Steel Magnolias - Great Britain and Ireland tour

www.uktw.co.uk/ is often a good resource for finding tour details.

Did anybody on here see the original West End production in the ‘80’s?

Rosemary Harris, Maggie Steed, Jean Boht, Janine Duvitski, Stephanie Cole & Joely Richardson! V.classy.

Do we know who the producers are?

Website now up and full tour schedule available:

steelmagnoliasplay.co.uk/

Opens in Bromley, for three days, in January. Mostly an English tour, with week-long stops in Scotland, Wales and Ireland.

The two 'stars' announced so far both leave the tour mid-way through the run.

(I've changed the thread title to be more geographically accurate.)

No, but would have loved to!

Caught this at Richmond, and loved it! There's a funny line every minute or so, and this cast nail the laughs and then nail the heartfelt feelings. I preferred this to the film. . .

Some spoilers follow. . .

This is much funnier than the film, for me, less melodramatic, more focused on funny conversations, yet it still becomes tremendously moving at the end.

Limiting the story to one location, Truvy's hairdressers, and limiting the story to 6 female friends, rather than depicting all those extraneous male characters and subplots, keeps the focus where it belongs, on the friendships and communal bonds forged in that special place.

About every minute or so, there is a golden line of dialogue, delivered by these actors with the confident and convincing teasing manner of naturalistic conversation that triggers belly laughs.

For example, Lucy Speed's Truvy nails the line that "there's no such thing as natural beauty," and Harriet Thorpe's Ouiser's denial that she's crazy, with the line that she's rather been "in a bad mood for 40 years" is perfectly pitched.

The cast nail the accents, with exception of Caoline Harker's Clairee, who makes up for that by being excellent in every other way, particularly her comic timing.

But then, all the cast give memorable performances: with Diana Vicker's Shelby so loveably sharp, witty and chirpy chatty at the beginning, and affectingly attempting to keep this going in the second half, that I forgot about Julia Roberts for a second lol; and Lucy Speed embodying everything Dolly Parton did in the film, being the heart of the heart of a community of relatable women. The standout, for me, though, was Harriet Thorpe's Ouiser, whose raspy gruff punchy perfectly timed eccentric exclamations make for a Ouiser that is leagues funnier than Shirley MacLaine was in the film (forgive me lol).

This show has so many laughs, with 5 actors successfully piloting their characters in jovial communal witty laugh mode, and one character, Laura Main's M'Lynn in contrasting wistful-thoughtful-vulnerable mode, brilliantly emotionally grounding the piece, and keeping the whole thing on an even keel to land the eventual dramatic ending.

I laughed a lot! For that reason, and for the purity of focus, the original play beats the film for me. 4 stars.

Ha ha, I'm currently negotiating a strike day with a blend of tubes and buses. What a hassle!

With the play, just go in without expectations and it's likely to amuse you.

Anyone expecting Sally Field level fireworks, per the film, is likely to be disappointed, as the focus is squarely on the community, not M'Lynn (Field's pivotal movie character). In fact, there are huge stretches of this play where her character is entirely absent, and other stretches where M'Lynn is present, but saying nothing, which adds a layer of thoughtfulness to otherwise wholly comedic scenes.

The focus, on comedy and community, is what I loved about the piece.

The tour will now end in April, three months earlier than planned.

I imagine it was just the usual case of poor advance sales. Shame really. Is it just me or has the touring market seemed very dodgy post-Covid? Lots of shows going out and not doing well or cancelling.

I suspect the issue is the quality of shows as well. The big ticket shows sell really well but you can't really entice people some of the plays.

It’s a shame quite fancied this it may still be local before it ends will check ….. mind you touring show tickets are higher than ever been recently …. Looked for something the weekend at 6 local ish theatres ….. was lucky to get any decent seat for less than £40 front stalls are regularly £50-60
Only ones I could afford for strictly ballroom in wolves were £24 each ..listening only ! You read correctly

Death drop next month Saturday sold about 200 seats too price tickets £60