Performing is in Vampires’ blood
Alice Cooper can’t sit still. Between launching simultaneous campaigns to become the president of the United States and the prime minister of England with a rebooted version of his 1972 hit “Elected,” the 68-year-old Rock and Roll Hall of Famer is also spending the summer touring with his own band and Hollywood Vampires, the supergroup he fronts with actor Johnny Depp and Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry. The band — which takes its name from Cooper’s old Los Angeles drinking club with Harry Nilsson, Mickey Dolenz, John Lennon and Keith Moon — performs a mix of classic rock covers and originals from its 2015 self-titled album.
Q: You could be spending the summer at the golf course. What are you doing on tour?
A: I feel more comfortable onstage than off. I would rather be working. My wife and I are built the same. She has been a ballerina since she was 15, and she’s as much of a professional as I am.
Q: How did the Hollywood Vampires come together?
A: Everybody’s pretty good friends. I’ve known Johnny for a while. I knew he was a great guitarist. Really. Joe Perry takes lessons from him. Our drummer Matt Sorum is one of those
guys everybody knows. The music business is a bit of a fraternity — everybody knows each other. When you get that many alpha males in one place you would think there’s a lot of ego. With this group, there hasn’t been an argument in three years.
Q: Is this the full Alice Cooper tour with the snake and guillotine and all that?
A: Just the opposite. I’m on two tours right now. I started out in April with my band. And then this tour started. The crazy thing is my show is very constructed and it’s really, really tight. Everybody knows what’s going on at every second. It’s exhausting. The Vampires show — we bill ourselves as the world’s most expensive bar band. We get to be a bar band, only in front of 20,000 or 30,000 people. It’s really a cool thing. Alice Cooper never talks to the audience. When I’m with the Vampires, I talk to them after every song. I’m sort of like the narrator. It’s like a history lesson.
Q: What do you remember about hanging out with the original Hollywood Vampires at the Rainbow? A: Well, you know, if you remember you weren’t there. Honestly, we would go up there every single night and we would sit there and it was the only place where all these rock guys who had the pressure of performing concerts and doing interviews and radio and selling themselves could be with a bunch of guys exactly on their level. People would just tell road stories: You realized half of it was lies, the other half was drunken truths. Q: I love that back in the day all you did was drink beer while the Mamas and the Papas, James Taylor and David Cassidy were doing all the hard stuff. A: It was the weirdest thing. All these people were doing things we would never do, and I’m the one who survived. When we do “Dead Drunk Friends,” I tell the audience the entire history of the Hollywood Vampires.
Aidin Vaziri is The San Francisco Chronicle’s pop music critic. E-mail: avaziri@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @MusicSF
Beach Blanket Babylon Steve Silver’s effervescent revue of send-ups and showstoppers in which Snow White looks for love in an onslaught of popculture lampoons and fantastic hats. Ongoing. $25-$130. Club Fugazi, 678 Green St., S.F. (415) 421-4222. www.beachblanketbabylon.com.
— L. Janiak The Box This new drama about solitary confinement often feels like it wants to be an investigative report instead of a play. It's sincere and dutiful in its effort to chronicle its characters' plight, but theater needs to do more than simply tell us what a group’s lives are like; it needs to give us a reason to care about those lives, to develop characters' relationships. Ends Sat. Two hours, 15 minutes. $20-$75. Z Space, 450 Florida St., S.F. www.aplaycalledthebox.com
— L. Janiak Colette Uncensored The remarkable actor Lorri Holt co-wrote (with Zack Rogow) and stars in this compelling onewoman biography of the French writer Colette, whose life turns out to be as colorful and interesting as one of her novels. Through Aug. 20. $20-$100. The Marsh Berkeley, 2120 Allston Way, Berkeley. (415) 282-3055. www.themarsh.org.
— C. Jones Confederates If the events of “Confederates” could be in tomorrow’s paper — incendiary photos with a Confederate flag threaten a promising presidential campaign — Suzanne Bradbeer’s play, now in its world premiere at TheatreWorks, is so well constructed that it’s just as timeless as it is timely. Through Aug. 7. 90 minutes. $19-$80, subject to change. Lucie Stern Theatre, 1305 Middlefield Rd., Palo Alto. (650) 463-1960. www.theatreworks.org.
— L. Janiak
East 14th: True Tales of a Reluctant Player Don Reed shape-shifts his features, body and voice to create his world on Oakland’s East 14th Street in the 1970s, torn between the righteous home of his Jehovah’s Witness stepfather and the continuous party at his pimp dad’s. A hilarious 100-minute coming-of-age tale. Through Aug. 21. $20-$100. Marsh Berkeley, 2120 Allston Way, Berkeley. (415) 282-3055. www.themarsh.org.
