Salon truths, laughs and surprises

Watching a live play that you’ve already seen adapted for film can be like trying not to think of pink rhinoceroses; it’s difficult to escape what you already know. This week, I’ve had two opportunities for such an exercise: “The Wizard of Oz” on Tuesday and the final dress rehearsal for “Steel Magnolias” Thursday evening. With the former, part of the fun is discovering how far the production can move from the movie. For the latter, the interest lies in seeing the roots of the 1989 movie in the original 1987 play and in absorbing the performances on their own merits, apart from the portrayals in the film.

With two-thirds of the cast of Festival 56’s “Magnolias”, no comparison is necessary. Melissa Dowty, as the vivacious salon owner Truvy, does for the show exactly what her character does; she creates a welcoming space onstage for this ensemble of colorful women to play in. Dowty strikes just the right balance of sass, romantic longing and maternal concern. As Truvy’s outrageous regulars Ouiser, who’s “just been in a very bad mood — for 40 years,” and Claree, the mayor’s widow who discovers how to live life on her own, Donna Schulte and Nancy Evans give spirited, truthful performances. How refreshing to see accomplished actors “of a certain age” in the Festival 56 company, though I realize older actors have played single roles quite ably in seasons past. My one quibble with Evans is that I had difficulty understanding her dialogue in spots through some quirk of diction or accent — not an issue of volume. Rachel Magill, as the young bride, Shelby, plays her first scene in near-Bridezilla mode and conveys the changing effects of Shelby’s health and relationship issues in subsequent scenes.

I found Melissa Joiner’s Annelle, the girl “with a past” whom Truvy takes under her wing, to be rather flat in the opening — not fragile or skittish enough, for all that guns are being shot off intermittently while she’s auditioning for a crucial job — and I wasn’t convinced she ever could go off on a Mardi Gras bender. In the second act, however, Joiner was more convincing as born-again Christian and, finally, mother-to-be. Ann Kimmel nailed M’Lynn’s grieving-mother monologue in the final scene, but for most of the show, as I tried to avoid thoughts of Sally Field, I gravitated to ... Laura Bush. For me, it’s a reading that was not easy or expected. Yet, given the character outline for M’Lynn, it is eerily appropriate.