Lightning Round! The Bay Area's Arts Innovators

Bay Curious

KQED

History, Society & Culture, Places & Travel

4.9 • 999 Ratings

🗓️ 24 June 2021

⏱️ 15 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

It’s arts appreciation week on Bay Curious! We take on questions about the tension between the creative freedom in the Bay vs commercial acclaim in the theater world, dig into the musical legacy of Mills College and find out what happened to Beach Blanket Babylon's outarageous costumes since the musical closed. Additional Reading: Is the Bay Area Known For Its Theater Scene? Depends on Who You Ask You've Heard Experimental Sounds From Mills College (Even If You Don't Realize It) Preserving the Legacy of 'Beach Blanket Babylon' One Hat at a Time Here's Why the Bay Area's Theater Scene is Amazing Right Now (Bold Italic) Reported by Katrina Schwartz and Suzie Racho. Bay Curious is made by Katrina Schwartz, Suzie Racho, Olivia Allen-Price, and Brendan Willard. Additional support from Erika Aguilar, Jessica Placzek, Kyana Moghadam, Isa Mendoza, Paul Lancour, Carly Severn, Ethan Lindsey, Vinnee Tong and Don Clyde.

Transcript

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0:00.0	From K-QED.
0:02.0	Beach. Beach Blanket Babylon was a San Francisco musical toured force.
0:17.0	It was the longest running musical review in the world at one point,
0:20.7	delighting locals and tourists alike.
0:23.0	No, the locals would come and see it about 10 times and bring people.
0:28.0	It never was the same show twice.
0:30.0	Joe Schuman Silver is the producer and owner of Beach Blanket Babylon, which closed in 2019 after
0:35.6	more than 40 years on stage.
0:42.2	The show was known for outrageous parodies of pop culture figures and current events, but even more for its fantastic costumes, especially the hats.
0:52.0	The show's creator, Steve Silver, came up with the idea to adapt the production to
0:56.0	the contours of the North Beach Theater space he had in 1974.
1:00.5	It was narrow but very high so in order to fill this face he started building hats
1:06.3	really small at first and they kept getting bigger and bigger. There were hats
1:11.2	that featured wreaths and decorated Christmas trees. An actor playing Martha Stewart had a towering headpiece crowned with a pie, flowers, and a frying pan. One hat weighed 300 pounds. Many are iconic, like the massive hat sporting San Francisco
1:27.4	landmarks. The hats do come apart. Thank God. A Bay curious listener wanted to know what's going to happen to all those fabulous hats and costumes
1:36.4	now that the show is closed.
1:38.8	Joe says some are going to the Smithsonian, others to local museums.
1:43.4	To preserve Steve Silver's legacy and the legacy of Beach Blanket, which is one in the same quite frankly.
1:48.6	Here is your one-third one saying I'll wonder no more.
1:54.0	Beach Blanket Babylon may be San Francisco's most famous show,
1:58.0	but Bay Area performers are constantly pushing art forward
2:02.0	and they don't always get recognized for it.
	...

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