Kenny Leon to Direct Lifetime Movie of Steel Magnolias with All-Black Cast

Tony Award nominee Kenny Leon will direct a television movie remake of Steel Magnolias, featuring an all-Black cast, according to a report on Deadline.com.

Sally Robinson will pen the adaptation, which is based upon the screenplay for the 1989 movie, which Robert Harling wrote, based upon his play of the same name. The work will still be set in Louisiana, but will take place in the present day.

Leon is currently represented on Broadway by his direction of The Mountaintop, and is also directing the Broadway production of Lydia R. Diamond’s Stick Fly this season. He received a Tony nomination for his direction of Fences, and his other Broadway credits include Radio Golf, Gem of the Ocean, and A Raisin in the Sun. He also directed the teleplay version of the latter. In addition, he is the artistic director of the True Colors Theater Company in Atlanta.