Musical Beach Blanket Babylon in San Francisco

My visit to San Francisco was planned in a way that I was 100% sure I wanted to get there when visiting the West Coast of the US in April. But I never really looked into all the things I should do there. You know, it’s usually very easy to find it all out when it comes to cities and their tourist attractions.

My initial plan was to stay in SF just 3 or 4 days how I usually stay in cities and just make it super crazy spending like 14 hours per day walking around to see the most. But just before I came to San Francisco I got in touch with the San Francisco Travel and was shocked about how many things there are to see and do.

San Francisco offers a bunch of different activities, from those I usually do almost daily to those I would never think of doing. And I don’t know why in San Fran I decided to give it a try and simply experience the things I would not do normally.

I will be honest with you. I have never liked musicals and opera. They are just not my kind of thing at all and I never really understood how people could like them. Crazy screaming and dancing? No, thank you! I thought …

I thought so until on a Friday night someone decided to change my opinion for ever.

That ”someone” was the cast of the Steve Silver’s Beach Blanket Babylon, the longest running musical revue in the American theatre history that has been running in San Francisco since 1974.

I had no expectations. I couldn’t even say if I was looking forward to see the musical until I sat down in one of the first rows and all the glory of the red and golden decorations got over me. I ordered dark chocolate to have at least something to make me happy that night in case I wasn’t going to like the show.

But as soon as the musical started at 8pm, I found goose bumps all over my arms and legs. First it was the absolutely amazing music played just on the left side of the stage, and then the Snow White unforgettable laugh.

The musical’s story was the Snow White looking for her Prince Charming. The whole musical made me think of my personal life too as the Snow White traveled from her ”home town” San Francisco around the world trying to find the one. In both Rome and Paris she was not really successful and everything the other people were telling her felt like a parallel to my life. It’s not just the Snow White having problems but also travel bloggers have it difficult when it comes to relationships.

”If you want to find love, it’s not about where you are, but about who you are”.

A few people made the Snow White change when traveling. The people she met on the road because trust me, they ALL do change you in a way. People change your opinions, change your behavior, change your mood, change your u understanding of life and also change your feelings and probably you in general. And the people I have met changed me too.

Giants

I might not meet all the famous people when traveling like the Snow White did though (unless you consider Ian Somerhalder and Paul Wesley one of those). The musical was put up so incredibly well with all the pop-culture characters and the performers dressing like them always finding the best song to represent their famous features. From politicians like the Obama family, Bill Clinton and his affairs, the UK Queen, Prince William and Kate Middleton, through the Giants baseball team, to singers such as Michael Jackson, Elvis Presley, Madonna, Prince, Adele, Nicki Minaj, Justin Bieber, Beyonce and up to date Gangnam Style dancing.

Both men and women could even enjoy good looking cast performing for example Matthew McConaughey in the Magic Mike striptease movie I love, or most of the costumes beautiful Ellen Toscano was wearing showwing off her belly.

No words can explain the fun times the audience had during the musical. I swear to God I spent the whole 90 minutes laughing with tears in my eyes. You could just never figure out what was going to be next and how the song lyrics were going to be changed to fit the musical idea. It was always just a word or two in the song that made me burst out laughing, unexpected butts made way bigger, the male performers dancing to silly songs, Mr. Curt Branom dressed like females, the costumes and obviously also the characteristic headgear.

Beach Blanket Babylon Pineapple Princess

The wild massive hats were one of the things that made the Beach Blanket Babylon in San Francisco famous. And no wonder why. They were hilarious! It was the musical founder, the theatrical genius Steve Silver himself designing all the hats until he died in 1995. The showman and philanthropist Steve just had the ability for knowing what makes audiences laugh.

I am sure I will always remember the legendary huge hair hat Renee Lubin was wearing when performing Tina Turner and just shaking the whole head from side to side. It was one of the funny visual highlights of the musical for me.

Also the last hat representing all the famous landmarks of San Francisco together with the running cable car made me stare with my mouth open again. The San Francisco hat is always worn at the finale of the show and each new design outgrows previous incarnations. I just could not understand it! How the heck could such a monumental hat stay on the head when just pinned to hair?! It was a few times wider than the person wearing it!

Beach Blanket Babylon San Francisco hat

The musical Beach Blanket Babylon in San Francisco definitely lives up to its extraordinary reputation. It was crazy sexy fun and just way beyond I could ever expect. If the musical was performed for the Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip already in 1983, only after 9 years of running, it had to be special! And even part of the Green street was renamed Beach Blanket Babylon for the honor of the musical and Steve Silver’s imagination.

For Steve, anything and everything was possible. And that’s exactly how I lead my life too.

Let’s see if I find and marry my Prince Charming the same as the Snow White in the Beach Blanket Babylon did. Anything is possible, right?

*Disclaimer: The photos are property of Beach Blanket Babylon. It is prohibited to take any photos during the musical.

I was a guest of Steve Silver’s Beach Blanket Babylon. All the opinions in the post are my own as usual. Please find more information about the famous San Francisco musical on Beach Blanket Babylon website. If you are looking for more things to do in San Francisco, please visit San Francisco travel.

Posted in adventures, North America, photo, press trip, tips, travel, USA Tags: Beach Blanket Babylon, Beach Blanket Babylon in San Francisco, Beach Blanket Babylon musical, musical in San Francisco, Steve Silver's Beach Blanket Babylon