By Michelle Tea
Gather ’round thespians, theater queens, and regular Joes looking for an elevated night out on the town – our local impresario SHN has just announced its 2014–2015 season, and it’s an incredible mix of those high-profile, award-snatching musicals that scooped up all the Tonys last year and a high-drama classic that remains a must-see for even a novice stage hound like myself. Whether you like soul music, child rebellions, entrepreneurial street urchins, plucky drag queens, or disfigured anti-heroes, San Francisco’s upcoming season seriously has something for everyone. Consider becoming an SHN member. When popularity surges these ticket prices skyward, you’re always guaranteed the cheaper, subscriber’s rate. Members are also able to nab two extra tickets for friends, and you get first dibs on glitzy free special events, and other cool discounted perks. Now, here’s what’s hitting San Francisco this season, and why you want to see it:
MOTOWN THE MUSICAL
Did you know that Motown founder Berry Gordy started his iconic label with an $800 loan from his dad after a failed boxing stint? Based on Gordy’s memoir (To Be Loved: the Music, the Magic, the Memories of Motown), Motown the Musical introduces audiences to the humble beginnings of the Detroit outfit that grew swiftly from a record company to a musical movement, a hit machine that gave us soundtracks for decades of American life. The musical works hard to give you a little bit of every beloved tune the label churned out, with over 50 songs performed live on stage. It’s the closest you’ll ever come to watching Marvin Gaye or a baby Michael Jackson backed up by his siblings perform live. The show also tracks Gordy’s love affair with Diana Ross and Ross’ metamorphosis from awkward teenager into the crazy-hot superstar that defined glamour for her era.
See It For:
The music, duh! But also the glittery, shark-skinned period costumes, the synchronized dance routines, and the random peek at later Motown acts like Rick James and Teena Marie.
KINKY BOOTS
Harvey Fierstein, the theater queen to end all theater queens (drag classic La Cage aux Folles; Queer Film Studies 101’s Torch Song Trilogy), wrote the book for this award-scooping show about a down-and-out shoe factory that resuscitates itself under the direction of a fierce thigh-high boot-wearing drag queen by producing a line of fierce thigh-high boots for drag queens and trans women. The music was written by Cyndi Lauper, who has never ceased being unusual or wanting to have fun all these years. When she picked up the 2013 Tony for best score she became the first solo woman in history to do so. (What year was that again? 2013? Anyway…) Wild and explosive, Kinky Boots is a vast improvement on the 2005 film, and the whole story is based on an actual British company that pulled itself out of the hole by making sexy shoes for all genders. The show’s message – that letting your freak-flag fly is the key to both happiness and financial solvency – is one for the ages. Should any of us in the bubble of San Francisco think that a Broadway musical starring an African American drag queen isn’t badly needed right now, reflect on Arizona’s recent attempt to allow business owners to banish queers from their establishments. While attending the show isn’t exactly giving the southwestern state a kinky boot to the head, it at least affirms the values that have made the Bay Area the historical outcast enclave it’s known to be.
See It For:
The boots! Thigh-high and ruby, dominatrix-Dorothy style! Black leather, any-old-dominatrix style! Union Jack, Spice Girl–style! Also, who doesn’t want to watch a drag queen sling lines from the brain of Harvey Fierstein and sing songs from the heart of Cyndi Lauper? This one is a serious no-brainer, people.
MATILDA
Roald Dahl’s beloved children’s book about the relentless evil of grown-ups hits the stage with a cast of 18 kids, led by the titular heroine who carries a good 90 percent of the performance – the biggest role ever for such tiny thespians. Bookworm-y Matilda attends a brutal, gothic manor that discourages actual learning and is presided over by the cruel, kid-hating Miss Trunchbull. When I saw this show in New York last year, I was torn between discomfort at the drag-casting of a male actor in the role (creating yet another genderqueer villain) and glee at the show-stealing, impeccably unhinged performance of a captivating, genderqueer villain. Poor Matilda has it no better at home, where her trashy, criminal family thinks she’s the psycho for choosing books over cigarettes and scams. Originally brought to us by the UK’s Royal Shakespeare Company, Matilda is a rollicking, rebellious drama, a kid uprising, and a paean to the almost supernatural power of literature.
See It For:
The delight in watching your favorite kid’s book come to life with such perfect imagination. The set is a wonder, the cast is top-notch, and the heart of the story – that books, language, and smarts can overthrow cruelty and idiocy – is worth celebrating.
NEWSIES
Disney devotees, transgendered gentleman and masculine females of a certain age have long had a thing for Newsies the movie – the two hours of adorable, golden-hearted young men fighting the good fight in suspenders and newsboys’ caps is an aesthetic jackpot on par with The Outsiders. The musical also written by the prolific Broadway God Harvey Fierstein features a cast of hard-dancing guys old enough to ogle without feeling like a gross perv. Indeed, the casting masterminds behind Newsiesconducted a national star search on par with American Idol, holding auditions from Santa Clara, California, to Boston, Massachusetts, with an eye for undiscovered superstars. The grueling tryouts culled the hardcore from the simply sashaying. The result is a theatrical spectacle featuring tap-dancing, chair-flipping young men dressed like Portland baristas in knotted neckerchiefs and woolen waistcoats, acting out the true story of the great newsboys strike of 1899. That’s when press barons Pulitzer and Hearst decided to make the newsies pay to play, charging them for their newspapers up front. The workers rose up with a shuffle ball change dance, and the rest is musical history.
See It For:
The spot-on class politics. At a moment when the Republican right just used fear mongering and outright deception to defeated United Auto Workers at a southern VW plant that actually wanted to work with the organizers, the musical is a reminder that the power of worker solidarity is welcome in any package, especially one with kicks, flips, britches, and charm.
PHANTOM OF THE OPERA
It’s the musical that made Lady Gaga want to be a star! As you well know, people get obsessed with this show, and it’s been long enough since the crystal chandelier descended on SF that a night with your old, creepily masked pal the Phantom is a guaranteed good time. With re-imagined new staging and design, fortune has provided you with the opportunity to check this one off your must-see-classics list. The show has been running since 1988, setting all kinds of musical records, and it shows no sign of calling it quits anytime soon.
Personally, I’ve needed a new suave gentleman with a half-masked, disfigured face ever since Richard bought the farm in the Boardwalk Empire season finale. Everyone comes to Phantom for their own reasons, you know?
See It For:
The grandeur! A high tech chandelier, gilded masks galore, sparkling and extravagant costumes, and straight-up pyrotechnics. It’s Phantom, ya’ll. You know why to see it.
With a season this spectacular on the horizon, becoming anSHN member is sure to save you cash and guarantee that you and your besties have seats for the show.
Photo credits: Motown the Musical by Joan Marcus; Kinky Boots by Matthew Murphy; Matilda by Joan Marcus; Newsies by Deen Van Meer; Phantom of the Opera by Matthew Murphy.