‘The Golden Girls’ is the sort of TV show that, like ‘M*A*S*H’, has bridged the generation gap and left an extensive legacy in pop culture.
There have been a wealth of tributes to ‘The Golden Girls’ and its loveable, leading ladies over the years. Mostly subtle nods in movies and TV shows, but finally, there’s a full-length tribute to one of the most well-known shows in TV history. With puppets.
‘Thank You For Being A Friend’ has taken the resurgence in puppet shows, and given it an acerbic twist, transplanting the four well-loved Miami matriarchs into modern day Miami, and bringing their trademark sass and irreverence to a new generation of fans.
Part of the fun of ‘Thank You For Being A Friend’ is the way they’ve worked hard to recreate the feel of watching the television show. During breaks in the performance, two screens come to life, showcasing a range of dodgy '80s ads that are worth the cost of admission alone. Having audience members singing and dancing along to jingles or gasping at the ugliness of jumpers does not, and probably will not, ever get old. And the montage-style tribute to the end credits of the era’s sitcoms was a beautiful sight.
It’s also a lot of fun to watch the puppeteers, who make the absolute best facial expressions. Watching Julia Dray, who voiced Blanche, as she adopted the Southern Belle’s melodramatic flair and threw herself around the stage was as much a crack up as the witty dialogue and sarcastic responses.
The majority of the show was fantastic, and had the crowd in stitches. But occasionally, the jokes fell short. The problem is that ‘The Golden Girls’ was, and is, a snapshot of its time. Times have changed. But when you take a cultural icon and play around with it in a modern setting, as is the case here, do you need to hold tight to jokes that are now seen as socially unacceptable?
The regular nods to Dorothy’s alleged masculinity – even going so far as to have the puppet acted and voiced by a man – got old incredibly quickly. And so did the jokes focusing on race. If you can bring ’50 Shades of Grey’ into ‘The Golden Girls’, surely you can update the humour a little, too, and do away with the more banal tropes of the era.
While in the original show, Dorothy was teased for not being desirable in the traditional, feminine sense, the constant flow of comments about puppet-Dorothy’s weight, appearance, and digs linking her (and her brother) to cross-dressing and transgenderism felt more like bad, frat humour than the intellectual and teasing banter loved in ‘The Golden Girls’.
Though the original characters mocked each other constantly, there was almost always an underlying warmth to their interactions; almost an extension of the Aussie tendency to tease people out of affection rather than malice. But from time to time, the puppets crossed the line from snark to meanness. Part of the problem is that puppets have a far smaller range of expressions and gestures than their human counterparts, making it harder to include the moments of physical contact and teasing expressions that softened the words being spoken in ‘The Golden Girls’.
Overall, it’s a fun night out with a lot of laughs, and while there are moments of comedic faltering, the same can be said of any comedian, especially those working with tropes from past eras to get their laughs. If you’ve ever wanted to see what would happen if you made a sitcom into a puppet show, now is your chance to find out.
‘Thank You For Being A Friend’ is showing at Queensland Performing Arts Centre until 17 October.
