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| Logo for the SF show Beach Blanket Babylon |
There’s a show
on the North Beach of the city of San Francisco. It’s apparently the longest
running musical revue around. I had the chance to attend it recently with my
family to experience one of the city’s institutions. While Beach Blanket Babylon shows its age at points, it remains fun to
watch for everyone in a magical musical journey.
Beach Blanket Babylon is a show that has
been playing since the 1970’s, and it doesn’t hide it. Contrary to the title,
the show I watched had nothing to do with beaches. Instead, it was about a Snow
White from San Francisco trying to find her Prince Charming. She finds her
fairy godmother and travels to Rome, Paris, and other locations convenient for
whatever song the show wants to parody. Dancing French poodles and Mr. Peanut
seem to be a mainstay of the show, and they add politicians and celebrities for
variety. The show I watched had a parody of Barbara Streisand, but I was too
young to actually experience the reasons why the older crowd was laughing when
she showed up. I think it had to do with overlong long fingernails. Justin
Bieber was in the show too, but he was sporting his old hairstyle, though it
might have been an artistic choice given the show’s pedigree.
The show
complements the older material with numbers inspired by current events. At one
point they brought in three Giants players (Posey, Lincecum, and a Panda) to
sing “We Are The Champions” because the local San Francisco baseball team won
this year’s World Series. The best part of the show was the Les Miserables parody with the
Democratic and Republican politicians building up to Mitt Romney in a hat
headlining Book of Mormon, coming
soon to San Francisco at the end of the month. I thought the show’s portrayal
was much funnier than the Romney parody I saw last Saturday night on the “Weekend
Update” SNL segment.
No discussion
about Beach Blanket Babylon is
complete without talking about the hats in the show. At first it starts with
Snow White’s oversized wig, but it gets to the point where the players are
wearing trash cans on their heads. The hats get so big that they do not move
with the character’s heads anymore. The top curtain gets pulled back when a
player enters the scene wearing a big hat. Some hats, like the oversized Elvis
hairdo, get reused because the show wants to parody Bill Clinton as well as the
King. In the end, you have to see for yourself the huge hat functioning as a
model of the San Francisco city skyline.
Beach Blanket Babylon’s long run is a
testament to how musical theater can stay relevant and entertaining for
decades. The fast-paced musical numbers and parodies keep the audience
entertained, and the trademark large hats give the show a unique style you can’t
find anywhere else. You can see the show Wednesday through Sunday at Club
Fugazi in the North Beach of San Francisco. It’s worth seeing at least once if
you have the time, and I don’t expect it to be going anytime soon.
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