Thrillpeddlers Presents PEARLS OVER SHANGHAI, Now thru 5/31

Thrillpeddlers has announced a special engagement for their Spring 2014 season.

After an astounding record-breaking 22 month run, its award-winning production of PEARLS OVER SHANGHAI, San Francisco's Longest-Running Cockettes Musical Hit will once again be back on The Hypnodrome stage for a Fifth Anniversary Revival Production - playing today, March 20 - May 31, 2014. PEARLS OVER SHANGHAI unanimously received rave reviews from critics and audience alike. It's a phenomenon that keeps on growing!

PEARLS OVER SHANGHAI plays Thurs., Fri. and Sat. at 8:00 pm. Previews tonight, March 20, 21 & 22 (Thurs. - Sat.) - 8:00 pm. Opens Thurs. March 27, 2014 - 8:00 pm (press weekend).

The Hypnodrome is located at 575 10th St., in SF. (Bryant & Division Sts.) Tickets are $30 gen. admission or $35 for Front Row Seats, "Shock Boxes" and "Turkish Lounges"*** and are available athttp://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/571738 or by calling 800/ 838- 3006.

An original musical by Link Martin (book/lyrics) and Scrumbly Koldewyn (music), PEARLS OVER SHANGHAI marks the 45th anniversary of the formation of The Cockettes on New Year's Eve 1969-70.

PEARLS OVER SHANGHAI is a comic mock-operetta about white slavery, opium dens, and miscegenation set in the colorful world of 1937 Shanghai. Link Martin places his story at the crossroads of good and evil, his exotic "old sin town" is filled with singing sailors, humorous 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.

Stage Director for PEARLS OVER SHANGHAI is Thrillpeddlers' Russell Blackwood, and original Cockette and composer Scrumbly Koldewyn serves as Musical Director and accompanist. With a cast of over 20, costumes a-plenty, and a score of 24 original songs, this production is 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.

Three original Cockettes: Scrumbly Koldewyn, "Sweet Pam" Tent, and Rumi Missabu who were in the original production of PEARLS OVER SHANGHAI will perform in this production, bringing to life the whimsy and the madness that were the "all singing, all dancing, all cardboard" Cockettes.

The famed COCKETTES were a gender-bending theatrical troupe who not only originated this show, but exerted a profound influence on the culture of our times, from the phenomenon of midnight movies to glitter rock stars (such as David Bowie and the New York Dolls) and their outrageous fashions. PEARLSis a psychedelic musical inspired by sin-soaked Old Shanghai, classic films such as Shanghai Expresswith Marlene Dietrich, The Shanghai Gesture with Jean Tierney and Busby Berkeley movie musicals from Hollywood's Golden Age.

The musical stars in order of appearance: The 3 Wobbling Robin Sisters - Zelda Koznofsky (Delightful), Birdie-Bob Watt (Deluxe), Jesse Cortez (Delicious); Steven Satyricon (Captain Eddy), Eric Tyson Wertz(LiLi Frustrata), Russell Blackwood (Mother Fu), Earl Paus (Chop Chop), Rumi Missabu (Madam Gin Sling), John Flaw (Chang), Sloane Smith (Woody), James Toczyl (Shangri La), Flynn Witmeyer (Hank, Wuwu), Bonni Suval (Lottie Wu),
Gabriel Ross (Sebastian), Noah Haydon (Petrushka), Bruna Palmeiro, Diego Gomez, Jessica Finn, Bryn Laux (Whores), Rose Bobrick, Victoria Hibbert (Denizens), Steve Bolinger (Stewpot) and "Sweet Pam" Tent (Mrs. Goldberg).

Technical credits include: Scenery by James Blackwood, costumes by Tina Sogliuzzo, Dwight Overton, Billy Bowers & Flynn DeMarco and Tahara, lights by Nicholas Torre, and choreography by Noah Haydonand Bonni Suval.