For kids who were born too late to experience the fabulous freaks and drag delights of San Francisco’s world-famous underground troupe the Cockettes, your moment has come to truly sample the, ahem, wares of the groundbreaking psychedelic tranny troupe. The Cockettes may be gone, but it hasn’t been forgotten - thanks to the 2002 documentary The Cockettes and, for instance, Devendra Banhart’s recent bouts of bearded-lady dress-up (commemorated with a fashion spread in The New York Times Magazine). The group gave safe harbor to performance icons like Divine and Sylvester amid the classic show tunes, bawdy bromides, and razzle-dazzle visuals, before it splintered in 1971. So Cock-udos to SF’s Thrillpeddlers for giving young ‘uns a chance to glimpse the ensemble’s finest production, Pearls Over Shanghai, the way it was meant to be: live and lascivious, in all its lurid OTT beauty.

Pearls Over Shanghai was the jewel in the Cockettes’ crown - either a raging success or a roaring disaster depending on which source you favor. Regardless, the play’s opening night at N.Y.C.’s Anderson Theater in 1971 attracted such luminaries as John Lennon, Andy Warhol, Truman Capote, and Gore Vidal, drawn by hipster chatter to the lusty underground drag company from SF. Still, after only two more productions, Pearls languished - until Thrillpeddlers impresario Russell Blackwood, hoping to expand his underground company’s scope beyond Grand Guignol artifacts and sex farces, contacted surviving original Cockettes Scrumbly Koldewyn (who wrote Pearls’ music), Rumi Missabu, Tahara, and Bill Bowers to fluff and revive the smarter-than-it-looks, tongue-in-cheeky tribute to Hollywood’s visions of the orient.

And PC worries aside, the current fully-staged production is a genuine, drag-out joy to behold (a semi-staged, shorter version was staged at Bleecker Street Theatre in N.Y.C. last September), starting with Missabu’s witty, winking performance as Madam Gin Sling, continuing on to Connie Champagne’s turn on what might be considered the Cockettes’ most renowned tune, “Jaded Lady,” to the glitterific makeup and acid-rock-meets-Chinese-opera costumes.

As the gussied-to-the-evil-nines Mother Fu, Blackwood delivers a show-stopping tap routine with in a hysterical costume that should go down in underground theatrical history for its use of stuffed animals and a false eye. And as the Wobblin’ Robin Sisters, Adelola Role, Liza Bouterage, and Miss Sheldra kick out the three-part harmonies with manic, on-point flair. True, the Thrillpeddlers recycle a few of the spooky, nervous-chuckle-inducing effects from its Halloween show, and a few of the vocalists aren’t as strong as others. But the same-sex/similar-aesthetics marriage of the Thrillpeddlers’ reliable derring-do and the Cockettes’ rough ‘n’ ready glitter-rock aesthetics works wonders, giving you a gloriously chaotic spot to park your eyeballs for a smart, sex-positive, and subversive couple of hours.

I recently got to see a preview of the revival of the Cockette’s show “Pearls Over Shanghai.” It’s an original musical written by Cockette Scrumbly Koldewyn, a musical genius born in the wrong era. His tastes and style come directly from show tunes of the early to mid 20th century (1920’s to 1950’s). A precious gem of a show, “Pearls Over Shanghai” has not been performed since 1970. It re-opens this weekend at the Hypnodrome, 575 Tenth Street in San Francisco, and runs Friday, June 5, 2009 at 8:00pm through Saturday, June 27, 2009 at 11:00pm.

“This campy musical takes place in an imaginary “Shanghai” of the 1930s, & features a terrific cast, including sassy newcomers, hot sailor boys, & even some original members of the legendary Cockettes.” The cast is a mix of some showbiz pros and pretty amateurs, giving it that fun home-made appeal, but the pros are really pros - with some dynamic voices and strong stage presence. And for you smut hounds wondering why I am writing a theater review, you’ll be pleased to note “adult film actor” Michael Soldier has an important role in the show as a Chinese gangster, wearing a classic pinstriped Zoot Suit.

I won’t give away the surprise, but there is a campy special effect during the song about opium that was absolutely brilliant. I still can’t figure out how they did it either!

The pre-show announcements warn the audience that it takes place in an era before “political correctness” because it contains a lot of old Hollywood Charlie Chan stereotypes. It’s a period piece within a period piece. That combined with the strong sexual overtones and drug references will probably prevent it from competing with “Beach Blanket Babylon” for the tourist dollar. It should be noted that Cockettes shows happened several years before “Beach Blanket” debuted in 1975, but the inspiration is obvious.

