Thank you for being a friend: 'Golden Girls: The Laughs Continue' coming to the Hanover

The touring show "Golden Girls: The Laughs Continue" creates what could be taken to be a new episode from the famous NBC television sitcom "The Golden Girls" that ran from 1985-1992 about four older women living together in Miami in their golden years.

Now in 2024, Sophia (who was played on the sitcom by Estelle Getty) is out on bail after being busted by the DEA for running a drug ring for retirees. Blanche (Rue McClanahan) and Rose (Betty White) have founded CreakN, a thriving sex app for seniors. And Dorothy (Bea Arthur) is trying to hold it all together, with help from her much younger, sex-crazed love interest.

When "Golden Girls: The Laughs Continue" comes to The Hanover Theatre and Conservatory for the Performing Arts for a performance on April 19, the new cast members will be playing to character as the new storyline unfolds. One other new detail — the golden girls are all being played by men dressed up as the women.

That has been known to surprise some unsuspecting audience members, said Vince Kelley, who plays Blanche, the man-hungry Southern belle originated by McClanahan, during a recent telephone interview.

But he noted he's been told after the show, "This is not what I expected — this is so much better."

'Traveled down a road and back again'

The laughs have been continuing. "I say it's a show for everyone who loves laughing," Kelley said. Which is what he thinks the original cast would be doing, and which is what audiences who see the show are now doing, he said.

Everyone 18+, he added, since the show, as the previously mentioned plot description might suggest, can get raunchy.

"The Golden Girls" was one of the most watched shows on television (it ranked among the Nielsen ratings' top 10 for six of its seven seasons), and tribute shows over the years have included parodies and casts consisting of drag queens. But the cast of "Golden Girls: The Laughs Continue" prefer to see themselves as actors who hold the TV show's legends in high esteem and use the show as a way to honor and celebrate them.

"There are a lot of other shows with drag impersonators. Ours is different — like a lost episode, a whole new storyline based in 2024 but with all the sensibilities of the '80s and '90s," Kelley said.

However, a strictly straightforward approach can only go so far, Kelley acknowledged. "We don't try to pretend that we're not men. We want to laugh at ourselves before everyone else has the chance," he said.

"We know what we're doing. I like to say we're very serious about our ridiculousness."

'A pal and a confidant'

Kelley lives in Detroit and grew up in Michigan. He did theater in elementary, junior high and high school, and then moved to New York City where he graduated from conservatory and acted in national tours and regional productions. His credits have included "La Cage aux Folles," Angel in "Rent" and the lead in "Hedwig and the Angry Inch."

Eventually, he decided to move back to the Michigan area, concluding "OK, I'm done with professional theater." He got into teaching theater in high school.

"I thought, 'I'm never going to be living on a bus again (touring).' Here I am, talking from a bus."

"Golden Girls: The Laughs Continue" pulled Kelley into its orbit as it was developed out of Detroit with producers Murray and Peter Present (whose shows include Jimbo's Drag Circus) and director Eric Swanson, co-founder and executive director of The Detroit Actors’ Theatre Company. The show was written by Robert Leleux, author of "The Memoirs of a Beautiful Boy" and "The Living End."

"This was such a good opportunity I couldn't pass it up," Kelley said. He also does the show's costumes.

Besides Kelley, the cast includes Ryan Bernier as Dorothy, Adam Graber as Rose, Christopher Kamm as Sophia, and Jason Bowen as the two male characters in the show.

The cast all gets along, and the show allows for some ad lib within the plot.

"Every night is a completely different show. We'll just make each other break up on stage ... We always like to keep the audience guessing, 'what could we possibly say next?'" Kelley said.

The show has been touring for about two years, and was in Birmingham, Alabama, the night before the telephone interview. That performance had been fine, Kelley said from the bus. "We had a wonderful meet and greet. It was very nice."

The television show's fame "gives us a built in audience. We're already half way there," Kelley said.

Theater audiences tend to be women in their 40s to 60s, but there can also be "a great cross-section." Kelley said he's had husbands tell him after the show, "I didn't want to come but my face hurts from laughing so hard."

The current tour runs to the end of June, takes July off, and "after that we hit the road again," Kelley said.

He's maintained his affiliation with the school where he was teaching, but plans to stay with the show for a while.

"I think so. It's easy to say that when things are going well. I think once we have our first cast change I'll have to think of what's best for me. But I'll always be a part of it."

'Golden Girls: The Laughs Continue'

When: 8 p.m. April 19

Where: The Hanover Theatre and Conservatory for the Performing Arts, 2 Southbridge St., Worcester

How much: $50, $55 and $80 depending on seat location. Post-performance photo experience with the cast available as an add-on for $50. Box office (877) 571-7469; thehanovertheatre.org

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: 'Golden Girls: The Laughs Continue' coming to The Hanover Theatre