Wednesday, November 19, 2014

Holy Shit of the Day

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Okay so I'm sitting here idly passing the time reading this "12 Things You Didn't Know About Steel Magnolias" article at HuffPo on the occasion of that movie's 25th anniversary later this month (thanks to Nat for the link) and I get to #11 and OH MY GOD TO ALL OF IT:

After shooting would wrap each day, the cast would get together to eat and play games -- and that's how "Soapdish" was born. There weren't many nightlife options in Natchitoches, which today has a population of about 18,000, so the cast would play games like Pictionary and charades in the evenings. One night, after they'd exhausted most of their typical options, the group took to posing questions for everyone to answer. Harling asked each actress to name the role she'd most like to play. Dolly Parton's was Medea. Shirley MacLaine said she'd never portrayed an alcoholic (that changed the following year when "Postcards From the Edge" came out). Julia Roberts reminded everyone she still "just wanted to work." And Sally Field, after pondering it, said she always played "really noble, earnest women that wear crummy clothes. For once I'd like to play a bitch that gets to wear nice clothes." And that was how "Sopadish" came about. Harling found himself thinking about the idea of America's sweetheart actually being someone who "really destroyed the lives of everyone around her." He put the concept to use in the 1991 comedy, which starred Field as an aging soap-opera actress who conspires to ruin the career of her co-star. ("Soapdish" will soon become a Broadway musical starring Kristin Chenoweth.)

I knew that Robert Harling wrote both Magnolias and Soapdish of course (not to mention The First Wives Club - he really should have a big glittering star on the Gay Walk of Fame) - but I hadn't heard the story about its birth on the former's set and wait what oh my god Kristen Chenoweth is making a musical version of Soapdish WHAT????


3 comments:

Trey said...

Dolly as Medea, though! Set in the Smoky Mountains, Sam Elliott as Jason...the mind reels!

joel65913 said...

One Sally classic begats another! Why oh why can't that happen more often?

DancerInDC said...

THIS. IS. AMAZING. Thanks for sharing!