Review: Players' 'Steel Magnolias' appropriate show for Mother's Day

For their latest stage play, the members of the River City Players community theater group chose a story that, despite its relatively recent birth into American pop culture, has quickly become one of the best-known (and oft-referenced) stories of the modern era — "Steel Magnolias."

And it was a good choice. For one, the crux of the story deals with a daughter/mother relationship, just in time for Mother's Day on Sunday. And its story of friendship, aging, relationships and mortality (in all its unjust potential) will tug on everyone's heartstrings, while making them laugh at the same time.

The Players performed this dramedy once before, in 1997. Director Stacey Storey was assistant director for the performance 11 years ago.

Those expecting an exact copy of the famous 1989 film version starring Dolly Parton, Sally Field, Julia Roberts, Daryl Hannah, Shirley MacLane and Olympia Dukakis won't be fulfilled. This play by Robert Harling, which was the basis for the film, is much more stripped down.

The action takes place in only one setting, Truvy's (played with plenty of charm by Sandra Shaw) beauty shop in the small Louisiana town of Chinquapin, over the course of several months.

Only six characters make up the entire cast, all of them women: Truvy; the quiet newcomer Annelle (Holly Raines); the sassy old widow Clairee (Elaine Carlson); the youthful-but-fragile Shelby (Sami Gross, a high school student who bailed the Players out when the original Shelby had to drop out, gives a standout performance); Shelby's sometimes overbearing mother M'lynn (Sara Corbin); and the cranky old Southern woman Ouiser (Lisa Lambert, who delivers more laughs than anyone else).

The only male in the play is a radio DJ's voice by Bill Dunn that is only heard in the final scene.

The lack of testosterone doesn't make "Steel Magnolias" inaccessible to men. In fact, the themes are so universal that either sex can feel the strong sentiment conveyed by Harling's play, even if the situations and dialogue are sometimes cliche.

But cliche or not, the stage version of "Steel Magnolias" is entertaining, and heartwarming. Those familiar with the story know of its less-than-happy ending, but I won't spoil it for you. But if you choose to see this one, be ready to laugh and cry.

Chuck Ross and Keith West codirect, with set design by Tim Roth and lighting and sound by Ross.