Clayburgh Eyes Role in B'way's Steel Magnolias
Clayburgh's previous Broadway credits include The Rothschilds, Pippin, Design for Living and Jumpers. She was part of the original off-Broadway cast of The Exonerated and in the summer of 2003 reunited with her Exonerated co-star Richard Dreyfuss in the Westport Country Playhouse production of All My Sons. Clayburgh also has numerous film and television credits--notable among them are her Emmy Award-winning turn in Hustling, her career-launching performance in the box office hit Silver Streak, and two films which earned her consecutive Best Actress Academy Award and Golden Globe Award nominations: An Unmarried Woman and Starting Over. Recently Clayburgh was seen as the body-obsessed Bobbi Broderick in two episodes of Nip/Tuck.
Steel Magnolias is set it a small town beauty parlor in Louisiana and follows the lives of several women who often meet there. The story pays particular attention to M'Lynn and her daughter Shelby. Both a comedy and a tearjerker, there are eccentric characters galore in the play with M'Lynn as the strong heart of the group.
The original production of the play opened off-Broadway at the WPA Theatre in 1987 and quickly moved to the larger Lucille Lortel Theatre, where it ran for 1,126 performances. Rosemary Prinz played M'Lynn in the original company and Sally Field took on the role in the popular 1989 film version.
The Broadway production of Steel Magnolias, directed by Jason Moore, is aiming for an April 4 opening. A production spokesperson could not confirm the casting of Clayburgh.