PEARLS OVER SHANGHAI Extends Once Again Through 12/19

Thrillpeddlers happily announces that due to popular demand and sold-out houses, its award-winning production of PEARLS OVER SHANGHAI, San Francisco's longest-running Cockettes Musical Hit has been extended again - through Dec. 19, 2010 (schedules vary - see below). What started as a two-month limited engagement in June 2009 will now play for a year and a half! PEARLS has unanimously received rave reviews from critics and audience alike. It's a phenomenon that keeps on growing. PEARLS OVER SHANGHAI plays Sat. 8 pm and Sun. 7 pm in Aug. and Sept.; Sat. 8 pm in Oct.; Sat. 8 pm / Sun. 7 pm in Nov.; and Fri. 8 pm / Sat. 8 pm / Sun. 7 pm in Dec. Thrillpeddlers' Hypnodrome Theatre is located at 575 10th Street, in SF. (Bryant & Division Sts.). Tickets are $30 gen. admission or $69 for "Shock Boxes" and "Turkish Lounges" (admits two) and are available at www.brownpapertickets.com/event/67716 or by calling 800-838-3006.

2010 Additional dates for PEARLS OVER SHANGHAI are:

August (Sat. 8 pm /Sun. 7 pm) Aug. 7/8, 14/15, 21/22, 28/29
Sept. (Sat. 8 pm /Sun. 7 pm) Sept. 11/12, 18/19, 25/26 (no shows Labor Day weekend)
Oct. (Sat. 8 pm) Oct. 2, 9, 16, 23, 30
Nov. (Sat. 8 pm /Sun. 7 pm) Nov. 6/7, 13/14, 20/21 (No Show Thanksgiving weekend)
Dec. (Fri. 8 pm / Sat. 8 pm /Sun. 7 pm) Dec. 3/4/5, 10/11/12, 17/18/19

PEARLS OVER SHANGHAI will be presented in repertory with Thrillpeddlers' production of SHOCKTOBERFEST!! 2010, their 11th annual Pageant of Terror. Shocktoberfest!! 2010 runs Sept. 30 - Nov. 19, 2010 (Thurs and Fri. at 8 pm.) Special Sat. 10/30 Midnight show & Sun. 10/31 8 pm show. Show and cast details to be announced.

The cast includes original Cockette Rumi Missabu (reprising his role as the evil Madame Gin Sling - appearing ocassionally). In addition, SF favorites Connie Champagne, Katya Smirnoff-Skyy, Veronica Klaus and Leanne Borghesi are among the local divas alternating in the role of Petrushka, first created by disco diva Sylvester in the original productions. Notable local performers in cast rotation are Michale Soldier, Tom Orr, Flynn De Marco and Leigh Crow.

PEARLS OVER SHANGHAI
An original musical by Link Martin (book/lyrics) and Richard "Scrumbly" Koldewyn (music), PEARLS OVER SHANGHAI is the centerpiece of Thrillpeddlers' 2nd annual Theatre of the Ridiculous Revival, and marks the 40th anniversary of the formation of The Cockettes, 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. PEARLS is a psychedelic musical inspired by sin-soaked Old Shanghai and Busby Berkeley movie musicals from Hollywood's Golden Age.

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 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, 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 Richard "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.

Thrillpeddlers (www.thrillpeddlers.com) have been performing their unique brand of horror and fetish theatre in San Francisco since 1991. Under the direction of Russell Blackwood, Thrillpeddlers are continuously engaged in translating, adapting and producing classic plays from the infamous repertoire of Le Théâtre du Grand Guignol and producing other works inspired by the Grand Guignol. The company's SOMA performance venue, The Hypnodrome, is tailor-made for the specific needs of horror theatre, "lights-out" spook show spectacle, multi-act bills, and arts education programs for young people. Inaugurating The Hypnodrome with WELCOME TO THE HYPNODROME in 2004, Thrillpeddlers have gone on to produce wildly popular Grand Guignol bills including BLOOD BUCKET BALLYHOO, HYPNODROME HEAD TRIPS, FLAMING SIN, AUDACIOUS ARTEFACTS, THE TORTURE GARDEN (2009) HOT GREEKS, and PEARLS OVER SHANGHAI in both SF and NYC's HOWL Festival. Shocktoberfest!!, Thrillpeddlers' annual pageant of terror and titillation, is now in its 11th year and has become a San Francisco Halloween favorite. Prior to that the company's production history includes the American premiere of Clive Barker's FRANKENSTEIN IN LOVE, MONDO ANDRONICUS (selected Best of the 1997 S.F. Fringe Festival), a double-bill of THE MEDIUM and A CRIME IN THE MADHOUSE (in Pretoria, South Africa). Thrillpeddlers has won the Guardian's "Best of the Bay" and, SF Weekly's "Best of San Francisco" Readers' Choice for "Best Theatre Company". Thrillpeddlers Theatre Company received a coveted 2009 GOLDIE AWARD (Guardian Outstanding Local Discovery award) from the SF Bay Guardian!

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, "The Pharaoh's Tomb," and "Padded Cell," which offer the same opportunity for illicit trysting that was once a feature of the Parisian Théâtre du Grand Guignol - with added special effects as a nod to the 1950s horror movie gimmicks of William Castle.

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