A musical about homelessness? Leave it to the San Francisco Mime Troupe, whose hard-hitting Breakdown: A New Musical opens this weekend in Berkeley, and comes to SF’s Dolores Park for July 4.
We’re heading into Independence Day weekend, and in the Bay Area, that always means the premiere of another SF Mime Troupe production that will continue at Bay Area venues through the summer. This year’s 64th (yes, 64th) annual production is Breakdown: A New Musical, which addresses the topic of homelessness in musical form, and plays at 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday afternoon in Berkeley’s Cedar Rose Park, then does its traditional July 4 show in Dolores Park Tuesday at 2 p.m.
The trailer for Breakdown: A New Musical is seen below.
The SF Mime Troupe summarized the show in a press release to SFist. Per that description, “Yume lives on the streets of increasingly intolerant San Francisco, but that doesn’t mean all her issues can be solved by a passionate social worker. In a City that seems to have more paperwork than compassion help is always just around the Kafkaesque labyrinthine corner! But that doesn’t mean San Francisco is the hellhole of progressivism up-and-coming Fox News commentator Marcia Stone portrays to the rest of the country. But whether it’s an individual, a bureaucracy, or a national sanity, everything is headed for a… Breakdown.”
The show is 80 minutes in length, and features SF Mime Troupe veterans Andre Amarotico, Jamella Cross, and Kina Kantor. It’s directed by the troupe's resident playwright Michael Gene Sullivan, and features a live band.
As every year, all performances are free (except for an August 24 performance at Z Space, which is $20). Additionally, two free shows will require RSVPs, at Davis High School (Thursday, August 3) and the SF Mime Troupe Studio Back Lawn (Sunday, August 16).
San Francisco fans who can’t make the July 4 show will get additional opportunities to see free performances of Breakdown at Balboa Park (Sunday, July 9), Yerba Buena Gardens (Saturday, July 29), Glen Park (Saturday, July 30), and Washington Square Park (Saturday, August 5). All of those shows begin at 2 p.m.
But Breakdown: A New Musical plays throughout the summer at various Bay Area indoor and outdoor venues, and you can see the full schedule here.
Related: The Hellraising History Of The SF Mime Troupe [SFist]
Image: Jed Parsario (Felix) and Kina Kantor (Yume) in ‘Breakdown,’ Photo by David Allen Studio
