The Women at Auckland Town Hall

There's no doubt that the sometimes complicated nature of female friendship - both with each other and members of the opposite sex - pulls an audience these days. Just look at the success of Desperate Housewives and Sex and the City.

But it has all been done before - possibly with classier frocks and funnier dialogue.

Auckland theatre-goers get a second chance to see proof of this when The Women breezes back into town from tonight at the Town Hall Concert Chamber.

Written in the 1930s by Vanity Fair associate editor Clare Booth Luce, the wickedly funny satire threw the spotlight on the lives and loves of New York's society wives.

Given the circles Booth moved in (plus she had an affair with and married Time magazine founder Harry Luce) she was inevitably writing from experience.

Booth Luce peppered the play with the type of acerbic remarks most of us can only dream of being quickwitted or bitchy enough to say and, despite numerous conversations about men, did not write one single male character into the script.

The Women debuted in 1936 to a cool response from critics but the public loved it.

It ran for more than 600 performances before being turned into a feature film in 1939 starring Joan Crawford and Rosalind Russell alongside most of MGM's other female stars - 130 to be precise.

The film was later re-made but did not do as well, while the play was revived on Broadway in 1973 and in 2001 with Kristen Johnson, Rue McClanahan, Cynthia Nixon and Jennifer Tilly in lead roles.

On the surface, it's the story of genteel and sweet-natured Mary Haines who discovers her husband is playing away with "shop girl" Crystal Allen after Mary's high-society friends arrange for her to overhear gossip about the affair.

With friends like that, Mary doesn't need enemies so, rather than fight for her man, she heads to Reno for a divorce. But there is only so much gossip one can take and it's only a matter of time before the tiger in Mary gets set to roar at her catty friends.

Lucy Wigmore, who plays Mary in the version opening tonight, says references to social class and structure show Booth Luce was clearly exploring these themes as well as ideas about marriage, fidelity and women's wider place in society (particularly the society of the well-to-do).

While there is plenty of cattiness and the characters are not especially pleasant to one another, Wigmore says less obvious is the way characters who are close remain friends and support one another's choices.

She agrees with director Katie Wolfe who described the play as a metaphor for one woman, showing different sides to her nature, the extent of her aspirations and the confusion involved in making her way in an increasingly complex world.

If it sounds like the precursor to the likes of Sex and the City and Desperate Housewives, Wigmore and fellow cast members Mia Blake and Hannah Tolich say The Women could well owe its contemporary popularity to these newcomers which show women - well-dressed women, it must be said - dealing somewhat haphazardly with life's little obstacles.

"I think it is definitely part of a trend," says Wigmore, "but I think audiences really enjoy seeing an all-female cast performing a really dazzling piece of theatre."

Costumes in The Women come courtesy of some of New Zealand's most revered designers such as Zambesi, Liz Mitchell, Nom*D and State of Grace.

Tolich, who plays three characters, says donning the fabulous frocks helps the actors to get in character.

"I play Mary's daughter, a manicurist and a Russian princess so there are lots of costume changes for me.

"It really helps to wear clothes an 11-year-old might wear and then put the Russian princess gowns on in order to swap between the roles more effectively."

For Mia Blake, last seen on the Auckland stage playing 6-year-old Rose in Badjelly the Witch, it's the dialogue that captures her imagination.

"I just can't get over some of the things my character says.

"She comes up with these lines that you wish you could remember. Someone will say something and you'll walk away and five minutes later come up with something and think, 'I wish I'd said that'."

The trio point out that bitchy cat-fights were kept for the show's performances and there was no fighting about costumes as Desperate Housewives stars have been rumoured to do. "It was such a supportive atmosphere and great to take part in such a female driven piece of theatre," says Tolich.

Proving just how fashionable the story of women against the world (and possibly each other) has become, Hollywood is eyeing yet another re-make of the film.

So far, the cast includes well-known actresses Annette Bening, Sandra Bullock, Ashley Judd, Meg Ryan and Uma Thurman.

What: The Women
Where: Concert Chamber, Auckland Town Hall.
When: Oct 27-Nov 12