The show must go on—even if you’re broke and stuck in San Francisco. Chicago’s Silent Theater Company dealt with more than a minor traveling glitch while performing “Lulu” across the country. Leaving Chicago four months ago, their bus, appropriately dubbed Pandora’s Box, headed to New York and then San Francisco, where the fun began. “When we first got [to San Francisco] we parked and slept in the Mission District—in the morning we were greeted by people asking for money and cigarettes with their crack pipes in hand,” Tonika Todorova, the director, says. Probably not the best targets to ask for a handout, since the troupe was by now broke and basically performed to survive. Eventually, as they headed home, Pandora’s Box broke down, as did another bus and a Suburban. “Half of our stuff was left all over the country,” Todorova says. As for the Chicago opening last weekend, they couldn’t do a tech run or rehearse with the oil painter they met along the way who was joining them for the 100th performance. “[They] had to bank on the show.” Luckily, that went off without a hitch.
Word to Your Mother
Ladies night at McFadden’s got a special treat last week—Vanilla Ice served as guest MC. The white rapper—whose hits include the seminal “Ice, Ice, Baby” and “Ninja Rap” (from “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: The Legend of the Ooze”)—rocked the mic like a vandal all night and danced through the crowd. “The girls on the bar were screaming—you would’ve thought it was Tom Cruise or George Clooney,” says bartender Trish Smith. “He walked around with a bottle of Jager and poured it in people’s mouths.” The resident DJ continually spun Ice’s tracks, including the infamous “Ninja Rap.” According to Smith: “[When that came on, Vanilla Ice] would just run around, screaming ‘Go ninja, go ninja, go!’ Then he would do a little dance.” Adds Smith, “It was awful…and wonderful.”
