The Hypnodrome Theatre

LOOOOOVVVVEEEEE this venue!!!
We came here instead of hitting the bar scene on Halloween. The play we saw: «Shockotberfest 17: Curse of the Cobra» It was scary, hilarious, engaging, and something totally different. We are still quoting some of the lines and talking about it weeks later.
It’s a small theater (50 people) which is pretty cool. I opted to get us the shock boxes which are TOTALLY worth it. Don’t worry, you’ll live. Also, they have alcoholic drinks and popcorn for sale — for cheap! Just the whole comfy/​quirky atmosphere is awesome.
Check it out! It’s a kick!

So I’m going to be very fair in my review. The show has a lot of potential, definitely. I saw Club Inferno with my fiancé on a Friday night. He’s from Florida, and moved to the City about 2 years ago. He’s pretty open minded, but the show had some overly raunchy elements — we had to leave at intermission as he was over it. I get the point — to be free and open with sexuality. But it was a little pushy with the croch grabbing (just felt it wasn’t necessary).
I really appreciated the show, but I think it could have been better. The extras were terrible, with bad make up and just seemed like some of them didn’t want to be there. But the actors and musicians were amazing, really on point, and knew their stuff. Audio/​acoustics were mediocre but it is a small theatre so I guess that makes sense. I just couldn’t understand 35% of what I was hearing music wise.
I paid for the shocker seats. It was a disappointment, and wish I just sat in a regular seat. I think someone grabbed my foot from below one time which creeped me out (that’s the surprise element to the seat, like I guess they make it 4-​D). But I can see this being cool like for Halloween show. If I return, it’ll be with my girlfriends and around maybe the October show.
I’m going to give it another chance soon as I think I came with the wrong person, but overall it was an alright experience. I don’t feel like $ 70 for 2 people was fair, but understandable for San Francisco pricing. PS. ALL CASH for the bar.

I went to see Jewels of Paris because a friend was in the performance. It was amazing and completely unexpected in content. I highly recommend getting what few seats are left in the handful of performances left. This theatre is supported by die hard lovers and is nothing less than spectacular and raw!

This place, and the talented souls who make it come alive, is truly a (not so) hidden gem. Don’t bring the kids, leave your stress outside, and style in for the ride. Prepare for a kitchy good time. C’mon, you know you want to check it out!
Someone else wrote that it was their favorite theater experience in the bay area. I’d agree. Maybe a tie with Berkeley Rep.
Quick tips: the shock boxes are probably the best seats in the house (comfort-​wise, although they are in the back), if you get the Turkish lounge you will be reclining next to your partner like it or not! and there are usually sexual overtones and/​or nudity so if that makes you uncomfortable it may not be for you. But if you’re looking for a lot of fun, these people are hard to beat!

Wow. Saw pearls over Shanghai and I was gagging for more. This show is an event that you will never forget… tons of experience points with this place.
Let’s talk venue. 10 years old and a start up theater troop. This team thinks outside the box and really knows how to play with music, lights and stage to set a mood. Venue only holds 40 in very comfortable seats. With it being so small… the actors are only inches away and it becomes really interactive. Warning… don’t bring grandma, your snooty wife or your boss. Do bring that date you want to have a night they remember… or a group of your your raunchy sisters.
Pearls over Shanghai started 6 weeks ago and runs through the end of may. This musical is original, politically incorrect, raunchy, fun, surprising, and just good. Your initial reaction might be that this looks cheesy or stupid… trust me… not true! You will be left speechless with what these guys and gals come up with.
Overall…awsome show, venue and experience

I’m in love! I’m in love with the space, the cast, EVERYTHING!!!
It’s a little hard to find, but what else would you expect from San Francisco. You have to walk to the back of the building to get in, so through the parking lot on the left. They have a bright red sign out to show you where.
We bought tickets on the couches. I will say one thing here. If you are going to buy above general admission the couches are not a good choice for a skirt. They are lounge couches and the way they are set up you do have to lay down practically. It’s a great choice if you want to cuddle. The great choice for the girlie girls out there (like myself) would be the themed box seats. Well worth the money, but there is not a bad seat in the house. It’s a small space.
I went there to see Pearls over Shanghai! Loved it! The cast was fantastic! Everyone in it was talented and entertaining. Each brought their own special twist to the characters. The costumes were just as fun! Sparkles and pure sex is the only way I can think to describe them! Highly recommend this production!
I am going to watch this space like a hawk and fully plan on attending everything they do! Such a wonderful experience!

