The Golden Girls is one of the most popular and influential TV programmes of the past 40 years and remains hugely popular, especially with us LGBT folk. Two years ago the team from Two Box Productions launched Golden Girls – the Musical, with Episode One winning a Boyz Award last year and Episodes Two and Three nominated this year. Next week Dorothy, Rose, Blanche and Sophia are back at The Two Brewers with Episode Four, thanks to four of our favourite drag stars. Dave Cross pulls up a wicker chair and a slice of cheesecake for a chat with writer and director Lawrence Bolton.
Hi Lawrence, for those who haven’t seen any of the other episodes, what is Golden Girls the Musical?
We’ve taken the beloved classic TV series Golden Girls and brought the original four characters back to life, but with drag queens, musical numbers and it’s live on stage!
How do you turn the TV episodes into a musical?
We take strong inspiration from some of the most popular episodes and rework them to include some camp classic songs and a little bit of choreography here and there.
Which episodes have you reworked for this next show?
We’ve adapted the popular episode Isn’t It Romantic? from the second season. Since it’s Valentine’s Day, we’ve taken an episode all about love and romance, but being the Golden Girls, things obviously take a hilarious twist.
Can you talk us through the cast, who are our girls?
Our four Golden Girls are played by some of London’s favourite drag performers. The stern and stoic Dorothy is played by Rose Garden. Our floozy, Blanche, is played by Tanya Hyde. The hilarious Sophia is brought to life by Mrs Moore and the ditzy, Rose, is portrayed by Stephanie Von Clitz. It’s all type casting. Sadly our version of Rose was visiting the Herring museum in St Olaf when we did the Boyz photoshoot.
And other characters?
For this episode, we’re lucky enough to be joined by Niall Hemingway (Saucy Jack, The Tiger Who Came To Tea), who is playing Jean, Dorothy’s best friend from school. He has appeared in numerous shows with TwoBox, as well as plenty of national tours and pantomimes!
What songs can we expect in Episode Four?
As always, we’ve got some fabulous camp, classic musical numbers in this episode and plenty of romantic songs to put you in the Valentine’s spirit, but you will have to come to find out exactly what.
Last year, the first episode of Golden Girls won a Boyz Award and your panto won as well, what did that mean to you?
We didn’t expect to win against some of the big theatres, but the Boyz Awards are voted for by the LGBTQ+ community so winning feels like genuine support and love from within the community. By the way you can still vote for Golden Girls and this year’s panto in the Boyz Awards 2019. #shamelessplug
What’s next for Two Box?
We’ll be performing shows at The Two Brewers this year, including a Halloween musical spectacular that you won’t want to miss. We’ll also be heading back to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe this year with our sell-out show. We’ve got lots of exciting new productions up our sleeve for this year, so watch this space. Follow Two Box Productions on social media to keep up-to-date with us!
Photos by ChrisJepson.com
Tickets for Golden Girls A Musical from outsavvy.com
Golden Girls Episode Four at The Two Brewers, 114 Clapham High Street, Clapham, SW4 from Monday 11 February.
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