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Cheapside Music Hall
The annual Dickens Christmas Fair has been a very popular San Francisco Bay Area tradition since 1970. They showcased a traditional British Music Hall as part of the entertainment. This was a bawdy affair and ever-popular with the customers. Previously performing at the Dickens Fair, I was hired to direct the first full post-covid Fair from 2022-24, and brought a fresh new direction and a professional, diverse cast.
We were a hit.
A Re-Imagined Music Hall
In the summer of 2022, on the backside of the worst of the Covid pandemic, Red Barn Productions prepared to re-open their vaunted Dickens Fair, returning to full operation after two dark seasons (one was a drive-through fair!). They wanted something fresh in the way of their Dickens Fair version of music hall, something flashier and more inclusive. Having performed in the original Cheapside Music Hall from 2000-2003, and directed 3 award-winning Fringe musicals, Red Barn asked me to help re-build and direct their new music hall show.
Cheapside Music Hall
Director - 2022-2024
My strategy was to build a cast of brand new performers, bolstered by a seasoned cast of pros, who came with solid institutional memory. Lightning struck kindly upon us when we landed Chris Steele as our Mad Sal, the titular head of the entire stage area "Mad Sal's Alehouse". Chris is a popular trans drag queen in San Francisco and a talent of true genius. I also lured my hugely talented and charismatic friend Brian Yates Sharber, a local musical theater legend who I befriended years before in Roar of the Grease Paint, Smell of the Crowd. These two topped a cast blessed with their own spectacular talents, all musically directed by the late, great Win Meyerson. Brendon Getzell, another improv piano genius, has filled the music director role since.
photo: Tanya Anguita