The always topical San Francisco Mime Troupe premieres a new summer production with a series of free performances around the region July 1 through Sept. 4, starting this weekend at Berkeley’s Cedar Rose Park.
Now in its 64th year, the Tony award-winning SFMT tackles the fraught convergence of homelessness, mental illness and hot-take media with Breakdown – A New Musical, which follows the misadventures of Yume, a young woman living on the street, as she contends with a tangled civic bureaucracy and Marcia Stone, an ambitious Fox News commentator looking for a red-meat target.
The 80-minute musical includes a five-person cast with veteran SFMT collective member Andre Amarotico, as well as Jamella Cross (Marcia Stone) and Kina Kantor (Yume). Directed by SFMT’s resident playwright Michael Gene Sullivan, who co-wrote Breakdown with Marie Cartier, the production features music and lyrics by Daniel Savio. The SFMT Band plays a brief opening set before turning into the musical’s pit band, with Breakfast on keyboard, guitar and saxophone, Guinevere Q on bass, and Jason Young on drums and percussion.
The show will be back in Berkeley, at Live Oak Park, in late July.
Saturday-Sunday, July 1-2, 1:30 p.m. at Cedar Rose Park. July 22-23 at Live Oak Park. FREE ($20 suggested donation)
