“The Golden Girls” may have stopped airing new episodes in 1992, but the show has never really gone away.
Between syndication and streaming, Blanche, Rose, Dorothy and Sophia have always been there for anyone who needed a friend. The sitcom was a critical and commercial darling from the moment it aired its first episode in 1985. There was just something irresistible about watching these four sharp-tongued women of a certain age discuss life and sex around their kitchen table.
Not only did the show’s stars — Beatrice Arthur, Betty White, Rue McClanahan and Estelle Getty — each win an Emmy for their performances, but the foursome have been elevated to LGBTQ+ icons; Out Magazine once called it “the gayest show on TV.”
With this exalted status in mind comes Richmond Triangle Players’ “The Golden Girls: The Lost Episodes (The Holiday Edition),” a campy riff on the beloved blue-haireds of sitcom fame.
“It’s not just ‘Golden Girls’ episodes that we are recreating on the stage,” says director Joe Pabst. “This was written specifically for the stage. It’s the Golden Girls we know and love, but amped up.”
Performances will serve up two “episodes” divided by an intermission. In the first, the girls are attempting to set up a holiday gala and talent show for the senior center while Rose is expecting her Aunt Inga to arrive.
“Her Aunt Inga is a rather stoic, severe woman who does not want Rose to make a fool of herself in a talent show,” Pabst explains.
In the second episode, the other girls learn that Rose still believes in Santa Claus and give her a hard time about it.
“We go to a little dream sequence: It’s like ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ where Rose finds out what would have happened if she had never moved to Miami,” Pabst says. “The second act centers around what it means to actually believe, and what that means for your Christmas spirit.”
The show will begin with a singalong rendition of the theme song. Cheesecake and chocolate martinis will be sold in the bar, and audience members can participate in “Golden Girls” trivia for prizes. Classic TV commercials will play during the scene changes.
“We’re just having fun with it,” Pabst says. “This is all about campy comedy. We’ve got male performers playing female roles; we’ve got female performers playing male roles in the grand RTP tradition.”
Pabst offers a content warning for theatergoers: “The material is very mature,” he says. “If you’ve got kids, leave them at home with a babysitter and come out and enjoy yourself.”
Kirk Morton, who plays Rose in the show, says he was surprised by how many monologues his character has.
“There’s something about Rose that really speaks to me,” Morton says. “She’s so sincere, and she has, in all aspects of life, this wide-eyed wonder that really appeals to me.”
TeDarryl Perry grew up watching “The Golden Girls” with their mother and says they’re thrilled to be playing Blanche, one of their favorite TV characters.
“You have to come in the room in full narcissism,” they say of portraying Blanche. “That southern accent that we all know and love? [I’m] always practicing that and making sure it’s stretched out how it needs to be, and always very sultry.”
Rounding out the girls is Wette Midler as the short-tempered, sarcastic Dorothy and Theresa Mantiply as Dorothy’s quick-witted mother Sophia. Though the show hasn’t opened yet, RTP warns that some performances are close to selling out.
Perry says the show is the perfect antidote for the bad headlines in the news.
“The camp element of it is on 1,000. The antics are pushed up for the stage; the jokes are amped up for the stage,” they say. “Life has been so serious. We all need something ridiculous right now.”
Richmond Triangle Players’ aim, Pabst says, is to serve up a show that’s both a loving tribute to and a campy riff on “The Golden Girls.”
“We still have a message,” he says. “‘The Golden Girls’ was famous for never backing down on serious issues, but they always did it in a way that made us laugh. We’re laughing a lot, but there’s some heart beneath this too.”
“The Golden Girls: The Lost Episodes (The Holiday Edition)” plays through Dec. 21 at Richmond Triangle Players, 1300 Altamont Ave. For more information visit rtriangle.org or call 804-346-8113.
