Not-so-mainstream Miami comes out of the television set and onto the stage with a puppet version of The Golden Girls, a US sitcom that was hugely popular in its day (mid 1980s to early 90s). What made the TV show a stand-out at the time was the fact that it was about a group of single older women, friends sharing a house. In addition, the show featured gay characters, talked about sex and AIDS, coming out, homophobia and same-sex marriage. The word ‘uterus’ was heard. Prime time audiences loved it. Now Dorothy, Sophia, Blanche and Rose hit the Theatre Works stage in puppet form in Thank You for Being a Friend, a show by Neil Gooding and Matthew Henderson. The production’s title comes from the theme song of the TV show.
The Golden Girls was famous for its quips, one liners, ringing bitchiness, put-downs and cheesecakes. Thank You For Being a Friend has lifted many of the original jokes and created a stage show which is basically a mash-up of any number of Golden Girls episodes. The characterisation and humour are spot on in terms of what you remember from TV, and you almost, but not quite, forget you’re watching puppets. For any fans of the television series, this show is a riot and a most affectionate homage to a classic of American prime time television.
If you’re not familiar with the original, then the humour seems very dated. The sitcom pacing isn’t so good on stage either, already things are a bit cumbersome because the actors are manipulating puppets so the comic timing is compromised. Although the cast members (Chrystal De Grussa as Blanche, Donna Lee as Sophia, Julia Billington as Rose along with Nigel Turner-Carroll as various men), do really lovely turns as the respective characters, and it’s nice to see a man (Darren Mapes) ‘playing’ Bea Arthur’s Dorothy, there’s a plodding quality to it all. The Golden Girls was one of the best examples of a particular type of comic put-down, but when you take the body language and facial expressions out of the performances, something’s left hanging. It’s often hard to hear in Theatre Works even when you’ve got real faces to watch; I struggled to catch all the lines.
Although it’s a sweet and faithful tribute to what was, the show might have gone further. (What would happen if the puppet characters turned on their humans?) It was fun seeing the television advertisements from the original historical context on screens above the set. This is definitely one for the fans.
Rating: 3 stars out of 5
Thank You for Being a Friend
Produced by Matthew Management and Neil Gooding Productions
Directed by Neil Gooding and Luke Joslin
Production Design by David Horne
Puppet Design by Joey Creative
Written by Jonathan Worsley and Thomas Duncan-Watt
Cast: Chrystal De Grussa, Donna Lee, Julia Billington, Darren Mapes and Nigel Turner-Carroll
Theatre Works, St Kilda
www.theatreworks.org.au
7-18 January
Additional dates:
Reginald Theatre, Seymour Centre, Chippendale
www.seymourcentre.com/
14-27 February
