias,” currently on stage at the Allen Theatre, is a mani-pedi of a play – an estrogen-driven, southern comfort comedy set exclusively in Truvy’s Beauty Shop in Chinquapin Parish, Louisiana. The drawling dialogue revolves around local gossip, recipe exchanges, and Shelby. Shelby (Allison Layman) is an endearing, head-strong 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 (Erika Rolfsrud). The play also features the salon owner Truvy Jones (Elizabeth Meadows Rouse), her born-again assistant Annelle (Devon Caraway), and a duo of lovable and devoted locals – Clairee (Charlotte Booker) and Ouiser (Mary Stout) – who come in for a wash and a rinse, but stay to dish and offer astute observations about life and love. Throughout the play, these women share in Shelby’s pain and pleasure and, by doing so, invite us to do the same. For more of this review, go to www.clevelandjewishnews.com/columnists/.