Steel Magnolias

Playhouse 1960
6814 Gant Road Houston

The play opens with discussion of Shelby's wedding day to her fiance, Jackson, in the fictional northwestern Louisiana Parish of Chinquapin at Truvy's in-home beauty parlour where the women regularly gather. It covers events over the next three years with Shelby's Type 1 diabetes and how the women interact at times with conflict but in the end remained friends: Shelby's decision to have a child despite the complication that could result from her condition, Clairee's friendship with the curmudgeon Ouiser; Annelle's transformation from a shy, anxious newcomer in town to a good-time girl then repentant revival-tent Christian; and Truvy's relationships with the men in her family. Steel Magnolias was made into the 1989 film with Julia Roberts, Sally Fields and Dolly Parton.