By Kenneth Jones
30 Jun 2005

The new Broadway production of Robert Harling's Steel Magnolias plays its 100th performance June 30 at the Lyceum Theatre.

The revival (making its Broadway debut after separate and popular lives Off-Broadway, regionally and as a Hollywood film) stars Delta Burke as Truvy, Christine Ebersole as M'Lynn, Rebecca Gayheart as Shelby, Marsha Mason as Ouiser, Lily Rabe as Annelle and Frances Sternhagen as Clairee.

Jason Moore (Avenue Q) directs.

The play "follows the lives of six indomitable Southern women as they share their personal triumphs, tragedies, beauty tips, recipes, and more than the occasional piece of scandalous gossip in Truvy's beauty shop in Chinquapin, Louisiana."

The quippy, epigrammatic play about women bonding in their favorite sanctum sanctorum is striking a chord with women theatregoers: At a recent Tuesday performance, the orchestra level was packed with a mostly-female audience laughing through their tears — a favorite emotion of beauty shop owner Truvy.

For tickets, visit Telecharge.com or call (212) 239-6200.

Visit the website at www.SteelMagnoliasBroadway.com.

From Left: Marsha Mason and Christine Ebersole in Steel Magnolias
photo by Joan Marcus