Grand Rapids Civic Theatre opens the season of WOW with STEEL MAGNOLIAS
By: Julie Musbach Aug. 23, 2018
Kicking off Grand Rapids Civic Theatre's 2018/19 season is a colorful appointment with the Steel Magnolias of Chinquapin Parish, Louisiana...a community unlike any other, where humor and heart go hand in hand.
This heartfelt story centers on the close-knit "regulars" of Truvy Jones' beauty parlour, each with a talent for fashion, gossip, and friendly advice. When the local socialite's daughter marries a good ol' boy and decides to start a family, complications from her diabetes force the group closer together than ever, even at the risk of falling apart.
Written as a tribute to playwright Robert Harling's late sister Susan, Steel Magnolias was met with widespread acclaim in its 1987 Off-Broadway debut. Audiences were particularly charmed by the play's honesty, as its characters clearly mirrored the real-life women who had shaped Robert's life for so many years.
According to Harling, the script itself took only a few days to complete: "Ten days later, that's all it took because I had lived the story".
The success of Harling's stage production prompted an equally popular 1989 film adaptation, stacked with an all-star cast that included Dolly Parton, Sally Field, and a young Julia Roberts.
This fall, you too can delight in this tale, when Civic Theatre, at last, brings the iconic world of Steel Magnolias to West Michigan. Laugh and cry with the ladies of Truvy Jones' beauty shop, as they navigate hardship in true Southern Belle fashion: With the strength of steel and beauty of magnolias.
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