I went to see the Rocky Horror Show on March 28. As a teen I was given the soundtrack by my parents but forbidden to see the movie itself. I have since watched it on DVD. My husband hadn’t seen any version of the Rocky Horror Show when I took him to see it.
It was great because the music was great. There was even some interesting pre-show business where characters in tight, leather bell-hop uniforms interacted with the audience. I was in the balcony where a dancer was going around gibbering and stroking women’s hair. On the lower level, a male ‘bell-hop’ was sport humping a standing patron. To watch performers challenge theatre-goers boundaries was fascinating in a slightly repulsive way.
Actually, the whole show is a bit like that. The wild free-wheeling sexuality of the ‘Transylvanians’ is offset by the fact that Frank ‘n’ Furter, the transsexual leader of these space aliens, is a murderer who lives only to satisfy his sexual appetites. In the movie, he is such a charismatic character that I wanted him to be the hero instead of namby pamby Brad.
Oh well, I guess that would be just too wrong. Sexual ‘deviants’ have to be monsters and bad guys don’t you know… We shouldn’t get too carried away or all this “decadence will sap our wills and our minds may snap…”
The musical is based on cheesy cliches from “the late night double-feature picture show,” the same inspiration for the new movie Grind. I would be interested to hear someone else’s comparison of the two.
I would also like to think that if old B movies were the inspiration for a show written in 2007, the end message would be less pat and conformist.