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50 free Steel Magnolias trivia questions with answers. Steel Magnolias started as a short story Robert Harling wrote for his nephew after his sister Susan died, became a one-set, all-female Off-Broadway play in ten days, and then a 1989 film that gave Julia Roberts her first Oscar nomination. This quiz covers all of it: the beauty-shop regulars, the wedding day with its pink-and-pink color scheme and armadillo groom's cake, and the town of Natchitoches, Louisiana where it was shot. The easy questions are for anyone who has cried at the funeral scene. The harder ones dig into who originated the roles Off-Broadway, the 2005 Broadway revival, the CBS sitcom pilot that dropped Shelby, the 2012 Lifetime remake with Queen Latifah and Alfre Woodard, the box office, and a royal seating mishap at the London premiere. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the film, the play and the cast, Wikiquote's transcript, and the AFI Catalog of Feature Films, and each question carries its source.
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Q 01Which actress plays Truvy Jones, the owner of the beauty salon, in the 1989 film?
Dolly Parton
It was Parton's return to film acting after several years away, and the picture grossed over $95 million in the U.S.
Q 02What medical condition does Julia Roberts' Shelby have in Steel Magnolias?
Type 1 diabetes
Harling based Shelby on his sister Susan, who died in 1985 of complications from the same disease.
Q 03Which actress plays M'Lynn, Shelby's mother, in the 1989 film?
Sally Field
Field, already a two-time Best Actress Oscar winner, was nominated for a Golden Globe for the role.
Q 04Shirley MacLaine plays the town grouch in the film. What is that character's nickname?
Ouiser
Her full name is Louisa Boudreaux; she is Clairee's best friend and Drum Eatenton's next-door nemesis.
Q 05Which U.S. state provides the setting for the story of the film and play?
Louisiana
The action unfolds in the fictional Chinquapin Parish, and the film was shot in Harling's real hometown in the northwest of the state.
Q 06Who directed the 1989 film version?
Herbert Ross
Ross, a former ballet choreographer, had also directed Footloose and The Goodbye Girl; this was his last big hit.
Q 07Which actress plays Annelle, the shy beauty-school graduate who is new in town?
Daryl Hannah
The role sees Annelle go from timid newcomer to short-lived party girl to devout Christian by the end of the story.
Q 08Which actress plays Clairee Belcher, the cheerful widow of the town's former mayor?
Olympia Dukakis
Dukakis had won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for Moonstruck two years earlier.
Q 09The film is set in which decade?
The 1980s
Truvy tells Clairee to get with it because it's the '80s, and the play is likewise set in the late 1980s.
Q 10In the film, what shape is the groom's cake at Shelby's wedding?
An armadillo
Jackson's Aunt Fern makes animal-shaped cakes; this one is red velvet under gray icing, so cutting it looks like it's bleeding.
Q 11Shelby's wedding colors are 'blush and bashful.' What are they, according to her exasperated mother?
Pink and pink
M'Lynn complains the sanctuary looks like it's been hosed down with Pepto Bismol.
Q 12Which character says, 'Laughter through tears is my favorite emotion'?
Truvy
The line comes near the end of the story, when the women share a laugh after Shelby's funeral.
Q 13Who wrote both the original play and the film's screenplay?
Robert Harling
It was Harling's first produced screenplay; he later wrote Soapdish and The First Wives Club.
Q 21How did the original play differ from the film in its cast?
It was entirely all-female
Men are only referenced in dialogue, apart from the voice of a male radio DJ heard between scenes.
Q 22Where does the entire stage play take place?
Truvy's beauty parlor
The film opened the story up to weddings, festivals and hospitals; the play stays in one room across four scenes.
Q 23Which cable network aired the 2012 remake with an all-Black cast?
Lifetime
It premiered on October 7, 2012 and drew 6.5 million viewers, then the network's third most-watched original.
Q 14The playwright wrote the story after the 1985 death of a family member from diabetic complications. Who?
His sister
A writer friend urged him to write it down; it started as a short story for his nephew and became a play in ten days.
Q 15Which real town, Harling's hometown, stood in for Chinquapin Parish when the 1989 movie was shot?
Natchitoches
Before this production, the only Hollywood movie shot there was John Wayne's The Horse Soldiers in 1959.
Q 16Julia Roberts received her first Academy Award nomination for the film. In which category?
Best Supporting Actress
She lost the Oscar to Brenda Fricker but won the Golden Globe in the same category.
Q 17Which actress was originally cast as Shelby but dropped out to make When Harry Met Sally?
Meg Ryan
Herbert Ross personally auditioned seventy-five actresses for the part before Julia Roberts was cast in May 1988.
Q 18Who plays Drum Eatenton, Shelby's father who fires blanks at birds on the wedding morning?
Tom Skerritt
He later played Sally Field's late husband again in the TV series Brothers & Sisters.
Q 19Which actor plays Jackson Latcherie, the lawyer Shelby marries?
Dylan McDermott
It was only his second film after his 1987 debut in Hamburger Hill; he later starred as Bobby Donnell in The Practice.
Q 20Which Pulitzer-winning playwright plays Spud Jones, Truvy's sporadically employed husband?
Sam Shepard
Spud enclosed the carport for Truvy's salon in 1972 and later surprises her with a second shop, making her 'a chain'.
Q 24In the 2012 television remake, who plays M'Lynn?
Queen Latifah
The film marked the first collaboration between Latifah and Jill Scott; the second was Flint in 2017.
Q 25Which singer plays Truvy in the 2012 remake?
Jill Scott
She stepped into a role originated on screen by another singer.
Q 26Who plays the town grouch in the 2012 remake, earning an Emmy nomination and an NAACP Image Award?
Alfre Woodard
Many critics singled out her performance; she was also nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award for it.
Q 27Phylicia Rashad plays Clairee in the 2012 remake. Which of her relatives plays Shelby in the same film?
Her daughter
Condola Rashad, whose father is sportscaster Ahmad Rashad, later earned multiple Tony nominations on Broadway.
Q 28What was the film's approximate worldwide box-office gross?
$97 million
It made $84.6 million in the U.S. and Canada on a $15 million budget, and stayed in the top ten for three months.
Q 29Which studio released the film in November 1989?
Tri-Star Pictures
The picture was produced by Ray Stark's Rastar, the company behind Funny Girl and The Goodbye Girl.
Q 30At which New York venue did the play open Off-Broadway in March 1987?
WPA Theatre
It transferred to the Lucille Lortel Theatre that June and ran until 1990, clocking 1,126 performances.