North Beach’s 108-year-old theater Club Fugazi has remained dark under COVID-19 much longer than most theaters, having not hosted a show since Beach Blanket Babylon ended its 45-year run with a New Year’s Eve show December 31, 2019. But when news broke in March that a circus-themed show was coming together at Club Fugazi, we learned the show would come with a Broadway veteran artistic director and an executive director with an impressive Bay Area theater pedigree.
The show’s name and opening dates were just announced Tuesday. Club Fugazi’s new show is Dear San Francisco: A High-Flying Love Story, it premieres Tuesday, October 12 (with preview shows starting September 22), and shows are scheduled throughout the remainder of 2021. They’ve also posted the “sneak preview” video below, though additional stagecraft and theatre renovations are in the works.
“Powered by exhilarating acrobatics, choreography, spoken word, video projections, shadow play, and original music, Dear San Francisco invites locals and visitors alike on a heart-stopping romp through both the essence and the myth that has San Francisco indelibly etched on our collective imagination,” the show’s website says in an announcement. “From the Gold Rush and 1906 earthquake, to beat poetry and the mysterious fog, San Francisco comes vividly to life through a series of tableaus.”
As seen in the preview video, the show employs Montreal-based acrobatic troupe 7 Fingers, founded by Bay Area performers Gypsy Snider and Shana Carroll, who serve as co-artistic directors for this show. Snider was involved with the Tony-nominated choreography for the 2013 Broadway revival of Pippin, and her parents founded the 1970s era circus troupe Pickle Family Circus that had a cameo in the Robin Williams film version of Popeye. Executive producer David Dower was a founding artistic director of Z Space, directed several Josh Kornbluth plays, and has spent the last eight years in Boston as theatrical director at Emerson College’s ArtsEmerson.
Tickets are shockingly affordable, ranging from $35-$69 a seat, with the preview shows priced at even less. But you better believe the first few nights of October’s premiere performances are already sold out.
According to the Chronicle, performances will also “offer in-seat service of small bites and beverages that celebrate the Italian heritage of North Beach.”
Dear San Francisco: A High-Flying Love Story opens Tuesday, October 12 at 7:30 p.m., and rund Wednests-Sundays for the remainder of 2021. Tickets Here.
