WEST SPRINGFIELD \u2014 \u201cThis play is perfect for us,\u201d Sue Dziura told Majestic Theater founder Danny Eaton about \u201cSteel Magnolias\u201d when discussing potential plays for the current season.<\/p>\n
The 1987 play that inspired the 1989 hit film starring Sally Field, Shirley MacLaine, Dolly Parton, Olympia Dukakis, Daryl Hannah and Julia Roberts, among other big names, opens at The Majestic Theater on Thursday and runs through Nov 30.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe play is a beautiful character-driven story about people who care about one another and support each other. It is about family, friends and community, all the things we are at The Majestic Theater,\u201d said Dziura, who is the Majestic\u2019s producing director.<\/p>\n
Written by Robert Harling, \u201cSteel Magnolias\u201d blends humor with moments of emotional depth. Set in a small southern beauty salon in the fictional northwestern Louisiana parish of Chinquapin, the play showcases a group of strong-willed women who navigate life\u2019s challenges with sharp humor and unfiltered honesty. <\/p>\n
Harling wrote the play as a tribute to his type 1 diabetic sister, who he honors with a character in the play, Shelby, who is afflicted with the same disease.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur production is based on the play, not the movie, and features an all-female cast with only one set being the beauty parlor owned by Truvy Jones. The male characters, who were featured in the movie, are referred to only through dialogue as was the case in the original Broadway play,\u201d Dziura said about directing the play.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I love about the play is that it is really funny, and you don\u2019t often see an all-female cast have the opportunity to be as funny and unabashedly human on stage as this play allows,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
The cast includes MaConnia Chesser as Clairee, Cate Damon as M\u2019Lynn, Kait Rankins as Annelle, Angela Dias as Ouiser, Elaine Hom as Truvy, and Raya Malcolm as Shelby. <\/p>\n \u201cSimilar to Sue, our director, I knew the movie first and watched it many times with my mom. It\u2019s a classic,\u201d Malcolm said.<\/p>\n \u201cI love Shelby, the character I\u2019m playing. She is very strong and has a big heart and knows clearly what she wants out of life. From what I observe, Shelby does almost everything out of love in her interaction with everyone around her,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n Living with type 1 diabetes, which typically affects young children throughout their lifetime, can be physically and mentally challenging, yet Shelby seems to take it in stride.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t believe Shelby is naive about her situation and the health challenges that diabetes presents for her. Despite those challenges, she attempts to live life to the fullest, and says at one point in the play, \u2018I would rather have 30 minutes of wonderful than a lifetime of nothing special,\u2019\u201d Malcolm said.<\/p>\n Tickets to the show range from $35 to $38 and can be purchased in person at the box office, by calling 413-747-7797, or by going online to majestictheater.com.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement<\/a> and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and\/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.masslive.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" WEST SPRINGFIELD \u2014 \u201cThis play is perfect for us,\u201d Sue Dziura told Majestic Theater founder Danny Eaton about \u201cSteel Magnolias\u201d when discussing potential plays for the current season. The 1987 play that inspired the 1989 hit film starring Sally Field, Shirley MacLaine, Dolly Parton, Olympia Dukakis, Daryl Hannah and Julia Roberts, among other big names, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2103608","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-entertainment"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2103608","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2103608"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2103608\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2103609,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2103608\/revisions\/2103609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2103608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2103608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2103608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"'Steel](\"https:\/\/www.masslive.com\/resizer\/v2\/DVLTLIF54NEYFLREHSNUHMFIZE.jpg?auth=6571977505909ddbee16eb3b1d01ad6f2d504e0b98e78bd0c6b12e6b5b652ae6&width=1280&smart=true&quality=90\"\/)
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