Near the corner with Market Street, a cluster of men, some of them completely naked, were holding signs as part of some kind of protest.
Our VIP tickets that I'd purchased online were waiting at will call at the box office. Once inside the crowded lobby, I snagged our complementary cocktails at the cash bar. A old poster for an open casting for the movie Milk hung on the wall next to the table.
With our cocktails in hand, we went down the long aisle of the big auditorium to the second row, to get as close to the stage as possible. When we took sips of our drinks, we found that we had been given quite ample portions of vodka.
There were already plenty of drag queens walking around the aisles and on stage. Having finally arrived at our destination after our little adventure, we relaxed in our seats and marveled at the opulent interior of the grand old theater, which Wikipedia says opened in the late 1920s and has been owned by the same family all this time.
At showtime the house lights came down and the faux movie credits of the stage show came on the screen---a drag queen parody of the movie Clueless from the mid 1990's. It was the debut of a brand new show from Peaches Christ, a cross-dressing performer well known in the Castro district. In the opening number, the entire cast performed a dance and lip-sync to the song "Kids in America," which opens the movie as well.
The show basically followed the movie, with all the principal female movie roles played by drag queens, and with changes and twists appropriate for this type of cast and show in the Castro. The audience recognized the main performers and yelled raucous approval when each came on stage for the first time.
Red and I both greatly enjoyed the show, and agreed it was the perfect way to start a weekend trip to San Francisco. It was clear Peaches Christ (who played the role done by Brittany Murphy in the movie) is very talented as both a performer and a show producer.
We even stayed to watch the movie afterward, which had new meaning after the stage pre-show we had just seen, although I dozed off for a nap during most of the second act of the film. The audience was very interactive during the movie and shouted out loud comments many times.
Afterwards, as the auditorium emptied out, Red and I used the respective restrooms in the basement--the women's and the men's---and it turns out both us stood in line behind drag queens to get in.
When we went back out onto the crowded sidewalk the afternoon sun was still bright. Rainbow flags seemed to flying everywhere along the street, and men of varying ages were walking down the sidewalk with their arms around each other.
There was plenty of day left to use for fun in the city. I offered to give Red a walking tour of the area, including the location of Castro Camera, where Harvey Milk ran his political campaigns in the 1970s. It was only half a block down the street.
It must have been the stocking cap I was wearing, as well as my untrimmed white beard, because as soon as we started away from the theater entrance, I heard an effeminate male voice, seemingly peeved at my departure, say to me: "That's right, Papa Smurf, just keep on walking..."
That cracked me up. But as I told Red, I was used to it. I'd been getting cat calls from the men of San Francisco since I was fourteen years old.
And my new Castro nickname seems to suit me well. I think I'm gonna go with it. As my friend Elisabeth says, "One does not simply walk into the Castro...and expect to ever leave."
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| I blatantly stole this photo of the show from the Facebook page of my friend Elisabeth. She's a big fan of Peaches Christ (center), and she seems to have sat in exactly the same seats as us, but at the 8 pm performance. |
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