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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