For 45 years, the team at “Beach Blanket Babylon” has donned enormous hats and skewered politics and pop culture in a campy musical revue in a snug North Beach theater. The beloved show has become so ingrained in San Francisco culture that many rank it alongside the Golden Gate Bridge and cable cars. Though seemingly tireless, the decades-long production will finally come to an end this year, taking its last two curtain calls on New Year’s Eve. Producer Jo Schuman Silver announced the news to her staff of 85 before curtain on Wednesday, April 17. The show’s ending not for financial reasons, but because Schuman Silver felt that it was time and didn’t feel comfortable handing it off to a successor. She’s run “Beach Blanket” since the 1995 death of Steve Silver, the show’s creator and her husband. “There was no reason — I just started thinking, ‘Wow, how much longer do we go?’ ” she said. She’s fond of saying that Steve Silver thought the show would last just six weeks. The show’s first review in The Chronicle, from 1974, notes that it was “scheduled for two more weekends.” Now it’s the longest-running musical revue on the planet. As of this month, “Beach Blanket” has reached 6.5 million patrons, operating with army-grade precision from the moment people walk in the doors and a phalanx of ushers whisks them to their seats, all with the grace of a ballet danseur who can make the clumsiest partner look professional by virtue of his capable lifts and carries. The production itself unfolds with similar pacing and grace, the sliding upstage doors parting again and again to reveal still another costume, wig and hat, each more outrageous than the last, each accompanied by a bring-it-on-home verse and chorus of a pop song that in any other show would be the finale. At “Beach Blanket,” every number could be the finale. It’s toured to Las Vegas and London; it’s opened the Academy Awards; and it’s counted Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Charles, David Bowie, Liza Minnelli and Robin Williams among its audience members. Its caricatures target the left and right — from Michelle Obama to Sarah Huckabee Sanders — and pop-culture figures from Barbra Streisand to Ariana Grande. Lines change nightly, responding to current events, but as filtered through a dancing Mr. Peanut or a towering Tina Turner wig that looks like Cousin Itt. Schuman Silver still brings in fresh headlines and political cartoons each day as inspiration. (Mad magazine is one favorite source.) A ‘Beach Blanket Babylon’ Timeline: From street art to British Royalty Jonathan Moscone says the show “took the wild, gay, drag, fabulous energy of San Francisco and turned that into a celebration of the city writ large.” He said it made visitors think, “not only do I get San Francisco; I get it, and I love it,” adding that when he was a child, the show was his “favorite birthday place.” And Moscone, Chief of Engagement at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, former California Shakespeare Theater artistic director and multiple-time panelist for Beach Blanket’s scholarship program, had a huge crush on Nancy Bleiweiss as Snow White. “She was my first gay icon” — before he even knew what a gay icon was. Prior to the announcement, in an interview at the Pacific Heights home of her friends Ann and Gordon Getty, Schuman Silver said she’s been considering the move for about three years. A Florida vacation with her family prompted first thoughts about an exit. “One of my cousins said, ‘How much longer are you going to have that show?’ I said, ‘Why, you want me to leave it to you?’ And they all said, ‘Yes.’ I said, ‘I can’t. It has to be run like it was left to me, and you didn’t know Steve, unfortunately, and it has to be run like Steve envisioned it.’ “I think we’ve done that,” Schuman Silver continued. “I think it’s evolved all through the years like Steve would have done. We’ve always had the strictest guidelines for making it the best show we possibly can, having the best talent, the best people working there. That’s why I could never leave it to anybody.” Charlotte Shultz, San Francisco’s chief of protocol and one of Steve Silver’s best friends, called the news “heartbreaking.” Quoting her husband, former Secretary of State George P. Shultz, she said, “When you think of San Francisco, it’s the Golden Gate Bridge, cable cars and ‘Beach Blanket Babylon.’ ” Steve Silver used her as a model for the female outline on playbills and posters for the show; Shultz and her husband even performed in “Beach Blanket,” for Prince Charles — in a show that Charlotte Shultz co-wrote. “George was Superman, and I was Wonder Woman. I flew,” she recalled. “When it goes — something you love — you’re never ready, and I’m not ready.” “Most of us would not have thought it would have lasted longer than six months,” says former San Francisco mayor and Chronicle columnist Willie Brown, also a friend of Schuman Silver. “But it had literally its own flavor. It became a part of San Francisco on the day it opened, and it has remained a part of San Francisco to this minute.” He attributes its success to its responsiveness to current events, as well as its ability to relate to locals and visitors alike. “It was always dignified. It was funny as all hell. But it wasn’t like ‘Saturday Night Live.’ It was more like Johnny Carson’s monologue — or, now, Stephen Colbert’s monologue.” For Bay Area actors, “Beach Blanket” has represented one of the coveted few local opportunities not just for steady employment but for benefits almost unheard of in theater, such as paid vacation, sick time, health care and retirement. Actors Doug Magpiong, Tammy Nelson and Curt Branom have all been with the show for 25 years; actor Renée Lubin has been there 33. Band member Steve Salgo tallies 34 years, and stage manager John Camajani just retired after 40. Director Kenny Mazlow and Musical Director Bill Keck count 29 and 26 years, respectively. In advance of breaking the news to cast, crew and staff, Schuman Silver said she didn’t know what she would say or how she would say it. “It will be very difficult, but I know I have to do it. I’ll just tell them I’ll cry with them … and have them one by one come over to see me the next day. I’ll answer every question they have — but they have to be in the show on Wednesday night. … But they’re professionals. They will do it.” After being told the news Wednesday evening, Branom said, “It feels like a death.” “I’m hurt and sad and devastated, but I don’t begrudge her decision. I get it. I wish there was some solution, but I don’t know what it is,” Nelson said. “I’m 56, 57 in June. I guess I’ll be looking at reinventing myself.” “Beach Blanket” has four more years on its lease for its venue, Club Fugazi, which seats 373. A spokesman for its owner, Italian Community Services, did not respond to a request for comment about how it might be used for the remainder of the lease or after. Whatever fills the building won’t be “Beach Blanket Babylon,” and that will be hard for many San Franciscans to imagine, including Schuman Silver. “I thought I’d be dead, or something. I never thought I would close the show, ever, in my whole life. But I felt it was time.” She can’t put her finger on what started to change — though she doesn’t feel Steve Silver’s presence in the venue as much any more. And a cousin recently observed that, the past two years, she hasn’t gone through the New Year’s Eve lineup with the family, like she always used to — a change Schuman Silver says wasn’t conscious but might be illustrative. Asked what she’s proudest of, Schuman Silver says, “Everything. I can’t really get it down.<doc-sep>The beloved San Francisco attraction “Beach Blanket Babylon,” which bills itself as “the longest-running musical revue in the world,” announced Wednesday that after 45 years, the show will hold its final curtain call at the end of the year. Producer Jo Shuman Silver told the cast and crew earlier in the day of her decision. “I just felt it was time,” she said. “The show had a great 45-year run, and I just wanted the show to go out on top.… We have a show tonight, which is very difficult for our performers, but the show must go.” After drawing large crowds for his notorious street performances, show creator Steve Silver opened “Beach Blanket Babylon” on June 7, 1974, in the back room of the historic bar Savoy Tivoli. The floor was covered in 2 tons of sand, and a lifeguard took tickets at the door and sprayed the backs of audience members’ hands with Coppertone, marking their entry, according to the show’s history. Advertisement The original show included “a chorus line of hula-dancing middle-aged housewives doing card stunts” and a band dressed as poodles. It was supposed to run six weeks. When “Beach Blanket Babylon” plays its final show Dec. 31, it will have played 17,216 performances. This year’s cast, which performs Wednesday through Sunday at Club Fugazi, includes parody performances of President Trump, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco), Russian President Vladimir Putin and Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The show follows Snow White as she takes a journey searching for Prince Charming. She encounters a range of politicians and celebrities along the way, such as Stormy Daniels and Oprah Winfrey. The show is known for its iconic hats — including the San Francisco skyline hat, which is 14 feet tall, 9 feet wide and 3 feet deep — and superb costumes. Each performer has between seven and 15 hat, costume or wig changes per performance. Before Steve Silver died in 1995, he told his wife, Jo Shuman Silver, that she would know when it was time to end the show. Shuman Silver said she felt her husband’s presence every day, as did many of the cast and crew who worked with him. “It feels good that so many people have loved this show,” she said. “Of course, it’s bittersweet — I’ve been crying all day. It’s been very difficult for me, but the outpouring of love right now, because we just told the cast today, has been unreal.” Steve Silver, creator of “Beach Blanket Babylon,” started the show in 1974. The show kept going after his death in 1995.<doc-sep>“Beach Blanket Babylon,” the headline-ripping satirical song-and-dance revue considered by many a San Francisco landmark in the same league as Lombard Street and the Golden Gate Bridge, is set to close after 45 years. The final performances will be held on New Year’s Eve. “Audiences have embraced Beach Blanket Babylon since the day it opened on June 7, 1974,” producer Jo Schuman Silver said in a news release. “Originally scheduled to run for only six weeks, the show became an international phenomenon and the quintessential San Francisco experience. I am thankful to our fans from around the world who have supported us from the very beginning. Our hats are off to each and every one of you!” Silver is the widow of Steve Silver, who created the show in 1974 and watched it become a local favorite and eventually a nationally known phenomenon, characterized by its good-natured mocking of celebrities, pop culture trends and politics (with San Francisco’s characteristically liberal viewpoint). And perhaps most of all, the show was known for the huge and lavish hats donned by characters during the production. Steve Silver died of complications of AIDS in 1995, and Jo Schuman Silver has produced it since. Reports said she announced the closing to her staff and others Wednesday. She did not