Tales of the City - A New Musical World Premiers At Home at The American Conservatory Theater, San Francisco

San Francisco's American Conservatory Theater's world premier of Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City, new musical was described by the New York Times as: "an extended love letter to a magical San Francisco."

From a vantage point in seats just across the aisle from the A.C.T production team, madly scribbling notes to themselves for later discussion on sound, light, timing, delivery sort of stuff,  people-watching in the audience and crew was every bit as compelling as keeping an eye on the show itself.

For Tales of the City is San Francisco, or more accurately perhaps, was San Francisco in its halcyon days of bohemian debauchery before the onset of AIDS, before the dot-com bubble, way ahead of Twitter's new digs in the Tenderloin District, back in the days when supermarket aisles were the Craig's List of singles sleuthing.

And the crowds that filled the theater to capacity in this preview show were every bit as fabulously San Francisco as the content. Captivating, flamboyant characters swanned through the lobby to claim their pews as in reverence to what has for a long time been considered the essence of American popular literature, particularly that which encapsulated the swinging West Coast urban communities of the now legendary 1970s.

I first read Maupin's Tales of the City (the first of his eight novel series that went on to be televised) in my late teens, back in the UK. I'm not sure what I made of it all at the time, but having a soft spot for eclectic community life, it must have made sufficient an impression to have subliminally bolstered an initial trial move to the Bay Area from Britain.

Armistead Maupin was the first to serialize the interwoven stories of a fictional 'family' of such sexually diverse, by gifting the world the inhabitants of 28 Barbary Lane. Though Anna Madrigal was not a stranger to me. As a junior reporter on a small town newspaper off the beaten track in the English East Anglian Fens, I'd been voted 'most likely to succeed' in a newsroom of likely lads who'd rather cover the Monday night council meeting than attempt an interview with the town's apparently first and only transsexual. She'd been a farm hand as a lad, married, fathered kids and, unlike Anna, had faced the tortuous humiliation of a sex change transition from a rented room in the nearest market town to home. Her family had disowned her, sons refused to acknowledge the woman he'd become.

The most poignant memory I have of that afternoon, is of a washing line strung over the kitchen sink with nylon stockings hung to drip dry. It was a dingy, sad place, but the woman who had emerged had hung on bravely in familiar territory, desperately hoping for some semblance of acceptance. I still have the article I wrote from the meeting she was so gracious to accept when I'd appeared on her doorstep. I won a feature writing award that year amongst reporters from the family-run newspaper group that spanned several East Anglian market town communities. It really wasn't mine to win, I'd simply shared her story. I hope now, in retrospect of maturity, that it did help her to live more openly and comfortably in such a rough and ready, though conservative, country town.

Maupin himself was born into a conservative Christian family in Washington D.C. A journalist and Vietnam Vet, he wrote the first of his Tales of the City as a serial for the San Francisco edition of the Pacific Sun and later the Chronicle.

A terrific, multi-generational musical cast and seamless set breaths delightful life to the magical, fictional house overlooking the Bay.

As the A.C.T website states: "Please be advised: This production contains brief nudity, drug use, adult situations, and disco lights. Parental guidance is suggested."

The world premier runs through July 10th. 

 

 

Comments

[Lori George]

I so enjoy checking in with California . Your blog keeps me in the know. Being a native San Franciscan, Maupin's Tales of the city is a classic . I fondly remember reading it when it first came out and also have such wonderful memories of the city in the 70S. Hope to see you soon!
Lori

[Frances]

I was thinking of you Lori and hoping you get to see this show when you are next in town xx