No sooner had the announcement been published that the "Golden Girls" would be seen on stage in Germany than the phone lines of the Komödie Düsseldorf collapsed. The fan base of the beloved American sitcom was so large that the stage play, too, became an instant hit. Since December 2013, Kerstin Fernström, Anita Kupsch, Viktoria Brams and Gudrun Gabriel have let audiences share in their romantic escapades, kitchen rivalries, living-room film shoots and battles over the bathroom. Things get especially heated whenever Wolff von Lindenau appears in various roles and really sets the ladies' hormones racing. "I love my role. Rose is wildly funny, naive and at the same time full of life wisdom," Kerstin Fernström recounts enthusiastically. When she plays the piece over several months, with double performances at the weekend, as now in Cologne, Rose is often present off stage too. And Kerstin Fernström keeps discovering new nuances in the fun-loving lady. Even after years, she continues to develop along with her role. The last performance in Essen, however, is now eleven months ago, and ahead of the Cologne premiere at the Theater am Dom, the well-rehearsed team has only a few rehearsals. "I'm already very nervous and I'm learning my lines from morning till night. But I'm tremendously looking forward to the Cologne audience. In the depths of Bavaria you can't tell whether anyone in the hall is laughing. In Cologne they laugh before the punchline has even been spoken. It's going to be a wonderful time." Which scenes are seen on stage was decided by the American rights holders. They approved twenty-five scenes as a German stage play. But these are structured rather like a sitcom: with quick changes and music in place of commercials. Kerstin Fernström alone has fifteen costumes, some of which she has to change in mid-flight in less than a minute. The four women thus offer a theatre evening full of pace, wit, charm and gloriously wicked humour! Premiere: 4 May 2017, Theater am Dom Cologne. Run: 4 May 2017 – 16 July 2017
Wildly Funny, Naive and Full of Life Wisdom
