All-male show brings new era of The Golden Girls
More than 30 years after the last show aired. sassy quartet is back as wise-cracking best friends one again. Golden Girls: The Laughs Continues comes to Hamilton April 29.
Vince Kelley was born to be a Golden Girl.
Well, he was born the same year – 1985 – that the mega-hit Golden Girls debuted on TV screens. The Detroit native grew up watching the show alongside his grandmother and called it the “Old Lady Show.”
“I didn't, of course, understand any of the jokes, but she would be cracking up, and if she was having fun, then I knew that it was a good time. So then I just kind of grew up with it, you know.”
He watched it reruns through high school and every decade since.
“It’s my bedtime comfort show. I put it on to go to sleep. So yeah, it's always been there, and now it is a big, major, huge part of my life. And I'm still not tired of it. If there was an episode on right now, I'd be watching it.”
Kelley now stars in an all-male company has been touring as the sassy quartet of Blanche, Rose, Dorothy and Sophia for three years in Golden Girls: The Laughs Continue.
The production is touring 18 Canadian cities this spring and summer.
So imagine the girls are still giving each other the gears and making wise cracks in 2025. They’re still on the air, a streaming platform so the language can be spicier, but the house, the clothes and the personalities are just the same.
The premise: Sophia is out on bail. She has little ankle monitor because she was selling some drugs to her friends at Shady Pines. Rose and Blanche have developed a dating app, a hookup app, if you will, for seniors. They’ve convinced Dorothy to join it and she meets a man she’s developing feelings for but it’s not, of course, smooth sailing.
Kelley, who had worked with the show’s producers on another project, was given the choice of the part he’d want to play. He chose Blanche.
“I've always had an affinity for Rue (McClanahan). I think she's my favourite girl. She doesn't take herself too seriously, and she's the first one to laugh at herself. And I think those are qualities that I need to maybe hold a little closer to myself as a person. And she has the best clothes, and that's a big, big factor for me.”
McClanahan had a specific way of moving and a peculiar Southern drawl she invented. Kelley struggled to nail it all down, at least until he put on Blanche’s backless mules. He’s embarrassed to say that the shoes snapped it all into place.
And it’s now hit him that he’s just 10 years away from how old the actors were when they started the show.
“They were not old. That was a horrible ageist thing for us to do in the mid-’80s.”
In researching the show, Kelley read that when Susan Harris, the creator of the show, originally pitched the concept, she wanted to depict older women. She was thinking people in their late 60s or early 70s. But the network’s idea of older women was late 30s or early 40s.
The two sides met in the middle and Rose, Blanche and Dorothy were in their early or mid-50s when the show premiered.
The show is produced by Murray & Peter Present, which has long produced drag shows, including those featuring winners contestants from RuPaul’s Drag Race, and Drag Queen Christmas.
Kelley says the cast (Ryan Bernieras Dorothy, Adam Graberas Rose, Christopher Kammas Sophia, and Tommy Favoriteas Stanley/Burt) revels in adapting the show to each city they are performing in, referencing local celebrities or current events. It keeps things fresh and fun and also offers an opportunity to crack each other up on stage.
“It's become kind of the hallmark of our show, and we're super proud of it.”
Kelley says the all-American cast is well aware that the election in Canada and the ongoing war of words and tariffs with the U.S. will provide plenty of fodder. In fact, they’ll be in Hamilton the day after the vote.
After the show, the audience can come on stage and do a meet and greet with the cast. Kelley says he loves that part of the show because people share their connections to the show.
“It’s important to stop scrolling on your phone for two hours and just have a good time. So I'm really glad that we can deliver that, and The Golden Girls are such a good conduit. You know, some people who come to our show will say, ‘I wasn't too keen on drag queens or female personation, but I really love The Golden Girls, and I wanted to give it a chance. And you know, you know what, I had such a good time.’ So The Golden Girls can be that little spoonful of sugar to get some people who might not be into what we're trying to do, but they love The Golden Girls. Then, like, what a great way to continue those four actresses’ legacies.”
Why does the appeal of The Golden Girls carry on more than 30 years after it went off the air?
“At the core of it, you had four brilliant women at the top of their of their game, who were just having so much fun. They had fun with each other. They were great right out the gate. And it's also just great, timeless writing. You can watch an episode today and you are still going to laugh out loud.”
And The Golden Girls depicted aging women with care, while tackling big social issues such as abortion, AIDS and gay rights.
“Of course, it was done through humour, but it was done with such respect and reverence and an appreciation,” he says. They were, like, just ahead of their time in so many ways. So it really truly stands the test of time.”
Golden Girls: The Laughs Continue comes to the FirstOntario Concert Hall on April 29 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are here.
