By Tom Titus for Daily Pilot
Watching "Steel Magnolias" is like visiting an old friend with whom you share a contentious camaraderie. Especially when the production is as strong and evenly balanced as its current incarnation at the Costa Mesa Playhouse.
Robert Harling's dramatic comedy has been around the local block a few times — at least five by personal reminiscence — but it remains thoroughly enjoyable and laugh-inducing, a tribute to the strong ties that bind its characters in humor, in strife and, particularly, in times of tragedy.
The dramatic twist near the play's end is quite familiar by now to most audiences, given its plethora of local productions and the popular movie version, which introduced a promising young actress named Julia Roberts. Yet by that time, we are deeply invested in all six of its characters regardless of our foreknowledge of the outcome.
"Steel Magnolias" is set in a converted Louisiana garage that serves as Truvy's Beauty Shop, in which the local ladies converge for coiffures and chatter. All are strongly and individually rendered in the Costa Mesa production, under the skilled direction of Jason Holland.
There is Truvy (Michelle Pedersen), the ebullient owner of the shop, who's breaking in a new assistant (Erin Miller), a troubled young lady with a confusing personal history. They're open on Saturday to attend to Shelby (Amanda Hart), who's getting married that afternoon.
Later we meet M'Lynn (Bethany Price), Shelby's stubborn mother; Clairee (Lynn Gallagher), widow of the town's former mayor who invests in the local radio station, and Ouiser (Phyllis Nofts), the mannish, garrulous neighbor with a sour outlook but a warm heart underneath all the bluster.
Pederson sparkles as the wisecracking beautician who offers curls and comfort to her clientele, and is particularly effective in scenes where she probes for details on her new stylist. Miller nails her shy, repressive character and presides nicely over her considerable growth as the play progresses.
Hart, as the pretty-in-pink bride, is the glowing centerpiece of the show, a beauty who suffers from diabetic seizures and whose life is endangered by her pregnancy. Her caring but conflicted mother is given a particularly strong interpretation by Price, whose emotional breakdown in the final act is mesmerizing.
Comic relief is nicely supplied by the other two ladies. Gallagher excels as a stylish woman of means who enjoys stirring things up, especially with Nofts' obstreperous character, an older, set-in-her-ways harridan. The contrast in these two is hilarious in itself.
The richly detailed beauty shop setting is meticulously designed by the show's stage manager, Travis Stolp. Steve Endicott's lighting and Christopher MiIls' costumes further set the down-home mood.
"Steel Magnolias" may be overly familiar to many prospective audience members, but you'll look far and wide to find a more thoroughly realized production of it than the one currently in residence at the Costa Mesa Playhouse.
TOM TITUS reviews local theater for the Daily Pilot.
If You Go What: "Steel Magnolias" Where: Costa Mesa Playhouse, 611 Hamilton St., Costa Mesa. When: 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, and 2 p.m. Sundays through July 3. Cost: $16- $18 Call: (949) 650-5269
©2011 Costa Mesa Playhouse