Displaying items by tag: The Golden Girls

Hell in a Handbag Productions is excited to continue its 2025/26 season with the world premiere of The Golden Girls: The Cheese Pyramid, a new addition to its acclaimed "Lost Episodes" parody series. Written by Artistic Director David Cerda* and directed by Brigitte Ditmars**, this comedic production will run from May 8 – June 21, 2026 at The Clutch, Handbag's boutique performance space at 4335 N. Western Ave. in Chicago. Tickets are now on sale at handbagproductions.org and buytickets.at/hellinahandbagproductions/2078392. 

The cast includes ensemble members Kelly Bolton*, David Cerda*, Grant Drager*, Scott Sawa* and Danne W. Taylor* with Honey West. Additional casting to be announced.

About the Production:

In this hilarious new adventure, Rose (Ed Jones*) finds herself in need of extra income and stumbles upon a unique business opportunity — the first multi-level marketing company in St. Olaf, introducing local households to the cheeses of her hometown.

Pretty soon Rose has a garage full of cheese, and no idea how to get rid of it.

Enter Blanche (Grant Drager*), Dorothy (David Cerda*) and Sophia (Kelly Bolton*) with their creative ideas to help Rose organize an unforgettable cheese party, with the audience invited as guests. The show asks: Can the girls save Rose from financial disaster using their party-planning expertise?

Chicago's beloved geriatric superstars return in an all-new Golden Girls escapade, promising to deliver their cheesiest episode yet.

The production team includes Marcus Klein* (Scenic Design), Liz Cooper (Lighting Designer), Danny Rockett (Sound Designer), Syd Genco** (Make-Up Design) and Keith Ryan* (Wig Design).

*Denotes Handbag Ensemble Member | **Denotes Handbag Associate Member

PRODUCTION DETAILS:

Title: The Golden Girls: The Cheese Pyramid (A Lost Episodes Parody) – World Premiere!
Playwright: David Cerda*
Director: Brigitte Ditmars**
Cast (in alphabetical order): Kelly Bolton (Sophia), David Cerda* (Dorothy), Grant Drager* (Blanche), Ed Jones* (Rose), Scott Sawa (Stan), Danne W. Taylor* (Madame Zuhara) and Honey West (Ingrid Ostekongen). Additional casting to be announced.

Location: The Clutch, 4335 N. Western Ave., Chicago

Previews: Friday, May 8 at 7:30 pm, Saturday May 9 at 7:30 pm, Sunday, May 10 at 7:30 pm and Friday, May 15 at 7:30 pm
Opening: Saturday, May 16 at 7:30 pm
Regular run: Sunday, May 17 – Sunday, June 21, 2026
Curtain Times: Fridays and Saturday at 7:30 pm; Sundays at 3 pm and 7 pm. Please note: there will be added Industry Night performances on Monday, June 12 at 7:30 pm.

Tickets: $32* previews, $44* advanced general admission, $47* at the door, $59* VIP/reserved seating. Group rates $38 for 10 or more. Tickets are now on sale at handbagproductions.org and buytickets.at/hellinahandbagproductions/2078392. General admission tickets include a refreshment; VIP tickets include a refreshment, reserved premium seating and of course St. Olaf gourmet cheese. *Ticket prices include processing fees.

About the Artists

David Cerda (Playwright) is a founding member and Artistic Director of Hell in a Handbag Productions, now celebrating its 25^th anniversary. As resident playwright, he has written many Handbag productions as well as acted in them. His play, The Drag Seed was recently produced at LaMaMa Experimental Theater and his Golden Girls Lost Episodes parody shows have been produced around the country and featured in Golden Con: Thank you for being a Fan, the world's first fan convention dedicated to all things Golden Girls at Chicago's Navy Pier. Cerda is a proud inductee into the Chicago LGBT Hall of Fame and recipient of a Jeff Award for lifetime achievement for his 27 years (and counting) of work and service to the community. He lives in Chicago with his partner, Christopher.

Brigitte Ditmars (Director) is a Chicago based director/choreographer who has been performing, choreographing and directing with Handbag since their inaugural production of Poseidon! An Upside Down Musical.  Previous Handbag credits include Bewildered, Caged Dames, How Whatever Happened to Baby Jane Happene, Poseidon... (2010), Rip Nelson's Halloween Spooktacular; Lady X and many iterations of Rudolph the Red-Hosed Reindeer. Additional directing credits include Always, Patsy Cline (Jeff Nomination – Firebrand Theatre), The Secret Council (First Folio Theatre), Schoolhouse Rock Live (Birmingham Children's Theatre), Rock of Ages (Timberlake Playhouse), Maybe Baby, It's You and Nunsense (Fox Valley Repertory). She has received two Joseph Jefferson Awards for Outstanding Achievement in Choreography for Reefer Madness (Circle Theatre) and Pinafore! (Bailiwick Repertory), as well as 3 additional nominations.

