Beach Blanket Babylon (Someone liked alliteration...)

I usually hate musicals. I liked Rent, but who didn't. I can't even get into TV shows like Glee because I just want to fast forward through all the songs. Last weekend I was lucky enough to have my mother come visit and she got us tickets to the musical revue, Beach Blanket Babylon. I'll admit, I was pretty nervous at first. I made plans to drink copious amounts of wine beforehand. But then I did some research on the Internet and decided it might not be that bad. Apparently it's the world's longest running musical review, so they must be doing something right. Also, you can order a bottle of wine while watching, so that's something. We got there and I couldn't believe I'd never noticed it before because I walk by it all the time. It's near the heart of North Beach at Club Fugazi on Green St. (aka Beach Blanket Babylon Blvd... there's actually a little street sign for it), next to O'Reilly's (which we ate at two days later).

The musical review started in 1974 and has had over 12,000 performances in San Francisco, along with some in London and Las Vegas.They spoof contemporary and oldies hits with skits from super relevant cultural and political going-ons. For example, the one I saw mentioned Beyonce's baby, Snookie's pregnancy, Adele sweeping the Grammy's and was up-to-date on the Republican primaries. All of these events had happened in the last month or two. They also do most of the numbers in giant themed hats that look pretty spectacular. This revue keep the whole theater laughing the entire time and it whizzed by (where as I feel most musicals drag on). I would love to go to this again in another year and see all the new updates. It's very impressive how they stay relevant, yet the songs sound like they've been practicing them forever.

On a side note, a couple evenings later we ate dinner at O'Reilley's Irish pub, located a couple doors down from the theater. It was your typical Irish bar. Most food options were fried and the salads were not that good. The beer list included all the standard Irish brews and sadly they were out of cider on tap the night I went. However, they do have a happy hour special of $1 oysters, which might make some people nervous, however the oysters were just as good as the ones you'd get at a restaurant for $3-4. All in all, I'd stick to focusing on Italian food when you find yourself hungry in North Beach.