Review - That Golden Girls Show! a puppet parody

Wow, I have been SWAMPED lately.  Work, life, travel planning.  I haven't been able to think, let alone jot thoughts down, since I don't have very many!  But I have seen a couple of things lately that I wanted to chat about.  One is the ABT fall season, which you'll see a report about soon (the season is over, so I guess there's no rush).  The other is a fun, slightly silly, not-as-good-as-it-could-be show that was still a good time.  Let's chat about that now.

I believe I've made mention of the fact that I'm a HUGE fan of the 80s tv show The Golden Girls.  At first I was embarrassed about my love for the show, then I read an old interview with the late, great Edward Albee, where he professed a fondness for the show, too.  I felt vindicated.  I watch it nearly every morning (except during the time between Halloween and New Year, when Hallmark Channel thinks we want to watch holiday movies 24/7, but really, we just want to watch our morning hour of the Girls) and it makes me laugh every day.  A few of my work pals are also fans and we have a good time quoting particularly juicy dialogue back and forth.  When it was announced that a parody production of The Golden Girls was coming, and it would be a PUPPET SHOW, well, hello, we were on board immediately.  Once we found a mutually agreeable date that coincided with discount tickets, we pounced.

Just a brief note about our delightful dinner before the show:  we stopped at The Coffee Shop in Union Square. I had actually never been there before, it's always so crowded, but I think we got there (Halloween night) before the crowds actually arrived.  Our server had on a cute costume and we were tended to nicely.  I had a tasty cocktail and delicious duck tacos - if they're ever the daily taco special when you're there, order them. YUM.  My pals and I laughed a lot and were ready to be dazzled by the show.

That Golden Girls Show! a puppet parody is pretty silly and we had a great time experiencing it together.  Is it a great show?  Not really.  There's sort of a narrative frame to make the show last 90 minutes, and interspersed throughout the narrative are pieces of favorite bits from the tv show, but basically this is a 30-minute episode of Golden Girls, not written as crisply as the actual tv scripts, stretched out into 90 minutes.  Which is too bad, because this could've been an instant classic.  Instead, it's merely a fun night out, leaving you wanting to go home and put on the DVDs you have in your collection.

photo credit: Russ Rowland

The puppets were fun, especially the Dorothy and Blanche puppets. They definitely captured the spirit of the originals very well. The Rose and Sophia puppets were less successful, as were the performers.  Having half the cast not quite as sharp as the other half also led to the not-as-funny-as-I-wanted-it-to-be thing. But, seriously, Michael LaMasa as Dorothy (and also just as much as Bea Arthur) was fantastic.  We all laughed, of course, at the cliche that a man would be taking over the role, but LaMasa really found all of the comic timing, the dignity and the pathos behind Dorothy.  He got all the best lines and, really, the puppet had all of the best double-takes. Cat Greenfield as Blanche was also terrific, her own body language mirrored Blanche's free-wheeling sexpot ways, and her way-out-there Southern accent was terrific.  If the actor playing Rose didn't quite capture the warmth and wonder of Betty White, well, ok. It's too bad, though, because it's the chemistry of the four characters together that make them so familiar and funny and magical.  But we still laughed a lot.

The house was packed with people ready to have a good time and I think they mainly did. We giggled at the theme show music at the top of the show and the interstitial music as well.  We laughed whenever Stanley (played by a guy, not a puppet) knocked on the door and Dorothy slammed it in his face.  We giggled at the terrific one-liners that are so iconic. It was the original stuff that didn't make us giggle quite as much.  But, oh well.  It was fun to be in the presence of the Golden Girls for a time, and once that restaurant opens in Harlem, I'm hoping to be in their ephemeral presence again...