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A lot of hearts were broken when Beach Blanket Babylon closed in 2019. The world’s longest-running musical revue wasn’t just a must-see for curious tourists, it was a showcase for SF performers and an “out, loud, ‘n proud” embrace of our city’s many colorful (queer) characters. Whatever replaced it couldn’t just fall back on great talent—that was a given. It also had to live up to the legacy of a city unique enough to spawn such a show. Unfortunately, the eventual replacement fell short on the latter, offering up a watered-down version of SF meant to not offend out-of-town visitors.
But little did we know another show would develop with a laser-like focus that puts SF’s storied history right in front of the audience. Compton’s Cafeteria Riot isn’t just another long-running immersive show meant to appeal to visitors. No, it’s an uncomfortable reminder of how the “lesser-than” residents of the city fought the system that wanted to erased them. It’s a show about the pre-Stonewall queer uprising that almost never gets mentioned alongside that famed New York incident. It’s a dinner (well, breakfast) theatre recreation of a perfect storm of sex workers, civil rights, and the knowledge that “All Cops are Bastards” before that term became well-known. As if that weren’t enough, its Tenderloin performance venue is just steps away from where the actual incident took place.
As of this writing, the show has performance dates up until October 25. Whether or not it continues afterwards is up in the air. Even if its fantastic, months-long run closes for good, the show more than proved its worth as great theatre and living history. In other words, it’s the very sort of show we need more of.
