Since premiering in 2007 inside the parlor of a historic Victorian in San Francisco's Western Addition neighborhood, the drag stagings of beloved TV sitcom "The Golden Girls" have starred Heklina as the buttoned-up substitute teacher Dorothy Zbornak. Over the years the Christmastime productions have become a Bay Area holiday tradition.
The sudden death last month of Heklina, the drag persona of Stefan Grygelko, raised questions on if her surviving castmates would bring back the production this December. The answer is "The Golden Girls Live! The Christmas Episodes" shows will go on, according to D'Arcy Drollinger, who since 2015 has played the dimwitted Midwesterner Rose Nylund and has directed the yearly yuletide offerings.
"We haven't really started planning of anything, but we are going to continue," Drollinger, named last week the city's first-ever drag laureate, told the Bay Area Reporter. "I had joked many times with Heklina that the show, at this point, has gotten bigger than any of us."
Drollinger noted that they recast Holotta Tymes in the part of Sophia Petrillo, Zbornak's widowed mother, after Cookie Dough (aka Eddie Bell) died in January 2015 after becoming ill during a trip to Mexico.
"We soldiered on when Cookie passed away," said Drollinger. "Heklina would never want us to stop. It brings too much joy to too many people."
The sitcom aired on NBC from September 14, 1985, to May 9, 1992. Reruns of its 180 half-hour episodes continue to be shown on cable, while the entire series is available to watch via streaming service Hulu. For the drag Christmas performances, two episodes are paired together for the run each year.
It has become a staple of the schedule at the Victoria Theatre in the Mission district. In 2020, the cast livestreamed their production without an audience due to the COVID pandemic. The following year they were able to bring it back for live performances, with Heklina telling the newsite 48Hills, "Dorothy is the closest to my actual personality: dry, sarcastic, and she suffers no fools."
Over the years the other two lead roles have also seen cast changes. Drag queen Pollo Del Mar initially portrayed Rose Nylund prior to Drollinger taking on the part.
Also from the start Matthew Martin has played Southern belle Blanche Devereaux, the most promiscuous of the roommates. The late drag queen Arturo Galster, who died in 2014, briefly took over the part for several performances the first year the shows were staged.
By September, Drollinger hopes they will have recast the role of Dorothy and will be able to announce this year's run dates. Drollinger told the B.A.R. that Heklina didn't have someone in mind to take over the part.
"None of us had our 'Golden Girls' wills put together. I think she expected to be doing this for years to come," Drollinger said of Heklina.
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