Photos by Ed Ritger
CELEBRATING
BEACH BLANKET
BABYLON
CURT BRANOM Performer, Beach Blanket Babylon SHAWNA FERRIS MCNULTY Performer, Beach Blanket Babylon
Behind the scenes of the long-running North Beach revue. From the March 5, 2018 program in San Francisco, “ Celebrating Beach Blanket Babylon.” NORMA WALDEN [chair, International Relations member-led forum]: Beach Blanket Babylon, San Francisco’s hilarious pop culture musical review, is celebrating more than 16,000 performances. It has been seen by over 6 million people from around the world. This internationally acclaimed production continues to delight audiences at Club Fugazi in San Francisco’s North Beach
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THE COMMO N WE AL TH
District, as many of you know. Among the fun attractions of the show are spectacular costumes and outrageously gigantic hats. The plot of Beach Blanket Babylon follows Snow White as she takes a fast-paced journey around the world in search of her Prince Charming. Along the way she encounters a star-studded, ever-changing lineup of hilarious political and pop culture characters—currently including Donald and Melania Trump, Kim Jong-un, Taylor Swift, Colin Kaepernick, Wonder Woman, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Vladimir Putin, Ivanka Trump, Lady Gaga, Steve Bannon, Prince, Barack and Michelle Obama, Beyoncé, Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Bill and Hillary Clinton, Oprah, and the Golden State Warriors. Now, ladies and gentlemen, from the cast of Steve Silver’s Beach Blanket Babylon, please welcome Curt Branom and Shawna Ferris McNulty. SHAWNA FERRIS MCNULTY: Thanks so much. We were told to talk a little bit about how we started in the show. I started in 2004, and I came into the Pineapple Princess track, is what they call it. It was great when I was 21
and just out of college. It was Britney Spears and Paris Hilton and all that kind of stuff, so I got to play around with that for about a year and a half. Then we had a Snow White opening, and my friend was assistant music director, and they asked him at the time, “Can Shawna sing soprano?” ’Cause, you know, Snow White is one of the few characters in the show, you’re talking like this the entire time, and you have to sing really high. It’s a lot different than most of that Beach Blanket sound that you usually hear, which is loud, great, brassy singing. He told them that actually, I’ve been faking them out for the first year and a half with the brassy singing, and I’m much better in my soprano. So I ended up auditioning for Snow, and I did that for about 12 or 13 years. It was really fun, and then we had an understudy opening, and now I cover three roles. So I do Snow, Pineapple, and Banana, just based on whoever calls out sick or on vacation. So I get to play around a lot. It’s really, really fun, and it’s been an excellent journey at Beach Blanket in all facets, the whole time. CURT BRANOM: It’s so much fun working Continued on page 35