Ellen Dolan will appear in the Cape May Stage production of Steel Magnolias, which opens next month in the historic New Jersey town and runs through September. Dolan appeared for more than two decades as Margo Hughes on As the World Turns.
As the World Turns star Ellen Dolan (Margo Hughes) will appear in the Cape May Stage production of Steel Magnolias beginning next month. Dolan, who appeared on ATWT for two decades, will play the role of Truvy, a role played by Dolly Parton in the 1989 film adaptation.
Dolan will be joined on-stage by an all-women ensemble cast featuring Broadway and TV/film veterans Karen Ziemba as M'lynn, Nicole Lowrance as Annelle, Kate McCauley Hathaway as Clairee, Marlena Lustik as Ouiser, and Meredith Riley Stewart as Shelby.
Louisiana-born lawyer/actor/playwright Robert Harling wrote Steel Magnolias originally as a short story to help him deal with the untimely death of his diabetic sister following childbirth. "My nephew was about to turn five," he explains, "and I suddenly realized that if I didn't put down on paper what happened to his mother, he'd never know who she was." Luckily, Harling elected to tell his tragic story with a heavy dose of Southern humor, and he set it in a place in which he claims he has never set foot -- a beauty parlor, the mysterious and fascinating place where his mother and sister would disappear for a few hours each week with their friends. "I realized the story really had nothing to do with the men," he says. "It was about these women and their support systems. I wanted to have the women comfortable enough to let their hair down."
As the story unfolds, six soft-hearted "magnolias" with steely dispositions gather regularly at Truvy's Beauty Salon, the unofficial hub of Chinquapin, Louisiana, to chitchat with, counsel, criticize, and comfort one another. The wise-cracking Truvy, with the help of her new glamour technician, Annelle, dispenses liberal doses of shampoo, hairspray, free advice, and gossip to the town's rich curmudgeon, Ouiser; an eccentric millionaire, Miss Clairee; the local social worker; and M'Lynn, whose daughter, Shelby, is on the verge of marriage. The play visits these women over the course of two years in which together they experience love, joy, pain, death, and rebirth.
Steel Magnolias premiered at the WPA Theatre in New York on March 22, 1987, and subsequently transferred to the off-Broadway Lucille Lortel Theatre, where it ran for an impressive 1,126 performances and was nominated for an Outer Critics Circle Award. The first "Broadway" production of the play opened April 4, 2005. The story achieved widespread acclaim and popularity in a 1989 movie version.
Steel Magnolias officially opens Thursday, August 4, and will run through Saturday, September 10, at the Robert Shackleton Playhouse, located at the corner of Bank and Lafayette Streets in downtown Cape May, New Jersey.
Performances will be held Tuesdays through Sundays at 8 p.m. Tickets are $35 adults, $30 seniors, and $15 students. Friday, August 12, will be a half-price performance for senior citizens.
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Following the August 4 opening, all ticket holders are invited to join the opening night after-party at the Pier House, with the chance to mingle with the cast and crew. Call 609.884.1341 for reservations and information or visit the theatre's website, www.capemaystage.com.
Photo Credit: Kevin Thomas Garcia
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