Review: CFTA Sells All The Tickets for Harling's STEEL MAGNOLIAS

There's probably no title in the contemporary theater repertoire guaranteed to spark more debate than Robert Harling's Steel Magnolias. Particularly among southern companies, Harling's story of six women who gather every Saturday morning in a small-town Louisiana beauty shop has legions of fans who clamor for more revivals of the oft-produced comedy-drama - yet there are just as many detractors who decry its seeming omnipresence among season's offerings from far too many organizations.

In Middle Tennessee, for example, there are no fewer than six productions of Steel Magnolias slated to be performed in 2018. It's a good choice due to its popularity - it's a proven moneymaker and audiences love it - but, conversely, theater folk who long to see newer, perhaps more cutting-edge material performed regionally, oftentimes reviewed to be swayed from their entrenched beliefs that the play is tired and over-done.

So, imagine, if you will the quandary faced by a theater critic who's seen approximately 3,927 productions of this particular theatrical warhorse - someone who first saw the play onstage some 30 years ago and is as familiar with Harling's iconic dialogue as anyone can be and who has definite ideas about how the show should be done - and written about most of them in the process. It's a daunting task, let me assure you, even when the artists behind a particular production "get it right" and, even more so, if they have somehow missed the mark.

Now onstage through Sunday at Murfreesboro's Center for the Arts, in a completely sold-out (which means, every seat has been claimed) production directed by Katie Boothe and featuring six more actresses in the roles of the habitues of Truvy's beauty salon in Chinquapin Parrish, Steel Magnolias can still bring great pleasure and the unique blend of "laughter through tears" as the favorite emotion of every person, save one or two, seated in the darkened auditorium as it is transformed to 1980s Louisiana.

As with many productions of Steel Magnolias, however, CFTA's most recent offering is a mixed bag of performance styles and directorial choices that translate either as uproariously funny or clumsily cartoonish, depending upon one's perspective. Judging from the audience's responses at the performance reviewed, they clearly found the humor rollicking and the performances engaging. On the other hand, however, the wizened critic was rather indifferent to what he witnessed on the stage.

Boothe does a good job of moving her actors around Rob DeHoff's expansive set that depicts a garage turned into a beauty shop, as is the wont of many a Southern entrepreneur. Maybe Truvy and her husband used it to house a giant tour bus or recreational vehicle previously, but the size of the set takes away some of the intimacy that should be inherent in any production of Steel Magnolias. What sets the play apart from others of similar ilk - that which has made it a favorite of people for more than a quarter century - is the authenticity of the relationships depicted in the story and the warmth and humor derived from watching a group of devoted friends gathered together in times of great joy and great sadness. When the set is simply too big, those emotions tend to dissipate and to fall flat.

There are other choices which still confound me as I continue to think about them: Why is Shelby wearing a salmon colored sweater set in the first scene, when we all know that pink is her signature color? Why does the legendary tumbler of juice she is exhorted to drink look more like weak lemonade than orange juice? And why is every coffee pot brought onto the stage virtually empty?

Obviously, if I'm thinking about such minutiae, it may be a sign I need to stop going to every opening of Steel Magnolias within driving distance. But, alas, I will spend at least one more Saturday night in Chinquapin Parrish as the next production opens this week at Donelson's Larry Keeton Theatre.

That's not to say there's a lot about CFTA's Steel Magnolias that works well: Bethany True's take on M'Lynn, the homemaker and social worker who has the greatest dramatic arc in Harling's play, seems completely fresh. True's delivery is unique and her comic timing is perfect as she is able to elicit some laughs heretofore never seen in a prior performance of the role. True's performance seems, well, true to the character and there is never even the whisper of a false note in her portrayal.

Likewise, Jamie Hubbard plays Ouiser with a different outlook, as well, her performance as the irascible Ouiser is at once unexpected, even if inspired by what's been done with the character before. Hubbard's Ouiser has a whole new attitude and demeanor that is just as prickly and contrary as one might expect, yet somehow more authentic. As her more genteel and refined counterpart, Lisa McLaurin is right on the money as Clairee Belcher, the former first lady of the town, whose retorts and rejoinders sound exactly as they should, even if McLaurin's a good 30 years too young to be playing someone of the character's age.

Mara Smotherman is delightfully daft and scattered as Annelle, showing plenty of confidence as her character becomes better acquainted with her surroundings and the ladies who inhabit them. Evangeline Manning, as the doomed diabetic Shelby Lachery (M'Lynn's beloved daughter) plays against type as the play's ingenue lead.

As Truvy, Shanda Perkins underplays her role in the show's earlier scenes to the point that she seems a supporting character in her own shop. Instead of the spitfire who injects the play with broader appeal and a slightly ribald sense of humor, Perkins' Truvy seems far too laidback.

Steel Magnolias. By Robert Harling. Directed by Katie Boothe. Presented by Center for the Arts, Murfreesboro. Through Sunday, August 19. For details, go to www.boroarts.org. Running time: 2 hours, 30 minutes (with one 15-minute intermission).

production photos by Frank Caperton

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