Theater review: Stale ‘Magnolias’: Guthrie chooses tepid show that’s all gossip and one-liners – St. Paul Pioneer Press

Which would be the better adjective to describe the Guthrie Theater’s production of “Steel Magnolias”?

Ho-hum? Or humdrum?

It’s a tough call. My Oxford English Dictionary defines “ho-hum” as an expression of boredom; describing something dull or routine. That puts the finger squarely on Robert Harling’s script, which — I know, I know — he wrote in the 1980s as an homage to his sister, who died young from complications of diabetes.

The “magnolias” of the title are a group of mostly upper-class Southern women; lifelong friends who gather weekly at Truvy’s beauty salon to crack wise and playfully abuse each other. The action never leaves the salon and, though seasons (and more than 2 1/2 hours of playing time) pass, nothing changes.

Oh, a young newcomer with a past shows up as a new employee in the opening scene, but we never get the juicy details of her story. And yes, the pretty young mother dies, but this is foreordained early in the first act, when Shelby collapses in a diabetic reaction, recovers and then notes that — in case the audience missed it — “I also know the limitations of this body of mine.”

At least in director Lisa Rothe’s staging, some of these pals are women of color, which makes it look more like the Louisiana in which I lived (in the original off-Broadway staging and the 1989 movie, all the characters were white). That diversity aside, the characters reside in a narrow vein of recognizable types: The bravely grieving widow. The smart-mouthed, crabby spinster. The long-suffering wife, way smarter than her husband. And so on.

Which brings us to “humdrum” (“lacking variety, routine, undecided, irresolute,” per the OED). The six women in the cast (half Twin Cities performers; half imports) are all fine performers, certainly capable of carving out characters of deft nuance. Trouble is, you couldn’t find subtext in this script with an electron microscope. It’s all gossip and one-liners, Meaningful Glances and one very Heartfelt Speech at the end.

Bless their hearts, they’re doing the best they can to create a sense of chemistry and camaraderie, but the load grows heavy as the evening wears on. There’s Sally Wingert as Ouiser, grumping, “I’m not crazy; I’ve just been in a very bad mood for 40 years.” Here’s Austene Van, dispensing wisdom and gallons of hairspray as the proprietor, Truvy. Nicole King is just this side of bratty as the doomed Shelby; Melissa Maxwell, as her mother M’Lynn, plays that Heartfelt Speech with grace instead of mawkishness. Expertly be-wigged by Laura Stearns in a variety of 1980s coifs. These women — along with Amy Van Nostrand’s gently wise Clairee and Adelin Phelps’ neurotic Annelle — are working hard. And too often, it shows.

The only thing that really pops about this production is the scenic rendering of Truvy’s renovated carport of a salon. Presumably spending the money the Guthrie didn’t use creating a set for the minimalist “Glass Menagerie” that closed a couple weeks back in the McGuire Proscenium, Narelle Sissons offers a skylit and screened-in wonder of light wood and brown-brick accents, offset by furniture of teal and burnt orange. You can almost smell the wisteria, and between scenes and seasons, the whole works revolves so you can get the full house-porn effect.

This isn’t a “bad” production, per se: It will be popular with anyone who couldn’t find a chick-flick at the local multiplex. But with the whole of the American theater canon at the theater’s fingertips — and a growing menu of work written by and about women, the Guthrie’s choice of the tepid, anachronistic “Steel Magnolias” is a puzzling one.

Guthrie Theater’s “Steel Magnolias”

  • When: Through Dec. 15
  • Where:  Guthrie Theater, 818 S. Second St., Minneapolis
  • Tickets: $52 -$25
  • Information: 612-377-2224 or guthrietheater.org
  • Capsule: A throwback dramedy from the 1980s fails to flower.

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