Now You Can Tell the Golden Girls “Thank You for Being a Friend”

The Golden Girls are back, and if you thought they were gay-friendly on TV, gurl — you ain’t seen nothin’ yet.

The Golden Girls Musical Parody: Pride Edition is the brainchild of Nick Brennan, who wrote and directs the show, as well as playing Betty White’s role of Rose nightly.

The show is now in a three-week residency at HERE on 6th Avenue and features a Golden Girls trivia quiz, an ’80s fashion show and original music created especially for the 90-minute “episode.”

And while the ladies of Miami’s Shady Pines Retirement Home are still dealing with internal squabbles and the changing world around them, this time all the main roles are played in drag.

“Hard as it is to believe sometimes, we’ve been doing this show for almost ten years in one form or another,” says Brennan. “We were writing and performing these little 20-minute skits with for a drag theater company called Greasepaint and just doing occasional benefits. And we always knew that The Golden Girls had a huge gay and queer following. Maybe that has to do with being considered outsiders and going through life in an unconventional way.”

Of all the sketches, he says, their Golden Girls were far and away the most popular. “People would actually stop me on the street and tell me how hysterical our parody was, and so that’s when a little lightbulb went up over our heads to create a full-length show.”

Going for the Gold

Brennan considers this 90-minute show to be “a very special musical episode” of the long-departed series. Blanche, Sophia, Rose and Dorothy sing odes to cheesecake, returning to St. Olaf and Rose’s attempts to land a guy. But, to add to the hilarity and hijinks, nextdoor neighbor Ricky Martin is making a musical racket with a never-ending series of pool parties.

Brennan likes to call the show “a loving parody, although it has that queer vibe and was written to be performed in gay spaces. But the material? It was a great sitcom, and while we do make fun of the show, it’s a loving sendup. I mean, there’s a lot of shade in what we do. But shade can only happen where love is there, too.”

The show’s festivities will also include cameos from local luminaries like Michael Musto, as well as visits from the original assistants to Estelle Getty and Rue McClanahan, who share their memories of time spent on the Golden Girls set.

More information about tickets can be found here.

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