Hypnodrome (San Francisco, CA)
Thrillpeddlers celebrate the 40th anniversary of the gender-bending drag troupe The Cockettes with this psychedelic musical inspired by sin soaked Old Shanghai and Busby Berkeley movie musicals from Hollywood's Golden Age.
Event summary prepared by the Goldstar Editorial Team.
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The last date listed for Pearls Over Shanghai was Sunday November 22, 2009 / 7:00pm. (view all dates)
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Loved it, and I plan on attending it again to see how it grows and transforms. Silly, sexy, campy, and spooky with great singing to boot!
I'd recommend this to anyone out for a good time, and I especially recommend the shock box seating experience.
What a wonderful event, and so truly san francisco. It's full of belly laughs, wonderful music, and clever lyrics. The show is really almost too big for this venue, yet it's staged wonderfully. There's not a square inch of the theatre that isn't used, including sometimes the seat you're sitting in. But all to good fun, and a theatre experience that's not to be missed.
Really enjoyed both the history of this show and the actual performances. The theatrical spectacle was top notch - loved the humor, and I'm always a fan of nudity on stage! The singing was rather good as well. We sat in a shock box and found this to be unexpectedly titillating! (thanks for the hand-job!).
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This intimate venue seats only forty-five guests. "General Admission" seats are filled on a first-come basis. For couples seeking privacy and an extra jolt during the performance, the Hypnodrome's signature "Shock Box" seats are available for a higher price. Winner of SF Weekly's "Best of San Francisco 2008" Award for "Best Bonus Theater Experience," Hypnodrome's "interactive audience-invadi
<p>Thrillpeddlers are proud to announce the second production of their 2009 season, “Pearls Over Shanghai,” an original musical by Link Martin and Richard “Scrumbly” Koldewyn. This show is the centerpiece of their second annual Theatre of the Ridiculous Revival, and will mark the 40th anniversary of the formation of The Cockettes, a gender-bending theatrical troupe who not only originated this show, but also exerted a profound influence on the culture of our times, from the phenomenon of midnight movies to glitter rock stars and their outrageous fashions. </p>
<p>Link Martin parts the bamboo curtain, his politics swept aside by his love of the mystery and intrigue of the Orient. Placing his story at the crossroads of good and evil, his exotic “old sin town” is filled with singing sailors, witty whores, foolish immortals, handmaidens and henchmen, all taking their places in streets teeming with a mix of foreign aristocrats, opium addicts, and gangland slave-trade czars.</p>
<p>Originally produced as a Nocturnal Dream Show and performed at midnight at the old Palace Theatre in Chinatown, “Pearls Over Shanghai” was the fabled and fabulous Cockettes’ first and best original showpiece. This musical became the crown jewel of The Cockettes repertoire, enjoying three revivals in two years, including a notorious and infamous run at New York’s Anderson Theatre in 1971.</p>
<p>Although “Pearls Over Shanghai” had long been germinating in the fertile mind of Link Martin, it struck the trend-setting, gender-bending theatrical troupe as extremely fortuitous when the real Peking Opera played the same stage at the Palace Theatre.
At the time, much was made over a missing trunk of sequined kimonos and props that seemed to vanish. However, the items were not lost and did reappear, some months later, spawning “Pearls Over Shanghai” Two, Three, and Four. For the Thrillpeddlers production, original Cockettes Tahara and Billy Bowers will lend their considerable talents to our resident costume mistress Kara Emry in order to create original designs reminiscent of the opulent 1930s Orient as well as the psychedelic splendor of 1960s San Francisco.</p>
<p>Stage Director for “Pearls Over Shanghai” is Russell Blackwood, and original Cockette and composer Richard “Scrumbly” Koldewyn will serve as Musical Director. The cast will include original Cockette Rumi Missabu reprising his role as the evil Madame Gin Sling. Connie Champagne, Katya Smirnoff-Skyy, and Leanne Borghesi will alternate in the role of Petrushka, first created by disco diva Sylvester in the original productions. With a supporting cast of twenty, costumes a-plenty, and a score of some two dozen songs, this production promises to be the most eye-popping and toe-tapping in the Hypnodrome’s history, with the scent of intoxicating perfume, poisonous flowers, opium, and sex oozing from every scene.</p>
Thrillpeddlers is the 2009 SF Bay Guardian's Goldie Award winner for "Outstanding Local Discovery" in the arts. They have been performing a unique brand of horror and fetish theatre in San Francisco for over a decade. The company is continuously engaged in translating, adapting, and producing classic plays from the infamous repertoire of Le Theatre du Grand Guignol (www.grandguignol.com) as well as developing modern works by contemporary masters of the horror genre. The Hypnodrome, Thrillpeddlers' performance venue, has the distinction of being the world's only purpose-built horror theatre. Now in its sixth year, Thrillpeddlers' annual pageant of terror and titillation, Shocktoberfest!!, has become a San Francisco Halloween tradition.