The Inspiration for the Play

Susan Harling Robinson and her son, Robert. Photo Credit: Robert Harling.

Steel Magnolias was penned by Robert Harling in just ten days’ time as a tribute to his sister who died of kidney failure due to complications with diabetes. Harling has said, “I wrote it to somehow get this true story off my chest and to celebrate my sister in the process.” Harling was inspired by the story of his sister Susan, but he also paid tribute to his mother Margaret’s close circle of friends. The comedic tone of the story with such a tragedy at the center developed straight from those women: “All the women I knew were really funny. They all love one-liners and they talk in bumper stickers, and they’re sharp, funny women.” The resulting play and subsequent film adaptation became a love letter to family, the power of female friendship, and to Harling’s hometown of Natchitoches, Louisiana.

Harling has said about the strong, go-getter women in the play and in his life: “Whether you say that in 1988 or now, these women got it done. We’ve managed to encompass that in our vocabulary, but it’s always been, where I’m from, about getting it done. Now there’s a lot more Internet involved with it. But its basic force is: ‘I am woman, hear my roar.’ That’s been with us for decades.” Harling waited until a week before the show went into rehearsals to tell his parents about the play. In an interview, Harling relayed the story of sharing it with his mother, who was the inspiration for M’Lynn:

When Mama asked me if she could read it, I said, ‘You don’t want to. It’s about you and Susan and the whole thing.’ But she’s a Steel Magnolia—she was going to read it. I gave her the script, and I’d walk past and she’d be sobbing, and I felt terrible. Afterward, I said, ‘Mom, we’ll just kill it, I can’t put you through this.’ And she said, ‘It’s wonderful because it’s true.’ She just closed it and that was it, end of topic.

The original Broadway production ran for almost three years at the Lucille Lortel Theatre. A Broadway revival played at the Lyceum in 2005. Community theatre, regional theatre, and international productions have abounded over the past thirty years. Several film adaptations have been made. Harling’s goal of letting Susan’s story live on has surpassed even his wildest dreams.