(Authors note: Ongoing shows like “The Golden Girls” series are long past the need for review, so instead I had a fun chat with Todd Warfield, the longtime director of the drag parodies, about their continuing appeal and what’s new this time.)

Once upon a time, deciding to see a live “Golden Girls: The Lost Episodes” show would have seemed like a fun but unremarkable choice for a night out. Now, thanks to recent attacks on all things drag, spending an evening laughing along with Blanche, Dorothy, Rose and Sophia is almost an act of public protest.

Heaven knows “the Girls” aren’t bothered. They’ve been here before, many times. The current show, the “Love” edition is at O’Connell & Company for one more weekend and delivers the same mix of racy sit-com, satire, musical and quiz show that it always has. Consider it ‘theater of the familiar AND the absurd.’ 

This is sixth in the series of television sendups written by Chicagoan David Cerda. As usual, it’s that traditional mix of something old, something new, something borrowed and quite a bit of blue. There are the “old” but not THAT old golden characters, the “borrowed” framework of a television and the “blue” of just about every fourth utterance, but to be fair, it’s a cheery light blue.

The “new” for this show is a detailed, authentic set inspired by NBC’s original hit show 

(circa 1985-92). “Lost Episodes” director Todd Warfield, a former set designer in Los Angeles, has created a substantial new physical set for Vol. VI. He’s directed all the “Golden Girls” plays since Lost Episodes I (which didn’t have a Roman numeral because who knew how popular this would be?!). 

“The first show was a ‘Golden Girls Christmas’ at Alleyway’s Cabaret, because the space was vacant with ‘A Christmas Carol’ playing on the main stage,” Warfield said. “It was a wild, sell-out hit, and people would line up outside the theater on Main Street to get ‘the best seats,’ which was funny because there were only maybe 70 seats in the space anyway.”

Who was lining up surprised him as much as the numbers themselves.

“I didn’t realize who our audience would be,” he said. He had first seen a “Golden Girl” short by Cerda at a midnight show in Chicago, with a very specific late night crowd. He thought the Christmas show would bring in a similar audience: “guys like me – gay – and drag fans.” 

Au contraire. Yes, those fellows showed up, he said, “But the main market is women, specifically women in middle age.”
Women loved and still love the Golden G’s, he said. “I’ve looked into it and no other TV show has the same effect as ‘Golden Girls’… not ‘Designing Women,’ not anything.”

With a reliable fan base, the “Girls” kept coming back, for Vols 2-6, changing spaces along the way. The first Cabaret show relied on a theatrical “drop” for scenic design. Now, in hopefully permanent home in O’Connell & Co.’s theater on Bailey Avenue, they have a genuine facsimile of the TV show’s living room and kitchen. 

“It looks like we think it’s supposed to look, the colors, the bamboo wallpaper, the lanai and posts (constructed by David Haefner) and the Jello molds (on the kitchen walls),” Warfield said. It works, but he added, “Next time we’ll push it all back about four feet, to give us more room for the actors.”

And, while the set is good, it is the actors who make the show. Michael “Bebe” Blasdell is a large and lusty Blanche; Matt Rittler is a smaller, outspoken, heavily accented Sophia, and then there’s Maude, er, Dorothy, played by the anything but tranquilizing Michael Seitz. His Bea Arthur is, as the song goes, uncompromising. 

They all have to be good, otherwise they would be dwarfed by Joey Bucheker’s transformation into Rose, the simple sweetheart of St. Olaf’s, and her incredible stories. “Joey is the real fan of the group,” Warfield said. “He knows everything about the show, and he’s the one who comes up with the Jeopardy! questions.”
He’s referring to the game show breaks in the episodes, when willing volunteers from the audience compete in Golden Girls Jeopardy!, which is more challenging than you might expect. The audience also gets to sing-along to “Thank You for Being a Friend” – and apparently know all the words – before the show. 

There are four remaining shows: tonight (Feb. 21), Saturday and Sunday at 7:30 p.m., plus a Sunday matinee on Feb. 23 at 2 p.m. If you miss it, Warfield says they might be back for Halloween, with the girls teaming up with Scooby-Doo. O’Connell & Company is at 4110 Bailey Ave., Amherst, with free parking onsite. 

Tickets are $41; $39 for seniors, including fees; $25 for students with ID at oconnellandcompany.com.