Pearls Over Shanghai II

This is the actual review, for those who care enough to follow.

Directed by Russell Blackwood
Musical Direction by Richard “Scrumbly” Koldewyn

Held Over! Weekends Through September 20th!
Fridays and Saturdays at 8:00 PM
Sundays at 7:00 PM

At the Hypnodrome, 575 10th Street, San Francisco

$30 General Admission
$69 “Shock Box” Seat for 2
Buy Tickets Online

Oddly enough (note the sarcasm), I come from a theatre background. I have been onstage, backstage, hanging lights from unstable ladders, and chasing child actors around backstage and kept in their costumes and the very first time I saw a ThrillPeddlers production, my jaw was hanging the entire time. Surely I though, they couldn’t do it again. Especially not with a musical because I tend to be difficult to please in that arena. But the ThrillPeddlers never cease to amaze me. When my friend Thomas Roche called their previous show Audacious Artifacts “the best time damn time he had at the theater” I had the exact same sentiment. The cast, the crew, and the production staff always put on a show that you remember for its character, color, laughter, and its power.

First things first: this is not a show for the politically correct crowd. It is a revival of the famed show by the Cockettes who never wasted their time on the notion of being P.C. It’s an imaginary version of Shanghai in the 1930s where three American girls could come seeking fame and fortune in a city full of randy sailors, an empress with the most impressive costume I’ve ever seen, and prostitutes that sing, dance, and praise the power of the soothing drug opium. Leave your ideas of time, place, history, and race at the door and enjoy the glitz and glamor of the theater of the fantastic. 

The show mixes pros, Cockette founders and veterans, along with newcomers who all give their very best to the production. My biggest wish is that they were selling copies of the soundtrack at the door no matter how poor the quality might be due to limited resources. I can’t get some of those catchy tunes out of my head and I saw the show well over a month ago. The singing isn’t always top of the line Broadway style heart breaking music, but it is always enough to get your feet stomping and drive up a desire to sing along with the actors.