The Golden Girls just got put in a home, a far more luxurious home at BroadwaySF’s Curran Theatre, as ‘Golden Girls Live’ is slipping out of the rather well-aged Victoria Theatre where the annual onstage holiday version of the 1980s retiree sitcom has played since 2011.

July is an odd time of year for there to be breaking news about the annual onstage drag show Golden Girls Live: The Christmas Episodes. But last July, we got the news that Coco Peru was taking over the Heklina role of Bea Arthur’s garishly outfitted character Dorothy Zbornak, after the sudden and stunning death of Heklina earlier that year.

And now this year on July 25, nearly five months before the show’s holiday season run, SF Drag Laureate and longtime portrayer of the Betty White (Rose) character D’arcy Drollinger has breaking Golden Girls news again. Drollinger announced that this year’s 19th iteration of Golden Girls Live: The Christmas Episodes will move to BroadwaySF’s Curran Theater, a serious upgrade from the 116-year-old Victoria Theatre which has been the holiday show’s annual home since 2011.  

“It is so exciting to have the opportunity to bring Golden Girls Live to the iconic Curran,” Drollinger told SFist Thursday afternoon. “It really is a dream come true.”

The late, great Heklina started these Christmas-themed Golden Girls shows in 2007 with performances in someone's private residence in a parlor in the Western Addition. The show was promoted pretty much just by email. It finally got a proper venue in 2009 at Mama Calizo's Voice Factory, before moving to the Victoria Theatre in 2011.

Matthew Martin (Blanche) remains the only original Golden Girl still in the cast, as Holotta Tymes took the Sophia role after Cookie Dough passed away in 2015, and that same year, Drollinger stepped in for the still very much alive Pollo del Mar.

Golden Girls Live: The Christmas Episodes does not actually recreate Golden Girls Christmas episodes. “There were only ever two actual Christmas episodes in the entire seven seasons of The Golden Girls,” Heklina told SFist in a 2016 interview. “We've had to take actual episodes and Christmasify them."

The Chronicle has an additional heartbreaking detail today that Drollinger informed Heklina of the possible Curran Theatre upgrade in his last phone call with Heklina in 2023.

The Chronicle also notes that the Curran Theatre has 1,667 seats, compared to the Victoria’s much smaller 480 seats. So in addition to the somewhat later premiere date of December 5 (the show has traditionally opened right after Thanksgiving), there are some other trade-offs too.

Notably, the show’s BroadwaySF ticket page says that “Fans who purchase a VIP ticket will receive access to a post-show meet & greet and photo opportunity with the cast. Only VIP ticket holders will be able to stay for this post-show event.”

That sounds like the traditional “pictures with the cast” benefit is likely not available to anyone except VIP ticket holders. This is understandable, considering that each night’s audience will be about triple what it had been at the Victoria.

The shine will still probably stay on the Golden Girls Live: The Christmas Episodes, because the show has nearly two decades of local blockbuster popularity, and such a built-in fan base of people who loved the NBC sitcom that ran from 1985 to 1992.

“We understand what it means to people,” Drollinger told SFist in 2021. “I can see a future where we're all doing this together well into our retirement."

But you are Blanche, you are all doing this together well into your retirement!

Golden Girls Live: The Christmas Episodes will run from December 5-22, 2024, at the Curran Theatre. Tickets here

Related: 'Golden Girls Live: The Christmas Episodes' Returns With Coco Peru Stepping In as Dorothy [SFist]

Image: Holotta Tymes as Sophia, Coco Peru as Dorothy, and D'Arcy Drollinger in 'The Golden Girls Live.' Photo by Gareth Gooch