“Beach Blanket,” created by Steve Silver, a gay man who remained closeted to the grave, took a different direction, keeping the show squeaky clean and never acknowledging it was a “drag” show. The Cockettes’ drug-fueled shows were never apologetic about drag, gender-bending, nudity, smut, or upfront gay camp. Silver’s widow (aka his beard), Jo Schuman Silver, is still making millions by keeping “Beach Blanket” in the closet after having made a Command Performance before Queen Elizabeth and even after making the Oscars’ most disastrous opening segment ever. In contrast, the Cockettes had to wait 40 years to bring their show to a 50-seat theater in a warehouse South of Market.

If you are in San Francisco this month, go see “Pearls Over Shanghai” and show your support for wacky gay camp at its most twisted.

Thrillpeddlers, well-known for blowing dust and gristle off Grand Guignol plays from early-20th-century Paris, are setting their sights a bit closer to home for this year’s Theatre of the Ridiculous Revival. Forty years ago, the Cockettes — a lurid, shimmering, acid-soaked theater troupe composed of gay men, fag hags, and babies — rose like a phoenix draped in thrift-store finery from a dilapidated movie theater in North Beach. Praise for the resulting exuberant midnight musicals spread like easy thighs across America, enticing Truman Capote and influencing everyone from David Bowie to the New York Dolls. Before the Cockettes imploded three years later, the word genderfuck had been coined to clarify original productions like Tinsel Tarts in a Hot Coma and Journey to the Center of Uranus, and glitter was a household word. The Cockettes’ crowning glory, Link Martin and Richard “Scrumbly” Koldewyn’s Pearls Over Shanghai, was loosely based on a disreputable Broadway play written by John Colton in 1926. A mock-opera set in China among opium addicts and singing sailors, Pearls Over Shanghai deals with subjects near and dear to Thrillpeddler hearts: white slavery, prostitution, gangland grudges, and supernatural interference.

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

June 12 - August 16
Fridays and Saturdays at 8:00 PM
Sundays at 7:00 PM (beginning July 26)

At the Hypnodrome, 575 10th Street, San Francisco

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

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 our 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. The show will be presented on Friday and Saturday evenings at 8 p.m., June 5 through August 16, with four additional performances on Sundays at 7 p.m. beginning Sunday July 26, at Thrillpeddlers’ Hypnodrome, 575 10th Street, San Francisco.

Based loosely on John Colton’s scandalous 1926 Broadway play “The Shanghai Gesture” (later transformed into a deliriously decadent art deco film noir by Josef von Sternberg in 1941), “Pearls Over Shanghai” is a comic mock-operetta about white slavery and miscegenation set in the colorful world of 1937 Shanghai, China. 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

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.

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.

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.

Pairs of patrons will surely enjoy Hypnodrome’s Shock Box seats for two, which garnered SF Weekly’s “Best of San Francisco 2008” for “Best Bonus Theater Experience.” These themed seats include sumptuous Turkish Lounges, as well as private boxes including “Heaven” and “Hell,” “Pharaoh’s Tomb,” and “Padded Cell,” which offer the opportunity for a heightened psychedelic experience during the “opium” blackout sequence at the climax of “Pearls Over Shanghai”—with added special effects as a nod to the 1950s horror movie gimmicks of William Castle.

The Thrillpeddlers newest stage show “Audacious Artefacts: Parisian Grand Guignol” is not going to be like any theatre experience you’ve ever had in your life. Or may ever experience again. Or be able to forget about, no matter how hard you try.

The Thrillpeddlers are back. This time, not only has the modern Grand Guignol theater company returned to the stage with a bloody vengeance, but they’re doing it Parisian style — back to the roots of Grand Guignol. Their newest show is an over-18 only, delightfully obscene and pornographic staging where very little is left to the imagination. It’s like your brain just had a lot of unprotected sex and maybe some roofies and you woke up with your frontal lobe feeling really stretched out in a way that you’re too embarrassed to even tell your doctor about.

It’s that much fun.

In this year’s “Audacious Artefacts: Parisian Grand Guignol” they go all the way (and then a little bit further) with their outrageous stage porn — after an appetizing cannibalism act, of course. And boy, do they have a good time. All four tasty, extremely playful, black-humorously presented short plays are not for the delicate, the easily offended or anyone under 18.

You’ll just have to go see it for yourself. With a date. But don’t say you weren’t warned, and don’t bring your mom unless she’s Susie Bright.

