We are gathered at the front of a small cabaret-style stage on the fourth floor of Storek, an industrial space in San Francisco’s SoMa district. On the mic is Detour Productions’s co-director Eric Garcia, clad in a smart-looking hat and a modern variation of lederhosen. He lays the ground rules for participating in Pompeii, Detour’s latest performance of drag, dance, and immersive theater, which takes place across four floors.
This was the final weekend of the 18+ production (for now), and the experience has taught the company a few things about what sorts of guidance the audience needs. The tone is warm, generous, and a little bemused, as Garcia states what might seem obvious but apparently needs to be made explicit: Don’t open closed doors; don’t cross roped-off areas; don’t touch the performers or other audience members without their consent. We’ve been instructed to wander freely between the various spaces, but also to be aware that watching something in one place inevitably means missing things elsewhere.
Garcia ends this opening moment by enticingly setting the Pompeii-inspired scene about to unfold — gathered on the rim of the metaphorical volcano, knowing something is about to erupt: How do we dance out the end of days? What and whom do we embrace? What inhibitions fall away? Whom do we allow ourselves to become?
It’s a choose-your-own-adventure evening, which, while designed to be liberating, inevitably inspires some FOMO. The hardest thing to swallow here is that, given the constraints of time and space, there is always something intriguing happening just out of sight. Cabaret-style performances unfold in an upstairs “Kit Kat Club” space, while sprawling musical revue numbers take place in the Fandango Ballroom below, and an eerily scant, discordant performance happens in “Hernando’s Hideaway,” located in the basement.
Part of the space is also set up like a dressing room, where audience members can watch the dancers change costume pieces, fan themselves, and rest their limbs. The sound from one floor bleeds a bit into the next — a siren call beckoning you to abandon your previous track and jump to a different one. There are a million ways to take in this show, and it would benefit from repeated viewings.
The latent Fosse-lover in me was reveling in what was being dished out. First, it must be said that it was a logistical masterpiece. It was polished, refined, and incredibly consistent in tone and mood — essential qualities for keeping audience members keyed in. Pompeii features a cast of 23 performers, each gorgeously costumed and adorned, and each seemingly consumed by their own very specific and intriguing journey from start to finish. They are sexy, queer, dramatic, and so, so talented.
Some have quickly identifiable roles, such as the standout Mudd the Two Spirit as the Emcee, who opens the show with a glorious rendition of “Willkommen” from Cabaret, and Bay Area drag icon Cheetah Biscotti as Velma Kelly, who elicited cheers and huge applause for her rendition of “I Can’t Do It Alone” from Chicago.
Pompeii is aptly described as “part Fosse fantasy, part queer cabaret, part end-of-the-world dance party,” and its performances were strong, varied, and inspired. I kept finding myself drawn to the ballroom, where I enjoyed watching the ensemble numbers such as “All That Jazz” (Chicago), “Big Spender” (Sweet Charity), or “Rich Man’s Frug” (Sweet Charity) from the balcony above the main floor.
For anyone who has fantasized about moonlighting in a Fossean universe, Pompeii is a dream come true. There were feathers and sequins and pasties and party hats. In addition to the big Broadway-style jazz dancing (like the outstanding trio in “Too Darn Hot” from Kiss Me, Kate), there were emotional breakdowns and breakthroughs in the basement, ghostlike, mysterious crossovers in the stairwells, and seductive interactions normally kept in the shadows, set out for display.
The cocktails were strong and the space well-dressed, though I imagine with more funds, they would dress it up even more. It is Detour’s stated dream for this show to be an ongoing offering here in the city, and I hope that dream comes true. It would be a gift to us all.