The Golden Girls Silenced; Hit Production Closes Off-Broadway

By Andrew Gans
19 Nov 2003

Dorothy, Blanche, Rose and Sophia will speak no more Off-Broadway.

The Golden Girls: Live!, the hit production at Rose's Turn that was to transfer to Dillon's Cabaret in February 2004, has closed. A spokesperson for the show confirmed that Golden Girls was forced to ends its run because the producers of the Off-Broadway version failed to secure the rights to the property. Susan Harris and Paul Junger Witt, creators of the television show, served the play with a cease and desist order.

The Golden Girls: Live! featured two back-to-back episodes of the eighties sitcom performed by an all-male cast. The company included John Schaefer as Dorothy (memorably portrayed on the NBC series by Emmy winner Bea Arthur) and Peter Mac as Dorothy's interfering mother, Sophia (Estelle Getty on the series). The show had recently been extended through Feb. 8 at Rose's Turn and was to reopen Feb. 11 at Dillon's Cabaret for an eight-show-a week open-ended engagement.

"The Golden Girls" concerned three women — Rose, Dorothy and Blanche — who share a Miami home. Dorothy's mother Sophia also joined the trio when her nursing home, the infamous Shady Pines, burned to the ground. The Emmy-winning series played NBC-TV 1985-1992. The Lifetime Network airs reruns of the series daily.