About Hell in a Handbag Productions

Hell in a Handbag is dedicated to the preservation, exploration, and celebration of works ingrained in the realm of popular culture via theatrical productions through parody, music and homage. Handbag is a 501(c)(3) Not for Profit. For additional information, visit handbagproductions.org.

Fun! Funny! Funnier! If you are fan of The Golden Girls TV show, then run, don't walk, to see Hell in a Handbag’s The Golden Girls: The Lost Episodes at Mary's Attic before its special, recently extended, run is over. The show opens with a heart lifting, hug your best friend singalong of the sitcom’s famed theme song, "Thank you for being a Friend" - in its fantastic entirety! 

Plenty of fans arrive in costume to see the show and in between the hysterically funny, bawdy, R-Rated "Lost Episodes” theatre goers are entertained by Golden Girls trivia contests with fun prizes, so live it up. 

Hell in a Handbag Artistic Director David Cerda wrote the show which parodies the famed 1980’s sitcom where four women who share a home in a Miami Senior Community are not ready to stop living life to the fullest. Cerda is fantastic as the deadpan Dorothy even with the use of just one syllable – “Mah!" David, who recently won a well-deserved special Jeff Award (Congrats!) for all of his amazing contributions to theatre in Chicago with his much beloved production company Hell in a Handbag, evokes laughs with every shoulder-padded shrug and anchors the show with his dead-on funny accuracy in the role of Dorothy that actress Bea Arthur made famous. 

I don't know how he does it but every single show David writes is unique, displays every cast members talents superbly, heartfelt and funnier than the last. In this show, he takes the iconic TV show and brings it to a new level, creating hysterically campy “lost episodes” that one could only wish took to the air during the series’ heyday.  

Blanche is played with true southern sex appeal by A. J. Wright. Wright is mind-blowingly accurate in his portrayal of the flirty man-eater. Wright is so convincing, I had to occasionally close my eyes and just listen with delight, because I really felt he was a woman channeling Rue Clanahan, not a man in drag. The razor-sharp tongued Sophia played by Adrian Hadlock is also right on the mark with his dry as a martini, machine gun-like delivery of every single one-liner.

Ed Jones rounds out this fearsomely funny foursome with his always gentle, never forced portrayal of the delicate and ditzy, Rose, often forced to do and say indelicate things! Handbag favorite Ed Jones is - as ever, roaringly funny and true to Betty White's every gesture, even to her dazed and confused looks of naivety. As in all of Handbag’s productions, Golden Girls is equipped with a stellar ensemble, this show including hilarious performances by Chazie Bly, Kristopher Bottrall, Grant Drager, Lori Lee, David Lipschutz, Terry McCarthy, Michael S. Miller and Robert Williams.

Not ignoring the other fine touches that make this such a fun experience, Myron Elliot’s costumes and Keith Ryan's wigs and makeup are a laugh riot in themselves and really help each actor achieve the eerie accuracy that makes this a true golden fest for fans of the show. 

David Cerda and I have some kind of strange psychic connection in that his shows always seem to coincide in some synchronistic way with things going on in my life and family, and Golden Girls was just what I needed to see. My mother and I lived in Miami Florida throughout my whole young adult life and the week I saw this production of Golden Girls (one of my mom's favorite shows to watch with me) she was in the hospital and I was extremely stressed and worried about losing her. When David says as Dorothy about her mother Sophia, "She's probably thinking back to her youth in the fields of Sicily," and then sighs, "God, I'd wish she'd just die," I had to let out a cathartic laugh because it was just such a perfectly funny, subtext of compassion coupled with frustration of the statement of all mother/daughter love when stretched to its limits. I loved it. Naturally, I don’t wish such a thing, but Cerda’s writing has a way of somehow finding love and humor in even such a statement.  

I didn't stop laughing or smiling from start to finish of this uproariously funny take on the Golden Girls that no fan should miss. Even if you are not familiar with the show, it’s worth checking out. Don't worry, you’ll pick it up quickly. And like many Hell in a Handbag shows, there is an intermission long enough to stretch, grab a drink and use the restroom which allows you to really allow the funniness of the first act to sink in. Increasingly I find myself enduring 90-minute or longer shows with no intermission as if the audience is trapped in some kind of marathon endurance test of our concentration and bladders! But not at Hell in a Handbag shows, which proves yet again that David Cerda is in tune with everything a Golden Girl needs to truly enjoy a laugh packed night out with your best friends. Much Thanks to David Cerda for "being a friend!”

Golden Girls: The Lost Episodes is being performed at Mary’s Attic in Andersonville on Wednesday and Thursdays at 7:30 p.m now extended through September 16th. Saturday dates have been added for August. Tickets are $20, but are just $16 if purchased in advance. To purchase tickets or to find out more about this hilarious show wonderfully directed by Shade Murray, visit handbagproductions.org.