Review: Steel Magnolias at the Lyceum, Sheffield

Words of wisdom for every woman of the Deep South – ‘The higher the hair the closer to God’ – adorn a poster pinned to the pine-clad 1980s walls.

And like the bulbs that surround a vanity mirror, the stage is bordered by a huge blue neon frame which illuminates blindingly to signal each scene change. The effect is dazzling.

Steel Magnolias might be familiar as the bittersweet 1989 film which earned Julia Roberts an Oscar nomination, but the movie was based on a 1987 stage play written by Robert Harling from his experience of his sister’s death.

This new touring production which runs until the summer has all the heart, homely charm, and southern sentimentality of the originals, and the performances are as emotional and tear-jerking as in the film.

Celebrating the fearsome strength of female friendship, with an all women cast, the story unfolds entirely in Truvy’s hair and beauty parlour in the fictional Louisiana town of Chinquapin. The cosy salon is the only set, the scenery primped and polished by a few seasonal accessories and a 180 flip around after the interval.

Lucy Speed, perhaps best known as Natalie Evans in EastEnders, takes on Dolly Parton’s role as Truvy, and with her pitch-perfect Dolly drawl (her country accent never slips), tasseled cowboy boots and big bouffant hair, she holds the ensemble together with an understated confidence, kindness and sweet southern Belle warmth.

Diana Vickers, who found fame on The X Factor and cemented her star quality with Little Voice, plays Julia Roberts’ part of pretty-in-pink Shelby, the feisty but fragile bride-to-be who dreams of baby’s breath blossoms in her up-do and a baby to hold in her arms.

Laura Main, of Call the Midwife, is her manicured mother M’Lynn, restrained, proper, protective and put-together – until she detonates in act two with a raw emotion so visceral and devastating that waterproof mascara is a must.

Together, the friends – with Caroline Hawker as widow Clairee (pinching Dorothy Parker’s best line “if you don¹t have anything nice to say about anybody, come sit by me”), Harriet Thorpe as cantankerous town grouch Ouiser, and Elizabeth Ayodele as evangelical new girl Annelle – span the seasons of life, in a story that plays out over a couple of years.

The neon frame around the stage flashes with light, the set goes pitch black, and seconds later the scenery has shifted, the costumes have changed, the characters have evolved and life has moved on.

Weddings, babies, bereavements… hairstyles, shoes and fashions… busy work and everyday dramas… crow’s feet and laughter lines… time marches on, and the constant throughout all of it is the unbreakable bond of the women’s friendships.

Truvy’s salon may just be a shop to have your hair coiffed and your nails lacquered, a place to poke fun and gossip and complain about feckless men.

But as every woman knows a good hairdresser can be so much more than just a stylist and Steel Magnolias always was more than a chick flick.

The show is not only the perfect laugh along girls’ night out but a wry and witty, heart-warming and heartbreaking, study in the humour and fierceness of friendship – and the comfort to be found in a spot of vanity when everything else is collapsing around you – that can get all of us through the toughest of times.

Steel Magnolias is at the Lyceum, Sheffield, until Saturday, February 4.