The Barbary Coast and San Francisco

In 2014, Beat Circus was commissioned by Berkeley Repertory Theater in Berkeley, California to write music for The Barbary Coast, a play based on the true crime book of the same name by Herbert Asbury (Gangs of New York) with book by Dominic Orlando. A few of the songs center around the true-life Mexican Robin Hood figure Joaquin Murieta, who went on a revenge spree during the late 1800 Gold Rush era. The well-known bandit Zorro was based on the Joaquin Murieta. A few pieces from the play based around Murieta (both versions of “Rosita”) ended up in These Wicked Things.