Intimate theatre. There are really no bad seats in the house.
Pearls over Shanghai is a really vibrant production. The humor is ridiculous enough without being over the top. Everything is rightfully melodramatic. The singing and music are much better than I have expected. Come with an open mind and you will be entertained.
Don’t be afraid to get the shock box seats. Arrive early to pick your favorite box.

We were here for the first time to see Pearls Over Shanghai. Completely over the top and thoroughly entertaining. We loved it and we’ll be back.

Wonderful little theater space that puts on the quirkiest productions. I have only seen the thrillpeddlers Grand Guignol show, but it was so good, I hope to see more. Campy, fun, obscure, irreverent and very gay friendly theater. I will be a patron for a long long time.

I have been to the Hypnodrome four individual times, three times for the same performance (Pearl’s Over Shanghai) and once to see Shocktoberferst.
Each and every time I see a performance here I leave with a big smile on my face and a new friend to talk to. The performers are splendid, very enthusiastic and very energetic! The individuals who participate in these plays are such endearing people as well. I have come to know quite a few and the amount of love that this theater production has is one of the greatest things in my opinion. (I have seen quite a many theater troupes that do NOT like who they work with, and do NOT like their management)
The Hypnodrome Theater is a place of splendor and fun, enthusiasm and wicked fun. You go see a show you will not be let down, no way, no how :)

I would rate this place 10 stars for how much fun we had here last night! My mom and I saw Pearls Over Shanghai and absolutely loved it! The musical was hilarious, sexy, and scandalous. All of the actors were talented and funny, and the costumes were beautiful and extravagant. We even got an extra show when people from the audience got up on stage and got whipped. Definitely the perfect SF type of thing to take your friends and family to– they really won’t know what they are getting themselves into, but that is the best part.
I’ve been to a lot of plays and musicals in my life, but I must say this is by far one of the best I have been to! Loved it! I definitely need to go back and see more of their shows in the coming future!

I love Shocktoberfest and the Cockettes revival of Pearls Over Shanghai. «Pearls» is different with every viewing, worth re-​watching!
Freaky people will love the entire night’s experience that the Thrillpeddlers bring to the Hypnodrome!

I cannot believe i haven’t reviewed the Hypnodrome yet!
It ain’t your gramma’s theatre company.
The Hypnodrome performs wondefully fun, sexy, campy and occasionally horrorific pieces of theatre.
The shock box seats are totally worth the price tag. they’re silly but fun!
A night at the ‘drome is a lovely way to spend an evening off the beaten path.

This was one of the high points of our Bay Area trip. So good that we are going to see ti again next month and taking friends with us. Its campy, its sexy, its just plain fun.
The characters are great and the quality of the singing was exceptional. The performers make the audience feel like they are appreciated. They are all extremely approachable both before and after the show.
We paid $ 30 per ticket but they also have booths in the back of the seats called Shock Boxes for $ 69 per couple. They say the booths have a curtain one can close for privacy but it would be a shame to miss any of the show. Goldstar offers half price tickets for people that can go to the Sunday night shows.
Want some campy musical fun where the men are women and the women are men and some we just have no idea what they are!
Forget the Bay Cruise… put this on your list instead!