Read the full review | Buy tickets online

Each two-week session is led by the Camps’ director Russell Blackwood, the creator of the Bay Area Shakespeare Camps who founded the Creepshow Camps in 2006, and guest artists from Thrillpeddlers (named SF Weekly’s “Best of the Bay” in 2007 and 2008). Each staff member brings with them an unmatched expertise, insight and exuberance for creating on-stage thrills and chills.
Creepshow Camp (ages 9 to 14) - Two-week sessions meet Mondays - Fridays from 9:00 am - 3:00 pm.

Tuition is $395 and aftercare is available from 3:00 – 5:30 pm for an additional fee of $195.

Session I (June 15 – 26)
Session II (July 6 - 17)
Session III (July 20 – July 31)
Session IV (August 3 – 14)

Register Online | Download Registration Form

Buy tickets online

Thrillpeddlers are proud to announce the first production of their 2009 season, “Audacious Artefacts: Parisian Grand Guignol,” which will include four terror plays and sex farces from the repertory of the famed Parisian Théâtre du Grand Guignol. The show will be presented on Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings at 8 p.m., March 12 through May 2, at Thrillpeddlers’ Hypnodrome, 575 10th Street, San Francisco.

“The Head Hunters,” a late entry into the genre from 1958, concerns the disappearance of ethnologist Philippe Roujan into the jungles of French Guiana with only an escapee from Devil’s Island as his guide. Alarmed and concerned about his uncertain fate, the young man’s father and fiancée travel from Paris to Amazonia, guided only by the girl’s unfaltering belief in the questionable science of Radiesthesia, a method of locating the missing man through psychic means. Among the formidable obstacles they encounter are a ferocious tribe of headhunters, poison arrows, cannibalism, foul venomous beasts, and the oppressive sights, sounds, and sensations of the South American jungle.

“Private Room Number 6,” a revenge drama from 1907 along the lines of Death and the Maiden, takes place back in Paris at the Rat Mort, a celebrated nightspot with a shady reputation. A sadistic, dipsomaniacal Russian general gets more than he bargained for when he invites a young “working girl” from the Rue de la Paix for a midnight liaison in one of the notorious brothel’s private dining rooms.

“Tics, or Doing the Deed,” from 1906, is a sex farce that draws its humor from a very peculiar premise. Two country gentlemen involved in a bit of illicit wife-swapping, as well as a hapless male domestic, all develop peculiar physical tics after “doing the deed.” An episode of unbridled hilarity ensues, as only the French could envision.

Fleshing out the program will be “The Discipline,” a morsel of eighteenth-century erotica involving two young Catholic novices and the convent gardener, which will feature the Thrillpeddlers’ first-ever erotic spookshow. Due to the adult nature of this presentation, absolutely no one under the age of eighteen will be admitted.

$25 - $35 general admission
$69 for “Shock Box” seats (admits two)

Tickets are available at BrownPaperTickets.com.

Where can San Franciscans revel in an oddball weekend that alternatively celebrates the bicentennial of Abraham Lincoln’s birth, Friday the 13th and St. Valentine’s Day? At The Hypnodrome, of course, where Thrillpeddlers kick off their 2009 season with benefit performances featuring an audacious and eclectic mix of live music, sensual show-and-tell and on stage interviews with counterculture icons conducted by V. Vale.

Three nights only, these very special events include all-new acts from Thrillpeddlers, EmCee’d by our chubby cherub RJ Owens. The company will also perform songs from their upcoming summer offering, Pearls Over Shanghai, a revival of The Cockettes’ 1971 musical featuring two of the show’s originators, Rumi Missabu and Scrumbly Koldewyn.

Capping off the evenings are V.Vale’s interviews with singer/songwriter Jill Tracy (on 2/12), montage artist Winston Smith (2/13) and punk legend Jello Biafra with The Stooges sax player Steve MacKay (2/14), taping live for Re/Search Publications’ “Counterculture Hour” cable TV show.

Tickets are available at BrownPaperTickets.com.

At Tompkins Square Park:

• Saturday 9/6, 5:00pm - “Pearls Over Shanghai”

At The Theaters At 45 Bleeker Street:

• Saturday 9/6, 9:00pm - “Theodora, She Bitch of Byzantium” by Charles Busch + Blue Hour Variety Acts.
• Sunday 9/7, 8:00pm - “Pearls over Shanghai” and Charles Ludlam’s “Jack and the BeanStalk.”
• Tuesday 9/9, 8:00pm - “Theodora, She Bitch of Byzantium” by Charles Busch + Blue Hour Variety Acts.
• Wednesday 9/10, 8:00pm - “Pearls over Shanghai” and Charles Ludlam’s “Jack and the BeanStalk.”

It’s going to be a crazy week. We hope to see a lot of our NY friends and fans. Stop by and say hi.

[Howl Festival Website]