From left, Vince Kelley, Christopher Davis, Christopher Kamm and Adam Graber make up the cast of \u201cGolden Girls: The Laughs Continue,\u201d which will be at the Byham Theater Friday and Saturday. [Courtesy of artist management]<\/p>\n
What\u2019s old is new again, and as America grays, nostalgia increasingly takes center stage.<\/p>\n
For those who enjoyed the \u201cGolden Girls\u201d sitcom, which aired on NBC-TV from 1985 to 1992, \u201cGolden Girls: The Laughs Continue\u201d offers a chance to revisit the beloved characters-with a decidedly different twist. The touring stage production will be at Pittsburgh\u2019s Byham Theater this weekend.<\/p>\n
The larger-than-life personalities of Dorothy, Blanche, Rose and Sophia come alive once again with their signature humor. This time, however, an all-male cast portrays the four women, with plenty of off-the-cuff comments designed to elicit laughs from their fellow cast members as well as the audience.<\/p>\n
Playing Blanche<\/p>\n
Vince Kelley, who plays Blanche Devereaux, the flirtatious Southern belle, had the pleasure of watching the beloved sitcom when it originally aired.<\/p>\n
Kelley said he adores Blanche.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe sees herself as a tragic character and yet she has a fabulous life. She helps me relate to that in my own life. She\u2019s been called a slut, but the insult has no meaning. She\u2019s like a little duck-water falls off her back,\u201d Kelley said.<\/p>\n
Kelley said part of the show\u2019s appeal is that it\u2019s multi-generational.<\/p>\n
\u201cI watched it on Friday nights with my grandma and it later gained a second life in syndication and on channels such as Lifetime and Hallmark,\u201d Kelley said. When Hulu streamed the series during the COVID-19 pandemic, even more fans came aboard.<\/p>\n
Kelley had previously worked with the producers of \u201cThe Golden Girls\u201d on another production prior to the pandemic.<\/p>\n
\u201cDuring lockdown, the idea of \u2018Golden Girls\u2019 came up and we leaned into it, wrote and workshopped it. We were going to do a proof of concept and take a year to retool it and put it out there,\u201d said Kelley.<\/p>\n
What happened instead was that it went so well that a tour was up and running in four weeks.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been four years now and it\u2019s like a dream. We all like each other and love the material. Fans are just icing on the cake,\u201d Kelley said.<\/p>\n
Starting young<\/p>\n
Kelley credits his family with encouraging his acting career.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy uncle was dating his girlfriend who became my aunt when she was a junior, playing a part in \u201cThe Sound of Music.\u201d I was 7 and they needed a little boy to be in the show so they approached my mom. What? A free babysitter? Bye,\u201d Kelley said with a chuckle.<\/p>\n
Kelley enjoyed acting so much that he approached his teacher and asked where he could do more.<\/p>\n
\u201cMom signed me up for voice and dancing lessons and I never looked back,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Favorite moments<\/p>\n
Kelley\u2019s favorite moments are when the gang can freely riff on one another.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe return from a mission in Act II, and there\u2019s a scene with me, Rose and Sophia and there\u2019s cheesecake where we discuss our lives and our problems,\u201d said Kelley. \u201cIt\u2019s an open-ended monologue session and we just lose our minds and we have the best time. I make up the dumbest things you can imagine for laughs. Then Dorothy arrives and it\u2019s over.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kelley said that both young and old will relate to the show.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur show is a whole new story; we took the formula and made it relevant to modern times; it\u2019s the Golden Girls as you\u2019ve never seen them-without FCC constraints,\u201d said Kelley, adding that the cast also reaches fans through TikTok and Instagram.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe meet people where they are,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Kelley particularly enjoys the meet-and-greets following the performances.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople bring us presents and share pictures and stories. I\u2019ve seen \u2018Golden Girls\u2019 tattoos in places I shouldn\u2019t see,\u201d Kelley said with a laugh. \u201cI love how energized and engaged the fanbase is.\u201d<\/p>\n
Showtimes are 7 p.m. Friday, and at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Saturday. For information, go online to trustarts.org.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From left, Vince Kelley, Christopher Davis, Christopher Kamm and Adam Graber make up the cast of \u201cGolden Girls:…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":297924,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[8712,49246,73,75,74,11346],"class_list":["post-297923","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-byham-theater","tag-golden-girls","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news","tag-tour"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297923","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=297923"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297923\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/297924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=297923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=297923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=297923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}