Steel Magnolias at The Alexandra, Birmingham - Interview

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Tue 21 Mar 2023 - Sat 25 Mar 2023

Steel Magnolias was first performed off-Broadway in 1987 before becoming a hit film starring Sally Field, Dolly Parton, Shirley MacLaine, Daryl Hannah, Olympia Dukakis and Julia Roberts in 1989.

The setting is a salon in Louisiana where a group of women – some beauticians, some clients – gather on a regular basis to chew the cud about love, life and loss. Now it’s back on stage enjoying a UK tour which visits The Alexandra in Birmingham between March 21 and March 25, 2023. It boasts a star-studded cast.



Laura Main is best known as Nurse Shelagh Turner in BBC1’s Call The Midwife but she’s no stranger to the theatre, having landed the title role in Annie at the Phoenix Youth Theatre when she was 13, being cast in a number of productions with the Royal Shakespeare Company, playing Princess Fiona in the UK tour of Shrek and appearing in pantomime in her home town of Aberdeen.

She says her character in Steel Magnolias, M’Lynn, is wife, mother and grandmother, and is particularly close to her only daughter, Shelby.

“At the start of the play, she’s dealing with Shelby’s marriage, never an easy time for the mother of the bride, and then there’s the unfolding drama at the story’s conclusion. She tries to be supportive but, if she sometimes seems stressed, that’s perhaps understandable.”



One of the play’s strengths, says Laura, is that it finds humour at some of the darkest moments.

“Here is a bunch of women who deal with life’s ups and downs and who draw comfort from one another. I hadn’t worked with any of the other actresses before this production but we very quickly bonded. What I particularly liked was that we’d be rehearsing the back-and-forth of our conversations and then break for tea. The banter would carry on but no longer with American accents.”

Diana Vickers plays Shelby, M’Lynn’s diabetic daughter.

“Shelby’s very much at the centre of the story,” she says. “She’s a lovable, passionate optimist which makes her fabulous to play every night. It was Julia Roberts in the movie and she was fantastic. I’ve been careful not to imitate her.”

How did Diana cope with the American accent? “I’ve got quite a good ear. In 2009, I played the lead character in a West End production of The Rise and Fall of Little Voice in which I had to sing in the style of Shirley Bassey, Edith Piaf and Judy Garland, among others.”

The year before, Diana had come to public attention in The X Factor, making it to the semi-finals. She then enjoyed chart success before moving into acting. Was this always her ambition?

“I wanted to be a pop star, yes, and I achieved that, but Little Voice was the best thing that ever happened to me because it meant I could both sing and act.”



Lucy Speed plays glamour technician Truvy Jones (it was Dolly Parton on screen), the lynchpin of the group of friends who regularly visit the beauty salon.

“She’s positive, upbeat, bubbly and a romantic,” says Lucy. “Everyone likes Truvy, and Truvy likes everyone. I wanted to do it because I’d worked with director Anthony Banks the year before. I have two young children so juggling time is always a bit of a challenge but I liked the script and I always enjoy working with a group of women.”

Although Lucy is perhaps best known from her role as Natalie Evans in EastEnders in the early ‘90s, and then again for five years from 1999, as well as Stevie Moss in The Bill for three years from 2008, she’s no stranger to the stage.

Aged eight, she appeared at the National Theatre in a play called Neap Tide and went on to appear in a one-woman play. Last year, she joined the cast of The Archers, playing farm manager Stella Pryor. What she particularly likes about Steel Magnolias is the combination of strength and gallows humour that women find in the face of adversity.

“There’s a shorthand these women have with each other which is comforting. And it seems as though it’s that chemistry which audiences are recognising and reacting to.”



Caroline Harker – best known to TV audiences courtesy of Middlemarch and A Touch of Frost – is Clairee Belcher, former town ‘first lady’ (played in the movie by Olympia Dukakis).

“Steel Magnolias is a beautifully written piece,” Caroline says, “which makes you laugh and cry and demonstrates that, whatever crosses your path, life goes on. Despite what happens, it’s not at all doom-laden; in fact, I’d say it’s uplifting.

“%%When I accepted the role, I decided not to watch the film again because the late Olympia Dukakis and I couldn’t be more different. I didn’t want her interpretation of Clairee to influence me. What I quickly realised is the script for the play is funnier, dirtier, more realistic in a way, than the film version. It has a completely different pulse. The writer, Robert Harling, came to talk to us and he told me that my character is based on one of his favourite aunts who was knowing and warm and funny.

“The point is that the whole story was inspired by what happened to his own sister which makes it very personal. And it really feels as though it comes from the heart.”

Harriet Thorpe is Clairee’s best friend, Louise – known as Ouiser – and played by Shirley MacLaine on film. She is best known from TV’s The Brittas Empire and as Fleur in AbFab, as well as in West End musicals Mamma Mia! and Wicked. She says she couldn’t be enjoying herself more.

“Ouiser is grumpy, glorious, always negative and wildly funny and, of course, great fun to play. But then, I’m only ever cast as psychotic women: they’re crazy ladies and thank goodness for that.”



For Elizabeth Ayodele , winning the part of beautician Annelle – Daryl Hannah in the screen version – is one of the biggest breaks of her fledgling career.

“Before the audition,” she says, “I read the script twice and immediately felt drawn to Annelle, a young woman still in the process of finding out who she is. She’s likeable because she’s young and willing.

“At the root of the story is the strength of family, something that my character feels keenly following the collapse of her first marriage, eviction from her home and the fact she’s pretty much penniless.

“She’s saved by the women in the salon with whom she bonds and who allow her to blossom. I feel exactly the same surrounded by all these great actresses.”

Tickets for Steel Magnolias at The Alexandra, Birmingham, are priced from £13 from www.atgtickets.com/birmingham




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