Steel Magnolias

The action is set in Truvy’s beauty salon in Chinquapin, Louisiana, where all the ladies who are “anybody” come to have their hair done. Helped by her eager new assistant, Annelle, the outspoken, wise-cracking Truvy dispenses shampoos and free advice to the town’s rich curmudgeon Ouiser, an eccentric millionaire Miss Clairee, and the local social leader M’Lynn, whose daughter Shelby is about to marry a “good ole boy.” Filled with hilarious repartee and not a few acerbic but humorously revealing verbal collisions, the play moves toward tragedy when the spunky Shelby risks pregnancy and forfeits her life. The sudden realization of their mortality affects the others but also draws on the underlying strength—and love—which give the play and its characters the special quality to make them truly touching, funny, and marvelously amiable company.