As a child of the 80s, I fondly remember sitting up on weeknights and watching tv sitcoms with my folks. Many of them—Murphy Brown, Designing Women, etc.—proved a bit too mature for my (still) juvenile sensibility. But one “old people” show I always loved (and still do) was The Golden Girls. The timeless and ageless foursome of mature ladies—Blanche, Dorothy, Rose, and Sophia—was just as entertaining to little me as Steve Urkl or Alf or Pee-Wee Herman. So I was excited to see what Mercury Theater—just about my favorite Chicago theater of late—would do with these figures from my childhood with their production of The Golden Gals.
The show—written and directed by Ginger Minj—totally harkens those golden icons of 80s television with its rapid-fire one-liners and nonstop off-color humor. Minj also stars as Blanche Devereaux, channeling Rue McClanahan’s sassy Southern sexpot while prancing and pouting through the Miami condominium set designed by Bob Silton.
While Minj provides the sauce and the script, her three roommates resemble their television counterparts even more closely. There were points where I’d close my eyes and hear Divine Grace’s Dorothy and think I was listening to Bea Arthur—Grace’s impersonation was that dead-on. Gidget Galore’s Rose is also eerily close to Betty White’s simple Scandinavian from St. Olaf, MN. And as a child, my favorite of the four was always Sophia, played here by Mr Ms Adrien, who is still my favorite. Jason Richards—last seen at the Mercury in Priscilla—is the ensemble, playing a whole host of characters coming and going from the apartment, and keeps up with the gals throughout.
The show itself is as much fun as a sitcom episode, and more, with Burt Reynolds mustaches, ribald jokes, a fringy Tina Turner dress (and dance routine to match), an 80s aerobics routine that’d make Richard Simmons proud. So, if you long for those beloved TV ladies and their wisecracking antics, check them out in The Golden Gals at Mercury Theater, from now until February 12th.
