San Francisco treasure 'Beach Blanket Babylon' to close after 45 years
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.
Timeline: ‘Beach Blanket Babylon’ from street theater to Queen Elizabeth to the Oscars
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.
https://datebook.sfchronicle.com/theater/sf-treasure-beach-blanket-babylon-to-close-after-45-years