Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Arts/Cultural Response: Rocky Horror - "Dammit Janet"


This is long overdue, but I went to see "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" on October 27th, and it was well…different. 

So it was that same evening in October, at about eleven o'clock, that I was walking downtown towards the State Theater. I passed the Palmer museum and saw some lights. The atmosphere was ripe with college students in their ridiculous costumes going off to parties: you know, slut bunnies and something that lets a guy run around without sleeves. The show actually started about the time I came to the theatre though. So much drag in such little space… I bought my ticket and took my seat as soon as I could. Silly me, I thought I was just going to see a movie. I was wrong, so very wrong.  

The State Theater likes to do a shadow cast for "ROCKY HORROR!!!" meaning they have their own actors on stage acting the parts out on screen. It's much better than just watching the movie, although it helps that you know what characters are saying and doing beforehand. I throw quotes around "ROCKY HORROR!!!" because that's all the audience around me would scream when it was said in the intro credits.  

Alright let me back up a little bit. So it went more like this. I took my seat at the edge somewhere in the middle and thought to myself that it must have been a no show boring event. Not too many people were present, and those who were seemed awfully quiet, just minding their own business and making friends with the shadow cast. I had some older man come over and sit next to me, which was kind of weird…wondering what an old man was doing to come see "Rocky Horror" (I don't know why it was odd, but it was!) until the shadow cast Janet come over. His daughter would be on stage in a matter of hours half naked. I wasn't sure if I was meant to encourage his pride and support in his daughter or pity the moment.  

The director comes out, and before I realized the theater had become warmer and much fuller. The entire middle section was fairly packed from front to back. It had a nice turn up, alright, groovy. The director then called all "virgins" to the stage. It took me a minute to think about what in the world he was referring to, and then I realized this wasn't going to just be any other sitting to watch "TRHPS." The director gave the virgins on stage a red balloon, they blew them up, stuck them between their legs and then the cast came around and "popped their cherries" by biting the balloons. Things were escalating.  

The movie started soon after an introduction and the theatre burst into song. The quite kinds in front of me were now screaming "ROCKY HORROR!!!" at the top of their lungs. I just sank into my chair next to the quiet old father and watched the credits roll as I tried to watch the movie. The opening narrator's volume was kind of lacking, "like [his] neck," which make it kind of difficult to hear what he had to say compared to the shouting audience. In any case the audience was introduced rather quickly to the hero Brad ("Asshole!") and heroine Janet ("Slut!") who would continue their story into Dr. Frank-N-Furter's castle. The movie goes on, and the shadow cast ignores no part of the movie no matter how raunchy or exposing. The audience went along too sharing their own puns and jokes throughout. A reprise of the "Time Warp" brought the night to a very interesting close.  I left speechless for what I had just witnessed. A "virgin" to the event who didn't get his "cherry popped," I was, and still am, stunned. Maybe next time…  I left the theatre thinking of the father clapping for his daughter's portrayal of Janet, you know, that slut who sleeps around the castle. Ya, definitely different.

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