Today I got a copy of Melbourne’s queer festival Midsumma, that will happen most of January and into February. The choice of events is amazing.

A play called Everything I know I learnt from Madonna, Madonna shows… movies, performances, exhibitions… I’ll be very busy!

But best of it all, Midsumma brings a special performance of the Golden Girls into town.

The Golden Girls as hand puppets ! It sounds like trash… And it started tonight! We caught the first show in Melbourne, and it was hilarious.

I wish my sister Sabine would have had a chance to see this. We have watched the Golden Girls since the 1990s, sometimes watching 10 episodes in a row, getting drunk on champagne and eating cheese cake.

She even wrote three (!) scripts for Golden Girls episodes, the first one being a two-page script, the last one a full blown-out book that took the Girls’ storyline to a whole new level…

 

Played on a full live set, the five actors were wearing black and acting with the Golden Girls as hand puppets. The 90-minute show was a mash-up off the main story lines across the Golden Girls’ seven-year run, twisted all together.

From the Miami song they wrote, Sophia’s wedding, Dorothy’s failed dates, Roses’ St. Olaf stories and Blanche’s self-delusional youth.

The actors were fantastic, hitting the accents, even slightly looking like their alter egos. Blanche in particular was a riot! Her southern accent was spot on! I was stunned.

Or, as she put it: stahhhhn’t!