Directed by Russell Blackwood
Musical Direction by Richard “Scrumbly” Koldewyn

May 2 – June 27, 2010!
Thursdays at 8:00 PM and Sundays at 7:00 PM

At the Hypnodrome, 575 10th Street, San Francisco [Map]

$30 General Admission
$69 “Shock Box” Seat for 2

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Thrillpeddlers is proud to announce production of a revival of the 1972 Cockettes musical extravaganza HOT GREEKS, an original musical by Martin Worman and Richard “Scrumbly” Koldewyn. This show is part of our 3rd annual Theatre of the Ridiculous Revival, which will play in repertory with performances of the long-running hit musical PEARLS OVER SHANGHAI. Originally produced as a Nocturnal Dream Show and performed at midnight at the Palace Theatre in Chinatown in SF, HOT GREEKS was the fabled & fabulous Cockettes’ only other scripted book musical besides PEARLS OVER SHANGHAI. HOT GREEKS is directed by Russell Blackwood, and original Cockette and composer Richard “Scrumbly” Koldewyn serves as Musical Director. The cast includes SF favorite Connie Champagne, and Thrillpeddlers stalwarts Birdie-Bob Watt, and the ever luminescent Michael Soldier as Lysistrata.

HOT GREEKS plays as a limited engagement – running only 17 performances – Thurs. (8 pm) and Sun. at (7 pm) from May 2–June 27, 2010. Opening Night (press night)– Sun., May 2 at 7 pm. The program will be presented in repertory with Thrillpeddlers’ current production PEARLS OVER SHANGHAI, the Cockettes musical, which will continue to run thru August 1, 2010. Fri. and Sat. – thru June 26, 2010 at 8 pm, in July thru Aug. 1, 2010 Pearls plays Sat. at 8 pm and Sun at 7 pm.

Thrillpeddlers’ Hypnodrome Theatre is located at 575 10th Street, San Francisco. (Bryant & Division Sts.) Tickets are $30 gen. admission or $69 for “Shock Boxes” and “Turkish Lounges**”
(admits two) and are available at http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/104118
or by calling 800/ 838- 3006.

Synopsis:

In “Hot Greeks,” college rhythm meets the Peloponnesian War as Athens University takes on
Sparta State for their annual pigskin showdown. This musical, loosely based on Aristophanes’s LYSISTRATA, features the Tri Thigh Sorority girls jiving to the big-band hit parade sounds of the 1940s. The kids sing and dance through the ruins, on their way to consult the Oracle of Delphi (The Hot Twat of Tangier) in their pursuit of victory on the gridiron where quarterback Pendulum Pulaski, the Scarlet Helmet Boy, saves the day for the Gods and Greece.

In addition, Thrillpeddlers revival of HOT GREEKS will be paired with a floorshow of musical selections from other seminal Cockettes shows including: TINSEL TARTS IN A HOT COMA, JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF URANUS (JCU), and VICE PALACE (VP). Divine and Mink Stole who are best known for their work in John Waters’ films were featured in these shows and debuted such chestnuts as “A Crab On Your Anus Means Your Loved” (Divine – JCU), and “No Nose Nanook” (Mink – VP). The Floorshow will occur nightly after a brief intermission after the performance of HOT GREEKS.

Four 2-week sessions: June 14, July 5, July 19, and August 2. Ages 8 – 15.

Download Registration Form to sign up!

A Musical Seance returns to The Hypnodrome!

TWO NIGHTS ONLY:
March 7 & 8, 2010 at 8:00 PM

At The Hypnodrome
575 10th St., San Francisco
Map

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Hailed by LA Weekly as “the cult darling of the underworld,” our favorite chanteuse fatale Jill Tracy returns to Thrillpeddlers’ Hypnodrome to resurrect her wildly popular “Musical Seance”, a collaboration with Atlanta cult composer/violinist Paul Mercer, and featuring master percussionist Randy Odell, and special guests.

