Souris Valley Theatre said goodbye to its second and final musical of the season Friday night with Golden Gals Vacation, an original production by Randy Apostle that paid tribute to the sitcom The Golden Girls with a prairie twist.
Apostle said the sitcom’s enduring popularity made it an ideal project to adapt.
“When you go back and watch that show, it still stands up today—the risks they took, how funny they were, and the great leaps they made for women in comedy,” he said. “It’s always fun to be able to pay tribute to that.”
The plot follows the foursome on what was meant to be a vacation in Waikiki that instead takes them to Winnipeg, where Rose and Blanche find themselves feuding over what appears to be the same man, while Dorothy and Sophia provide comic common sense. Apostle localized the humour for prairie audiences and added musical numbers, including the theme song 'Thank You for Being a Friend'.
“It’s wonderful to see how the show has grown,” Apostle said. “We added local flavours and colours, and it’s always just wonderful to see the Estevan audience having a great time. In today’s world, whenever we can get together and just have fun, that’s more important than anything.”
Both musicals presented this summer were penned by Apostle.
“These were two of my newer scripts, and it’s fun to see how they evolve,” he said.
Stage manager Hope Van Vliet said Golden Gals Vacation capped what she called an “incredible season.”
“It’s a lot of returning actors. The production crew is all returning, so we hit the ground running,” she said. “It was just a really fun environment, and the community seems to have really rallied around it.”
The cast and crew had only two weeks to prepare, but Van Vliet credited their experience and teamwork for making the turnaround possible.
“This is an incredible team, and everyone does a lot of work before we even get to the theatre to make it possible,” she said.
Now in her third season with Souris Valley, Van Vliet said each year feels more like a reunion.
“It gets easier every year because you learn the idiosyncrasies of the venue,” she said. “The type of show we do is very consistent. It’s almost always a musical written by Randy Apostle. At this point, there’s no stress anymore. It’s just like summer camp.”
Van Vliet, who is from Regina, said she has developed a soft spot for the theatre and community.
“This is such a unique theatre. The community really rallies around it every single year,” she said, pointing to the support of local businesses that sponsored each performance night. “People want us to be here, and it feels so special to be at this theatre in this city.”
The show starred Robyn Sanderson as Sophia, Amy Vink as Rose, Brandon Vink as Floyd/Boyd, Yanin Cranwill as Dorothy and Lily Duff as Blanche.
The production team included Lisa McDougall as music director, Pam Gordon-Wiebe as choreographer, Wren Magalong as assistant stage manager, Derek Klassen as lighting director, Abbie Brokenshire as costume designer, and Brooke Wilson on spotlight.
While the musicals have wrapped, Souris Valley Theatre will close its season with a concert by the Johner Brothers on Aug. 21.