Viva, Elvis! plus El Vez, the Mexican Elvis; Sarah Palin and Tiger Woods: Icons on stage

What does it take to make an icon?  Beach Blanket Babylon sends up Sarah Palin, cheat sheeter

Elvis to Sarah Palin to Tiger Woods, icons going rogue make their way on stage this Valentine's Day and beyond with Beach Blanket Babylon in North Beach, Cirque du Soliel in Las Vegas, and Teatro ZinZanni's "Hearts on Fire!" on the San Francisco waterfront.  

Even the Royal Opera House will send up Anna Nicole Smith next season as promised.

  Icons seem to be fair game for a laugh when the world is so in need of real heros, real people to look up to.  I myself am feeling a tad disillusioned as so many of those we look up to turn out to be ever so mortal.  Indeed, if not the self-serving, vain spoiled brats nobody can live with.  Next! 

Why am I still on Match.com this Valentine's Day?  Why will my dates only offer to take me out AFTER?  Nevertheless:

 Slideshow of Viva, Elvis! below and here's a preview of one set:

In contrast, El Vez, the Mexican Elvis, at the newTeatro ZinZanni show, Hearts on Fire!

Icons, ya gotta love ‘em as the hottest shows bring them to life in full comedic force. El Vez, the Mexican Elvis, appears in the current Teatro ZinZanni production on the waterfront, lighting “Hearts on Fire!” Currently in Las Vegas, Elvis returns in the form of Cirque du Soleil in Viva, Elvis at the new Aria resort. Yet Beach Blanket Babylon sends up every loggers' dream date, Sarah Palin, who doesn’t even sing.  How will BBB handle Sarah’s cheat sheet penned on her palm?  Sarah pictured above in her show of force and tiara.

Auditioning for Snow White

Meanwhile BBB held closed auditions this afternoon for a new Snow White, although some auditions are open to the public. The prospective icon from fairy taledom was to audition with the song from Wicked, Defying Gravity, which icons do.  It's not a send up of Wicked though, as Snow White has appeared in the show from the beginning.  The audition processs should take a few days.

I for one still want to see BBB send up Tiger Woods and Elin. WOW those Swedish women can get mad underneath those reticent exteriors. His front page photo from the hood, with him in nothing but his beany and a determined blank smirk on his face and showing his true colors, stared back at we ladies in line at Molly Stone’s grocery store the other day. There we were in the Fillmore buying our broccoli, thinking his publicist must have turned on him. She must be a woman. None of us bothered to open the cover.  He's no longer a beauty queen missing a couple of teeth and sporting a gashed lip.

Going rogue at the opera

So why is it that Don Giovanni is such a popular opera around Valentine’s Day? So much so it’s coming not only to the Kabuki in the form of an HD film but also live on stage at Berkeley Opera? What is it about going rogue?

Berkeley Opera presents quintessential libertine in February with Mozart's Don Giovanni

SF Opera's HD series at the Kabuki with Don Giovanni

Tickets for BBB run $25 to $80. http://www.beachblanketbabylon.com/

My friend Heather likes the Amante bar on Green nearby, where Carol Doda performs as a singer once in awhile.  http://www.amantesf.com/

Tickets for Viva, Elvis at Cirque du Soleil in La Vegas run $86 to $175. 

http://www.cirquedusoleil.com/en/shows/viva-elvis

Tickets to Teatro ZinZanni run run $117 to $145 generally but there are options.

For more information click here:  Teatro ZinZanni "Hearts on Fire!"

Teatro ZinZanni's "Under a Gypsy Moon" steals your heart and feeds your soul:  Love, chaos and dinner
 

Music therapy for children in the hospital:  AIDAAN gives iPods

For more stories by this writer check out the San Francisco opera blog at http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-2366-SF-Opera-Examiner 

Carmen at the Met:  Why does loving a gypsy heart bring all to their knees?

Anna Nicole Smith Opera to open at Royal Opera House in 2010/2011