Ma Walton coming to Winnipeg stage

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Michael Learned will star in Steel Magnolias.

Four-time Emmy Award winner Michael Learned, best known as television's Ma Walton, will appear in the Manitoba Theatre Centre production of Steel Magnolias next April.

Learned, 70, has been cast by director Robb Paterson in the role of the feisty Ouiser, a part played by Shirley MacLaine in the star-studded 1989 movie version, which also featured Sally Field, Julia Roberts and Dolly Parton. The comedy-with-tears looks at the relationships among six indomitable Southern women in a Louisiana beauty salon.

The Washington, D.C.-born actress came to national attention as Olivia Walton in The Waltons, the long-running hit TV series about a Depression-era family (1972-1981). Afterwards, she frequently guested on such small-screen shows as Law & Order: SVU, All My Children and Scrubs, as well as on the stage in On Golden Pond, The Sisters Rosensweig and The Best Man.

In October, Learned played Ouiser in Robert Harling's 1987 off-Broadway comedy-drama Steel Magnolias at the La Mirada Theatre in California. A Los Angeles Times review complimented her on her wry, dry exchanges with her co-stars "that sparkle with the energy of old hands comfortable in their characters' skins. They are proof that even chestnuts like Magnolias, when roasted to a turn, can still snap, crackle and pop."

Learned was 17 when she married Canadian Peter Donat, with whom she had three children before they divorced. She is the godmother of Christopher Plummer's daughter, Amanda Plummer, whose middle name is Michael.

The MTC production, which opens April 22, also includes Winnipeg actresses Sharon Bajer, Miriam Smith and Robyn Slade, as well as Canadian Susan Clark, once of TV's Webster.

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A theatrical tempest in Toronto has opened the door for WJT artistic producer Michael Nathanson.

His Governor General's Award-nominated two-hander Talk has just been announced as the replacement show at the Harold Green Jewish Theatre Company.

Nathanson's examination of the nature of friendship and the power of language is the substitute for Yichud (Seclusion), which the Harold Green withdrew from a co-production with Theatre Passe Muraille after a sponsor pulled its financial support over content concerns.

Yichud by Julie Tepperman explores courtship and arranged marriages within the Orthodox Jewish community.

The Toronto premiere of Talk, which runs March 3-20, will be directed by Ted Dykstra, who co-wrote and performed in the smash musical comedy 2 Piano 4 Hands. Nathanson had hoped that his Governor General's drama nomination would draw attention to Talk and lead to that all-important second production.

"It's not the ideal circumstances but it's extraordinary for me," says Nathanson. "I accept the gift in the package that it is wrapped in."

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Assiniboine is the next stop for Streetcar 596, last seen in May rolling down Main Street in Danny Schur's re-enactment of the climactic day of Winnipeg's 1919 General Strike.

It's not the avenue but the river: the new role for the wooden replica of the most famous streetcar in Manitoba history is as a warmup shack for skaters at The Forks. Since its debut, the 12-metre-long, 3.7-metre-high burgundy vehicle has been stowed away in parts underneath CN Station.

"The streetcar was meant to live a life of its own," says Schur. "It's a historical replica. It's doing no historical service disassembled in storage."

Yesterday Schur was helping to assemble the streetcar, which will sit on the shore near the boat-rental site with stairs to the ice. Winnipeggers will be able to lace up their skates or warm up after blading down the world's longest naturally frozen skating trail along the Assiniboine and Red rivers.

"It's also a massive billboard for Strike -- The Musical," Schur says. "My banner will be on it. I want it to become a focal point of Strike! awareness."

The annual Strike! presentation is set for July 29-Aug. 4 at nearby Canwest Performing Arts Centre. Early bird tickets are on sale.

kevin.prokosh@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition December 10, 2009 D3