Playbill On-Line first reported Mason's possible involvement on Nov. 23. Magnolias will be her first New York stage turn since playing in Charles L. Mee's Wintertime at Second Stage Off-Broadway.

Sternhagen jumps from the still-running The Foreigner to the Broadway revival. The busy actress began the season in The Old Lady Shows Her Medals at the Mint Theatre.

Rebecca Gayheart will make her New York stage debut , playing fragile but yearning Shelby . Shelby is the bride-to-be in the warm comedy about a gaggle of friends who gather to gossip and bond at a Louisiana beauty parlor.

Jason Moore (Avenue Q) directs a cast that includes (as previously announced) Christine Ebersole (as M'Lynn, Shelby's mother), Lily Rabe (as beautician Annelle) and Delta Burke (as parlor owner Truvy).

Performances begin March 15, 2005, at the Lyceum Theatre. Opening is set for April 4.

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Steel Magnolias concerns the gossip and affection swapped at a beauty shop in Natchitoches, Louisiana (pronounce it "nack-a-tush"), as the daughter of a beloved customer heads toward marriage and motherhood. Prior to its long run at the Lucille Lortel Theatre, Steel Magnolias originated in New York at the WPA Theatre.

The 1987 Off-Broadway play blossomed in regional theatre and became a starry hit movie (with Dolly Parton as Truvy, Sally Field as M'Lynn and Julia Roberts as Shelby).

Robert Harling has said in the past that he wrote the play in a short time period, basing it on real-life characters and events in his family and hometown.

Steel Magnolias will be produced on Broadway by Roy Gabay, Robyn Goodman, Ruth Hendel, Sharon Karmazin, Elsa Haft/Marty Gasparian, and Ergo Entertainment.