Final installment of ‘Babylon Gone’ podcast answers key questions

Blanket closes When on Babylon” “Beach New

Year’s Eve, some of San Francisco’s most talented performers, craftspeople and stage workers will be without jobs for the first time in decades.

Where will they go?

How are they feeling about the end of the world’s longest-running musical revue? And with 45 years of history, just how many incredible stories will the artists who made “Beach Blanket Babylon” take with them?

The answers to those questions are at the heart of “Babylon Gone,” the first miniseries in our relaunch of the Datebook podcast. Producers

Peter Hartlaub, Lily Janiak and Annie Vainshtein crafted a series that takes listeners inside the show during its final weeks.

“Babylon Gone” launched with “The Wigmaster,” an episode about Tim Santry, the son of farmers who found a home in San

Francisco, and the quirky and beautiful wig shop at Club Fugazi in the heart of North Beach.

In the second episode, we hear the most memorable lore from “Babylon’s” longest-tenured employees, including unforgettable “the show must go on” stories, and the emotions surrounding the end of the production.

During the final installment, Hartlaub,

Janiak and Vainshtein revive The Chronicle’s

“Question Man” feature, which was a reader favorite when it ran from the new “The 1950s audio Question,” to version, 1990s. gathers called The the opinions of San

Franciscans on a North

Beach street corner, then contemplates the future of live theater in the city.

Listen to all three episodes of “Babylon

Gone” on the Datebook podcast available on

Apple Podcasts, Spotify and other major podcast streaming services. Or listen to Datebook and other Chronicle podcasts at www.sfchronicle.com/ podcasts.

Then you can test your knowledge with The

Chronicle’s ultimate

“Beach Blanket Babylon” quiz on sfchronicle.com.