— R. Hurwitt Fences This August Wilson drama is best known as a play about a fallen patriarch who went “down swinging.” But Cal Shakes’ production, under the direction of Raelle Myrick-Hodges, is about the matriarch who took all the hits but is still standing. Margo Hall gives a titanic performance that summons the hurt of every wronged woman. Through July 31. $20-$84, subject to change. California Shakespeare Theater, 100 California Shakespeare Theater Way, Orinda. (510) 809-3290. www.calshakes.org . — L. Janiak
Hamlet Shotgun Players play roulette with Shakespeare’s tragedy — seven actors are cast nightly by random drawing. Purists may balk at the edited text, but the overall experience is thrilling. In repertory through Dec. 20. $5-$40. Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave., Berkeley. www.shotgunplayers.org. — C. Bauer
John Leguizamo: Latin History for
Morons If the stated aim of John Leguizamo’s new solo is noble and compelling — to “reboot” and “un-brainwash” our understanding of Latin history — he undermines himself by treating his audience as too moronic to reckon with their own ignorance. He’s an energetic performer, but his script neglects most actual history in favor of playing lazy stereotypes for easy laughs. Tony Taccone directs. Through Aug. 14. 90 minutes. $5560. Berkeley Repertory Theatre, 2025 Addison St., Berkeley. (510)
647-2949. www.berkeleyrep.org.
— L. Janiak Low Hanging Fruit Robin Bradford’s new play is set in the "Taj Mahal" -- what four homeless female veterans call their Skid Row encampment. Though Bradford traces their everchanging allegiances with sensitivity and compassion, she and director Louis Parnell also resort to some clunky and trite choices. Ends Sat. $35-$50. Z Below, 470 Florida St., S.F. www.3girlstheatre.org.
— L. Janiak The Magic Bus Antenna Theater presents Chris Hardman’s magical mystery tour through the hippie ’60s and the Beat and Cold War past, on a bus ride through the city. Veterans of the era might nitpick, but it’s hard to resist the old clips and ’60s music. Ongoing. $40-$59. Meet at Union Square, Geary Street, S.F. (855) 969-6244. www.magicbussf.com. — R. Hurwitt
“Master Harold” ... and the Boys Timothy Near directs a superlative production of a play about race that feels a little too safe for Berkeley in 2016. Ends next Sun. $32-$50. 2081 Addison St., Berkeley. (510) 843-4822. www.auroratheatre.org.
— L. Janiak The Real Americans In a hilarious, moving and provocative follow-up to his equally impressive bicoastal hit “Tings Dey Happen,” also directed by collaborator Charlie Varon, Dan Hoyle travels through rural America seeking country wisdom and finding smug ignorance, xenophobia, fears of socialism and a Muslim president, militarism, homophobia and some surprising, even heart-wrenching, underlying connections. Through Aug. 27. $25-$100. The Marsh. 1062 Valencia St., San Francisco. (415) 282-3055. www.themarsh.org.
— R. Hurwitt Schooled San Francisco Mime Troupe’s 57th season show pillories the flaws in the U.S. education system, especially its overreliance on digital technology, and the corporations that profit from that technology. Under the direction of Michael Gene Sullivan, it makes a compelling case that art is as foundational to a healthy democracy as a robust education system is. 2 p.m. Today. Free. Yerba Buea Gardens, Mission and 3rd St., S.F.; 7 p.m. Wed. and Thurs. Free. Lakeside Park, Edoff Memorial Band Stand, Oakland; 2 p.m. Sat. Free. Jerry Garcia Amphitheatre, McLaren Park, S.F.; 4 p.m. next Sun. Free. Walnut Park, Petaluma Blvd. South and D St., Petaluma.
Various parks throughout Northern California through Sept. 5. www.sfmt.org.
— L. Janiak The Waiting Period The subject is suicidal depression, but there’s nothing depressing about this brilliant solo from Brian Copeland. The 70-minute tale of waiting to get the gun he bought to kill himself is brutally honest, astonishingly funny, urgent, courageous and charmingly told. Ongoing. Free-$100. The Marsh, 1062 Valencia St., S.F., (415) 282- 3055, www.the marsh.org. — R. Hurwitt
SHOWS NOT REVIEWED
A.C.T. Summer Young Conservatory Festival A month of performances by students of the A.C.T. Young Conservatory program. Tues.-Aug. 27. “Top of the Pyramid” by Nikkole Slater runs Tues. through Sat., The Reuff, Strand Theater, 1127 Market St., S.F. www.act-sf.org/ycshows.
American Idiot The Green Day musical, which originated in the Bay Area, is here led by performers, Joey Pisacane and Tarif Pappu, who are also a music duo in real life. Through Aug. 21. $19-$39. City Lights Theater Company, 529 S. Second St., San Jose. (408) 295-4200. www.cltc.org.
The Awakening The Breadbox presents Kate Chopin’s feminist classic adapted by Oren Stevens about a Louisiana housewife who has a change of heart and can no longer comply with convention. Fri.-Aug. 20. $20. EXIT Stage Left, 156 Eddy St., S.F. www.breadboxtheatre.org.
BATS Improv Improvised comedy ranging from sketch to full-evening works. “Friday Night Theatresports,” 8 p.m. Fridays ongoing; “Warp Speed: An Improvised Trek,” 8 p.m. Sat. $17-$20. Bayfront Theatre, Building B, Fort Mason, S.F. (415)