THEATER : It’s the Set That Steals ‘Magnolias’ in Brea : The performances lack finesse in Robert Harling’s 1987 play, which is heavy with sitcom patter. The salon is the real beauty of this Theatre League production.

If you go to the theater with any frequency in Orange County--or, for that matter, anywhere else amateur troupes abound similarly--you’re bound to run into “Steel Magnolias.”

Revivals of Robert Harling’s 1987 serio-comedy have been staged in recent months within the county just about as often as those unforgettable favorites, “Brighton Beach Memoirs” and “The Little Shop of Horrors.”

The Brea Theatre League’s production of “Steel Magnolias,” which opened over the weekend at the Curtis Theatre, is the third such offering I know of this year.

The Cypress Civic Theatre Guild did it in March--not badly, according to one report. The Huntington Beach Playhouse did it in April--also not badly, according to another.

Why “Steel Magnolias” is so popular is not hard to figure.

It’s cute. It’s funny. It’s sad. It was made into a movie. It was made into an all-star movie. It was made into a movie with Sally Field and Julia Roberts, Dolly Parton and Shirley MacLaine, Daryl Hannah and--OK, she’s not as famous--Olympia Dukakis.

Nor can we forget that women tend to be the prime force behind community-theater companies. They also tend to be the prime audience for community-theater companies.

So “Steel Magnolias” is a natural.

What play besides this one offers six female thespians the chance to spread their wings as six iron butterflies? With Southern accents. In a beauty parlor.

Not counting Beth Henley’s “Crimes of the Heart,” which also takes place in the South but has only three sisters in it and no beauty parlor, you’d have to go back decades to “Stage Door,” the George S. Kaufman-Edna Ferber comedy about a theatrical boarding house, or to “The Women,” Clare Booth’s bitchy satire on feminine mores, just to find a play with that many starring roles for women.

All similarities end there, of course.

Harling’s characters share nothing whatever with Booth’s and have only a remote connection with Kaufman’s inasmuch as they’re eccentric, comical and given to one-line zingers.

In any case, if you’ve haven’t caught “Steel Magnolias” before, the Brea production is as good as any to give you a general idea of Harling’s bittersweet chronicle of small-town life as seen through an aerosol haze.

All the characters convene at Truvy’s beauty parlor in Chinquapin, La., for gossip, stylings in “Southern Hair” and manicures.

The story begins on the wedding day of Shelby (Sondra Ziegler), the prettiest girl in town, who also happens to be a diabetic.

Without ever leaving Truvy’s, we follow Shelby through marriage, motherhood and more, until--late in the second act--the focus of attention shifts to her self-sacrificing mother, M’Lynn (Leslie de Beauvais), a brave tower of strength whose stiff upper lip could rival Winston Churchill’s.

In the meantime, we get an earful of prime-time sitcom patter from the rest of the ensemble.

Truvy (Loni Patterson), the tell-it-like-it-is proprietor of the beauty parlor, has a motto: “There is no such thing as natural beauty.” She also explains crow’s feet as time marching on: “Eventually you realize it’s marchin’ across your face.” And she has always wanted to go to Baltimore because “it’s the hairdo capital of the world.”

Her favorite emotion?

“Laughter through tears.”

Yea, Truvy.

Ouiser (Maggie Conley), who’s had a running feud with the town but especially with M’Lynn’s husband, claims she’s not cranky or crazy: “I’ve just been in a very bad mood for 40 years.” Don’t bother to try getting on her good side. “I don’t have one,” she warns.

Yea, Ouiser.

Clairee (Joanne Underwood), the mayor’s wealthy widow, has a wicked tongue of her own. She says of another older woman who is rumored to be having an affair and playing hard to get: “At her age she should be playing ‘Beat the Clock.’ ”

Yea, Clairee.

As for Annelle (Barbara Canton), the waif who has been abandoned by her husband and taken in by Truvy as her assistant, she has to make do with earnest remarks. She’s a born-again Christian.

Yea, Lord.

Although the performances lack finesse, they’re likable enough. Conley brings the most buoyancy to her role with a delivery reminiscent of Totie Fields.

The star of the evening, though, is the beauty salon itself, which has been rendered in detail on the sprawling Curtis stage. The costumes and wigs also deserve mention for their evocation of the ‘50s.

Yea.

‘Steel Magnolias’

A Brea Theatre League production of Robert Harling’s play. Produced by Mary Engwall. Directed by Laurie Freed. With Leslie de Beauvais, Barbara Canton, Maggie Conley, Loni Patterson, Joanne Underwood and Sondra Ziegler. Sets by Gil Morales-Spectrum Design Studio. Costumes by Lynda Krinke, Mary Engwall. Lighting by Emory Johnson. Sound by Tim Engwall. Plays through Oct. 19 at the Curtis Theatre, 1 Civic Center Circle, Brea. Performances are Wednesdays to Saturdays at 8 p.m.; one matinee, Saturday at 2 p.m. Tickets: $7.50 to $12.50. Information: (714) 524-6653.