Pearls Over Shanghai
For full review with photos, visit Talia’s website:
* Pearls * Over * Shanghai * — For the San Franciscans who have been around this end of the woods since the late 1960’s, these words swirl way back to shimmering days of satin and velvet and studs, to colorful head dresses strolling along Haight Ashbery. They echo drum beats and jingling endless trinkets. They carry whiffs of smokes and burning incense hovering over Hippie Hill, Golden Gate Park.
November 20, 1970 was a big deal day at the Palace theater, at the heart of North Beach, San Francisco. It marked the debut of Pearls Over Shanghai, performed by the Cockettes. Gay and straight, all flocked to witness the gender-​bending, sexual-​freeing, norm-​defying, outrageous, outlandish extravaganza.
The troupe was looking for a name with a «rockettes» ring to it. Under the circumstances, «Cockettes» made for a natural pick. They were the drug and drag dandies of the 1970’s. The Cockettes took drag queen coquetry up a notch. They strode high, down Height Street, like proud peacocks, shopping for period clothing and fantasy articles at thrift stores. They were the beaus and divas once upon a time, when Lenin-​romantic communes thrived and money-​rid social networks flourished in this city.
The Cockettes were «probably the most popular and most photographed group on the West Coast at the time,» says Rumi Missabu, who stars as Madame Gin Sling in the current production, 40 years after his performance with the original cast. «All you had to do back then was to get your drag together, be recruited … and you’re in the show,» he says. Rumi is now working with a new generation of performers, trying to keep the spirit of his former cast mates alive. «The only wrong thing about the young ones is that… I’m not one of them…» he adds with a chuckle.
The Cockettes were big on flamboyant parodies of show tunes; lavish productions of psychedelic anarchy, chaotic exuberance and LSD-​induced sensual sensation. Pearls was their first (fairly) structured scripted show. Link Martin wrote the lyrics & play and Richard «Scrumbly» Koldewyn composed & played the music. The show quickly became a runaway hit, telling the unleashed tale of white slavery set in 1930s sin-​soaked Old Shanghai.
Pearls Over Shanghai is a comic mock-​operetta spitted with wit by Link Martin’s sharp tongue and intrigue of the Orient. Martin’s edgy words and Scrumbly’s pumping tunes paint a colorful picture of singing sailors, cynical hookers, gangland slave-​trade czars, and henchmen, all jingled in an absurd sensibility-​abused mash of drag, Opium, and merriment that so magnificently earns its renowned title: Theater of the Ridiculous.
When the show ends, you realize it’s just beginning. The loony, sarcastic lyrics, the overdose gloss & glitter will walk home with you and crash on your sofa for the next month. Petrushka’s vibrating vocals will spill and scatter, like pearls,…
all over Shanghai…
Book/​lyrics by Link Martin | Music by Richard «Scrumbly» Koldewyn | Directed by Russel Blackwood | 2009-​10 restaged by the Thrillpeddlers | Hypnodrome Theatre | 575 10^th Street, San Francisco | 1970 – 72 original performance by the Cockettes |Review by Talia Baruch

Pearls Over Shanghai — runs through New Years!
«I’d rather see a thousand musicals like this, than one Oklahoma!»
«The show was awesome! What a treat! I loved the costumes, characters, the singing, and especially the music. You guys deserve to sell out every night and find your way to Broadway with this production b/​c it’s an amazing show. I’ll be telling everyone to go and see it.»
«The show offers a magical trip into the genderf*ck theatrical sensibility of the early 1970s. Get your tickets now! Kudos to Scrumbly, and to the whole cast and crew.»
«Just came from a preview performance. OMFG! Awesome doesn’t even begin to describe it! I won’t give it away, but there is a cheesy special effect that blew me away. Still can’t figure out how they did it! Go see this show!»

Wowza! I saw their last production «Flaming Sin». Huge fan on Noël Coward and what a treat to see the American Première of this long lost piece. Then… Murder in the Madhouse! Creepy, eerie and downright edge of your seat terror. Brilliant!
We stayed for the Blue Hour… kinda like an insomniac theatre vaudeville show! Everything from spankings to a guillotine, some great silent stag films to a magician… they left nothing out! Then… well, I can’t tell you what was next… suffice it to say… DO NOT LEAVE before the end!
I can’t wait to see their next show. Any play that has She-​Bitch in the title I am sure to enjoy. I also just read they are doing Jack and the Beanstalk for the Kiddies… I dare say I cannot wait to take the nieces to this one.
All in all — Thrillpeddlers and the Hypnodrome are my favorite theater experience in the Bay Area. Great shows! Great People! And one of the best Complete evenings of theater. Oh. and they have booze!

Wow.
Wow.
Wow.
In a two hour period, the man and I saw two AMAZINGLY naughty 20’s plays and a fantastic Blue Hour. Its not often that one can sit with 25 of their closest friends, drink a beer, see some hardcore «professional» spanking (oh yeah, man butt!!), and meet some of the original Cockettes,
We got the «shock box» seats… they were lots of fun, but not really big enough for my corn-​fed, hand-​spanked Midwestern man (6’3″, 195 lbs). He was smashed and uncomfortable for the long show… but, he sat there like a trooper and only blushed a little when tattooed men in thongs brought out a guillotine. I’ve got a keeper!

Seriously fun. I love this place so much. I felt like I was in an episode of «Cinema Insomnia». I’ve been twice in the last month to see the same show it was that damned good. Charles Busch’s «She-​Bitch of the Byzantium» starts soon and I’ll be there in my favorite shock box-can’t say which one so YOU won’t take it. This place has a «Hey! Let’s put on a show!» vibe that I just love. Go quickly and with a vengeance!
Cheers!

In a word, amazing. Probably the most quintessentially «San Francisco» thing the husband and I have done since we moved here 2 years ago.
There’s a Charles Bush play coming up there… don’t miss it!