STAGE REVIEW | 'Steel Magnolias' Script has flair, but comic timing could be better

Overall, the production is well worth watching.
LISBON -- Men, steer clear! This is the ultimate "women's territory." That is "Truvy's Beauty Spot" in Chinquapin Parish, La. Thus is the premise for the Robert Harling play "Steel Magnolias" at Stage Left Players in Lisbon.
The location of the salon is not so important as what happens in the salon. And although the Southern flavor adds humor to the piece, the atmosphere in any beauty salon is pretty much the same. The story is an original by Harling, based on the lives of his mother and sister and their group of friends.
The audience experiences the comings and goings of six women, two employees and four loyal customers, as they discuss their lives and the lives of anyone who happens to pass by.
The shop is owned by Truvy Jones, an energetic and lovable hairdresser, whose humor and friendship makes the shop a home away from home for her somewhat crazy customers. Karen E. Hauck-Losito plays Truvy with a smoothness and gentleness that would win anybody over. She not only does a mean hairstyle but dispenses both fun and advice in heaping amounts. Losito seemed relaxed in the role and sold the sassy shop owner fairly well. It's a busy role for Losito since most of her time onstage is spent doing someone's hair or doing a manicure.
But she does get help when she hires a down and out young lady named Annelle Dupay Desoto. Desoto enters with a mysterious past and a somewhat troubled state of mind. Shannon Adair Stewart develops the role of Desoto well. She is probably the one character in the show that has the biggest character swing of all of them. She plays the uncomfortable "new kid on the block" role well in scene one, which sets up important character developments later in the show.
Mother-daughter combo
Enter the two main leads in the show in the characters of Shelby Eatenton Latcherie and her mother M'Lynn played by real life mother and daughter, Anna Sturgeon and Katherine Fawcett. Shelby is to be married that afternoon and the audience soon learns of the ever present mother/daughter battles that rage on in the Latcherie household. Shelby can do little to please mother M'Lynn. Sturgeon suits the daughter role well but falls a little short in the energy category.
She has a good concept of the character but with a little more zip could have made Shelby a little more dynamic. Fawcett does well as M'Lynn and plays the always critical parent with believability save for the same energy problem as Sturgeon. She does make up for it, however, in Act II in a very well done dramatic scene, which brings all of the characters a bit closer together.
Deborah Wagner is in good form as Clairee Belcher. Belcher is a typical Southern lady who throws jabs at everyone relentlessly. It's Belcher who has some of the funniest lines of the entire show. Wagner's dry delivery suited the character well.
Vicki Rossi portrays Weezer Boudreaux, the real cynic of the group. Rossi gets her teeth into the character as she complains about everything and everybody and proclaims that she has "more money than God." Rossi molds the character well as she softens her up just a bit in Act II to show that even she has a heart.
Lack of energy
The attempt seemed to be to make the conversation in the shop as conversational as possible. That was all well and good but in doing so there was a general lack of energy and pacing. Character portrayals were good but with an extra punch and a little better flow it could have made the already funny lines considerably funnier and the characters even richer.
Dick Fawcett directed the production with assistance from his wife, Kathy. Kudos goes to the prop crew for an excellent job in outfitting the salon with all of the necessary equipment, including running water.