PLEASE NOTE: Audience members are asked to bring small objects of special significance, such as a photo, talisman, jewelry, toy, token. This is a very crucial part of manifesting the music.

Since joining forces on Halloween 2007, Jill Tracy and Paul Mercer have become widely known for their astonishing duets on piano and violin, mostly improvised or channeled. The pair affectionately refer to their duets as “spontaneous musical combustion.” Their uncanny ability to conjure spirits through unsettlingly lavish compositions has led to spellbinding results, eerily transporting the room and its rapt audience.

Following the pair’s Music Seance last year in Victoria B.C, a man approached violinist Paul Mercer: “While you were playing, I could see a figure looming behind you, a man, he was soaking wet.” He had no idea that the antique violin Mercer was playing that evening belonged to a murder victim who was drowned in a river.

The duo were commissioned to compose the popular Midnight Waltz at the 2008 International Ball of the Vampires (Portland, OR), a dramatic and ambitious work entitled “Coronation of the Witch Queen.” The waltz was later featured when Jill Tracy and Paul Mercer were the headlining performers at Anne Rice’s legendary Halloween Ball in New Orleans.

Tracy and Mercer will be directly returning from concerts in Spain and Portugal (February 2010) to perform A Musical Seance at the Hypnodrome.

Legendary author Clive Barker states: “Jill Tracy creates an elegant netherworld both seductive and terrifying.”

V. Vale of RE/Search publications described a Jill Tracy/Paul Mercer Seance as “Sheer magic! Perfection. Improvised… If you’re lucky enough to be there, you realize you’ve just had a hint of something extra-mortal, uber-human, transcendent – maybe the concentrated ghosts of Shakespeare’s Globe Theater or the Commedia Dell’arte of the past are swirling around the room . . . and you think that THIS is the new avant-garde: live, un-censored, living theater.”

A recent interview in Tor.com describes the Jill Tracy/Paul Mercer Seance as “musical psychometry.”

“These compositions are delicate and glorious living things they materialize, they transport, and in the same second they vanish,” explains Jill Tracy of the Musical Seance. “They embody the fragile essence of Time. No two shows are ever alike, we have no control, that is the rare beauty of it.”

“A Musical Seance” brings it one step further– harnessing the energy of the audience, a synergistic summoning of what dwells within each of us.

Mercer, whose collection of ages-old violins each tells its own story, was the impetus for his highly regarded “Ghosts” CD and lecture series. His personal instrument collection features very unique voices, spirits with such strong personalities they have their own names. His current instruments include a mysterious late 19th century violin named Daphne, a luminous late 17th century violin named Abigail, and a stunning 1820 Viola named Henryetta. Paul has had the fortune to play some powerful instruments such as 1842 Nicolas Vuillaume, two Stradivari, including the magnificent Firebird Stradivari 1718 ex Saint Exupery.

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PS – Shocktoberfest!! is still playing through November 20th and Pearls runs through January 1st.

In San Francisco, you need not worry about which horror movies the video store has in stock when there are half a dozen Halloween-themed plays you can see. “Shocktoberfest,” for instance, has become a Halloween tradition.

This annual blood-fest, put on by the Thrillpeddlers, is inspired by the Grand Guignol tradition of French horror plays, which means plenty of spurting blood whenever the occasion demands — and the occasion demands it frequently. As gruesome as it may sound, the show has a wicked sense of humor and an over-the-top style that will leave you laughing even as you cover your eyes.

The theater itself is part of the show. Besides traditional seats, there are Turkish lounges meant for two (think chaises draped with rugs and scattered with pillows). Or you can choose one of the interactive Shock Boxes, double seats in the back of the house that elicit intermittent screams when their occupants experience little moments of personal theater staged just for them.

This year’s double feature includes “The Phantom Limb,” a commissioned play set in a New Orleans brothel, and “The Torture Garden,” which was written in 1922 for the actual Theatre du Grand-Guignol and is being performed in English for the first time. Both provide good, gruesome fun for any aficionado of the macabre.

Los Angeles Times, October 23, 2009