I can’t say the venerated classic The Golden Girls ever touched my heart the same way that perhaps Lorelai and Rory Gilmore have. But we all miss Bea Arthur’s dry wit since she left this world 15 years ago, and somewhere between Coco Peru’s excellent impersonation, and the Curran Theatre’s holiday feel, The Golden Girls Live has become an annual winter tradition that’s not to be missed.
If you’ve been under a rock like me, four drag queens parody the 1980s and 90s sitcom of ladies in their sunset years, performing two episodes that are generally reproduced according to the original scripts. And in between laughs, there is rich content to draw from LGBTQ+ themes and discrimination.
The Dec. 6 premiere gave us lesbians and Jews, and unsurprisingly great performances by veterans D’Arcy Drollinger, Matthew Martin, Holotta Tymes, Coco Peru. That’s not to ignore an equally great supporting cast featuring Michael Phillis, Manuel Caneri, and Snaxx. I’ve been idly wondering lately if I entered my bitch phase as a reviewer, but I’m happy to report almost no critique here; It was a splendid show with lots of funny moments mixed with great acting and impersonations.
The show has moved several times since opening 19 years ago, and I’d only seen it once prior at Victoria Theatre in Mission, which felt not just cozy but intimate at 480 seats. Still, I had a good time last year with Tom Shaw singing carols in the tight space — as if all the gays gathered around a tacky Christmas tree in our ugly sweaters for a chosen family holiday.
I enjoyed Shaw this past Friday too, but he felt a bit over-used at the Curran. I wondered if all the caroling padded out time for the queens to change costumes; and this is perhaps my only small gripe in an otherwise flawless set. Drollinger charms me whenever she’s onstage in dimwitted blonde realness, from the back-country antics of Rose Nylund to the stripper on the run, Champagne Horowitz Jones Dickerson White (“So I’ve been married a coupl’a times, it’s none of your f — ckin’ business!”).
Martin and Tymes are likewise great as Blanche and Sofia; but the shining performance if I had to pick is still Miss Peru. The Bea Arthur facial expressions, the stares, the eye rolls and voice inflections are just uncanny. That and Michael Phillis as a snobby WASP named Barbara Thorndike, calling Blanche and Rose a moron in every conceivable word — so good that it should be its own meme.
The Curran itself was padded out in its lobby with cardboard cutouts of the actors and lots of merch, including Christmas ornaments, tees and sweaters, clack fans and snow globes. A themed bar titled The Rusty Anchor sold ungodly expensive snacks and drinks; a charcuterie, Coke and cocktail for my boyfriend came out to a tidy $57 before tip. I’ve had cheaper deals on boxed food and candy at SFO and Oracle Park.
A very touching encore featured Cindy Fee — who sang the original Golden Girls theme song — really put this show on the level for me. Drollinger and the SF Oasis crew are known for parodying everything from Sex and the City, Star Trek, Scream and so many others, but Fee’s rendition of the iconic theme song made it feel as if the original Golden Girls had officially blessed this drag production.
I did make a new dress for the night, but was not actually aware this was the event of the winter season, with everyone from SFist, Hoodline, 48Hills, SF Chronicle and SF Standard showing up to review and mingle. I also spotted many familiar faces from before times — back before the pandemic when I had a life — which made the evening both a warming chosen-family moment mixed with perhaps an awkward Thanksgiving dinner. An after show in the lobby featured Mary Vice and Polly Amber Ross serving up more drag you might have missed in a 2-hour runtime.
Is this the show for you? I hope so. Go catch The Golden Girls Live before the curtains close on this year’s hilarious holiday run. The show runs now through December 22nd.
Saul Sugarman is editor in chief of The Bold Italic.
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