Frances Sternhagen to join the cast of Steel Magnolias

Frances Sternhagen will star as Clairee, "the former first lady of Chinquapin Parish", in the upcoming Broadway premiere of Robert Harling's STEEL MAGNOLIAS. Currently appearing in the Off-Broadway hit The Foreigner (Roundabout), Sternhagen's recent credits include Echoes of the War (Mint Theater) and Alan Bennett's Talking Heads (Outer Critics Circle Award) and on Broadway in Morning's at Seven, for which she received a Tony nomination. In 2000, she starred Off-Broadway in The Exact Center of the Universe. Nominated seven times for a Tony Award, she has received it twice, for The Good Doctor and The Heiress. Other Broadway appearances: Equus, On Golden Pond, Grownups, The Sign in Sydney Brustein's Window, Angel, You Can't Take It With You, Home Front. Other awards: the Clarence Derwent, the Delia Austrian Medal from the Drama League, two Drama Desks, two Obies, the Sydney Kingsley-Madge Evans Award, and she was just inducted into the Theatre Hall of Fame. Off-Broadway: Mary Tyrone in Long Day's Journey Into Night, Miss Daisy in Driving Miss Daisy, Theresa in Remembrance, Margaret in A Perfect Ganesh.

Frances Sternhagen joins the previously announced Delta Burke who will play Truvy (the owner of the beauty shop), Christine Ebersole who will play M'Lynn (Shelby's mother), Rebecca Gayheart who will play Shelby (the bride-to-be), Marsha Mason who will play Ouiser (the sharp-tongued and wealthy curmudgeon) and Lily Rabe who will play Annelle (the young beautician).

Directed by Jason Moore, STEEL MAGNOLIAS begins previews March 15, 2005 and opens April 4, 2005 at the Lyceum Theatre on Broadway.