mention the reason for closing the show, which remains a popular draw among both locals and tourists. “Beach Blanket Babylon,” performed several times a week at a North Beach nightspot, stands as the longest running musical revue in the world. By the time it’s all said and done, there will have been a record-breaking 17,216 performances and seen by over 6 million fans. Tickets are on sale for all remaining performances (besides the New Year’s Eve send-off shows). For more information, visit www.beachblanketbabylon.com, call 415-421-4222 or visit the Club Fugazi Box Office, 678 Beach Blanket Babylon Blvd., San Francisco. While the jokes and targets in the revue changed with the news of the times, the basic story line has remained the same: Snow White as she searches for her Prince Charming, encountering celebrity characters along the way. Recent personalities have included the likes of Donald and Melania Trump, Nancy Pelosi, Kim Jong-un, Vladimir Putin, Freddie Mercury, Lady Gaga, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sarah Huckabee, Barack and Michelle Obama, Beyoncé, Ariana Grande, Stormy Daniels, Oprah, and the San Francisco Giants.<doc-sep>
It was announced today Steve Silver's Beach Blanket Babylon-a beloved San Francisco institution and the longest running musical revue in the world-will give its final performances on Tuesday, December 31, 2019 (New Year's Eve). Upon its closing, the show will have played a record-breaking 17,216 performances. "Audiences have embraced Beach Blanket Babylon since the day it opened on June 7, 1974," said Schuman Silver. "Originally scheduled to run for only six weeks, the show became an international phenomenon and the quintessential San Francisco experience. I am thankful to our fans from around the world who have supported us from the very beginning. Our hats are off to each and every one of you!" Tickets for all remaining performances, including the annual Holiday Extravaganza Shows (beginning Wednesday, November 13), are on-sale now at www.beachblanketbabylon.com , by phone at 415-421-4222, and at the Club Fugazi Box Office (678 Beach Blanket Babylon Blvd., San Francisco). Ticket on-sale date for New Year's Eve performances will be announced at a later date. Seen by 6.5 million people from around the world, Steve Silver 's Beach Blanket Babylon was made famous for its hilarious spoofs of political and pop culture, spectacular costumes, and iconic hats. The show follows Snow White as she takes a fast-paced journey around the world in search of her "Prince Charming." Along the way she encounters a star-studded, ever-changing line-up of hilarious political and pop culture characters. Recent highlights include Donald and Melania Trump Nancy Pelosi , Kim Jong-un, Vladimir Putin, Freddie Mercury Ruth Bader Ginsburg , Sarah Huckabee, Barack and Michelle Obama , Beyoncé, Ariana Grande , Stormy Daniels, Oprah, and the San Francisco Giants. Steve Silver 's magical contributions to the world of theater were his creativity, imagination, and whimsy. His infamous street performances in San Francisco drew crowds in the hundreds. Steve moved the revue indoors to Savoy Tivoli in North Beach and named the show Beach Blanket Babylon on June 7, 1974. A philanthropist as well as a showman, Steve gave generously to health organizations, education, and the arts. In 1988, Steve produced Beach Blanket Babylon Goes to Vegas, which played the Sands Resort and Casino to standing-room-only audiences. The show was the first American performing arts organization to perform at the 1997 Covent Garden Festival of Opera and Music Theatre in London, England . Garnering rave reviews and playing to enthusiastic audiences, the London show sold-out every performance. The show was featured in the BBC presentation of "Tales of the City," in a PBS documentary, and a book, Beach Blanket Babylon: A Hats-Off Tribute to San Francisco's Most Extraordinary Musical Revue. The show has also performed on "Good Morning America," "The Today Show," and was recently featured on CNN International's "Quest's World of Wonder." Over the past 45 years, Beach Blanket Babylon has performed before hundreds of international and local dignitaries and celebrities including, HRH Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh; Prince Charles and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall; Secretary of State George Shultz , San Francisco Chief of Protocol Charlotte Shultz , Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi , Senator Dianne Feinstein, Senator Kamala Harris, California Governors Jerry Brown and Gavin Newsom , Willie L. Brown, Jr., Rudolph Nureyev, David Bowie Mel Brooks and Anne Bancroft , John F. Kennedy, Jr., Liza Minnelli Shirley MacLaine , and Sidney Poitier , to name a few. Continuing Steve Silver 's philanthropic legacy in the community, Beach Blanket Babylon has been involved with numerous charities, including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco Public Library, Ruth Asawa San Francisco School of the Arts, Make-a-Wish Foundation, Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center, St. Anthony Foundation, Grace Cathedral, and the National AIDS Memorial Grove. Established in 2002, The Steve Silver Foundation and Beach Blanket Babylon "Scholarship for the Arts" has been awarding thousands of dollars in scholarships to Bay Area high school seniors each year to be used towards their college education. To date, more than half a million dollars has been awarded to 48 students in the categories of singing, acting, and dancing. This year's "Scholarship for the Arts" finals will take place on Monday, June 3 at Club Fugazi. High school seniors have until 11:59 p.m. on Friday, April 26, 2019 to submit their entry.