![]() ![]() ![]() For goody two shoes musical-theater dorks, watching 1975’s The Rocky Horror Picture Show is the closest thing to juvenile delinquency. It’s got catchy tunes, yes.TIME WARP What Tim Curry Thinks of Fox’s Rocky Horror Picture Show Remake.
![]() TRHPS Official Fan Site: Participation: A Virgin's Guide. By James Norman. VIRGIN - In the common world, this usually refers to a person who has not engaged in sexual relations. In the ROCKY HORROR world, this word refers to the many unfortunate people who have never experienced THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW (RHPS) in a theater with an audience and a live cast. Seeing it on home video (Blu- ray, DVD, VHS, Netflix Instant, etc.) or on TV doesn't count! You came to this page because you are hopefully going to consider attending a showing of Rocky Horror in a theater. If you've already seen the movie by itself on TV or home video and wondered what all the fuss was about, read on. If you haven't seen the movie on TV or home video - GREAT! The more surprised you are on your first time, the more fun it is. Rocky Horror is the first and only true audience partici- (SAY IT!)- pation movie. People yell back lines at the screen during the extended pauses between dialogue, dress up in costume and act out the film, and throw props various times during the film. The audience participation phenomenon was observed as early as the film's first run in 1. And by the way, for the . It is a rock- musical send- up of old science- fiction and horror films. Enough history! You are interested in going, so here's what you really need to know. First, the only thing you really need to bring your first time out in order to have fun is a sense of humor, and money for admission (and food at the nearest 2. Of course, being surrounded by 1. You should dress in whatever makes YOU feel comfortable, but also does not violate any local standards (this usually means nudity is out.) Speaking of violating laws and norms of society, it is usually best to go to RHPS sober the first time. Not only will you be more in- tune to pick up all the clever things going on around you, some theaters will not admit those people who look drunk - what theater manager wants to clean up after a drunk at 2: 3. But hey, what about the props and audience participation lines and dressing up in costume? Well, no one expects you to know much of anything your first time out. While audience participation is mandatory to keep the show alive, it is not mandatory that everyone participate, every time. Virgins are not expected to know a damn thing (just like in sex.)If you really want to bring props, check with your local theater and ask what props are not allowed. The safest ones to bring are rice (banned at some, but not most theaters), toast (unbuttered), toilet paper and a deck of cards. A newspaper may help keep you from getting wet, but water is banned at many theaters. Watch everyone else to figure out when to throw these items. A prop list is available on this website. Oh, and if you need to know one AP line, there is one that is almost universal to every theater, that you can use multiple times. Whenever you hear the name ? An important note here: AP is NOT fixed from theater to theater and night to night. If you feel an new line coming on, YELL IT! A big part of keeping the show fresh is creating new lines with topical humor. Hmmmm.. I am not going to be targeted for some humiliation because I am a virgin, right? Usually, theaters will have some sort of virgin ritual which almost always only includes 2 virgins. Since at any one time, an audience can consist of 2. If it looks like you are about to be picked, the best thing to do is point to a friend of the same sex and mouth to whoever (whomever?) is looking at you that he or she is a . Alan Pfaff, Ruth Fink- Winter, Karen Majors, David Shetterly. Let's Do The Time Warp Again . Club. For goody two shoes musical- theater dorks, watching 1. The. Rocky Horror Picture Show is the closest thing to juvenile delinquency. It’s got catchy tunes, yes, but it’s also overtly, enticingly sexual—not to mention deliciously bizarre. Fox, however, has added a wholesome sheen to its remake, The Rocky Horror Picture Show: Let’s Do The Time Warp Again, making it Rocky Horror by way of High School Musical, and aiming for a simulacrum of weirdness rather than the actual thing. The Rocky Horror purists will (and should) certainly turn their noses up at this sanitized Hot Topic version. Newbies won’t understand the enduring appeal, given that there’s almost nothing worse than a bad attempt at camp. And while Orange Is the New Black’s Laverne Cox—who as Dr. Frank- N- Furter is the main attraction—comports herself well, she fails to yield anything particularly stirring or remotely iconic. Director Kenny Ortega—who also helmed the aforementioned Disney Channel movie—decides to frame the entire production as a movie within a movie. It opens with apparent pop star Ivy Levan crooning “Science Fiction/Double Feature” in a slinky usher’s costume, welcoming a bunch of fake goths into a theater, where they settle in for the show and the 2. Century Fox fanfare begins to toot. Every so often, Ortega cuts back to these viewers as they go through the motions of the traditional midnight screening interactions. These interludes solely serve as distraction. The concept might have worked if the event was intended to be broadcast live, but despite Fox’s previous success in that arena—stealing NBC’s thunder by staging Grease Livein front of an actual audience—its Rocky Horror was pre- recorded. To confuse matters further, he’s also given Frank- N- Furter’s castle a house band with Tina Turner- esque backup singers to accompany the numbers, resulting in the entire affair seeming deliberately stagey and sapping out any potential for creepiness. The chorus of Transylvanians occupying the abode don’t exactly convey otherworldly malice either: They’re dressed like they should be headed to an Evanescence concert in 2. Dancing With The Stars. Great performances could have redeemed the mess and justified the decision to pre- shoot it. Alas, they never materialize. Cox’s suffers most from the weight of what came before her: As the original Frank- N- Furter, in film and on stage, Tim Curry exuded both sex and danger. There was no question he could both arouse and consume you if he wanted—his giant jaw might unhinge and devour some part of your body, literally or figuratively. At least it makes the fate of poor Eddie—Adam Lambert—a little bit more palatable.) Cox, however, never makes Frank truly unsettling or malevolent. On Orange Is The New Black, she shines most when she’s tasked with naturalistic drama. Rocky Horror doesn’t allow for that, and it appears she hasn’t yet mastered how to go broad, resulting in a one- note interpretation that’s hampered by the mid- Atlantic accent she adorns. The costuming also doesn’t do her any favors. When she sings “don’t get strung out by the way I look” in “Sweet Transvestite,” the lyric makes little sense. Curry’s Frank was askew from the minute he strutted into frame. His corset was barely laced up; his fishnets were ripped. Cox, meanwhile, is completely glamorous. She’s working the Beyonc. The former Nickelodeon star is never convincingly innocent or frightened at the story’s outset, nor does she fully embrace her character’s lustful transformation. She cries out that she wants to be “dirty,” but nothing implies that she’s actually experiencing carnal pleasures. Perhaps Justice felt restrained by the generally chaste tone of the endeavor. It’s unclear why Fox—which airs Scream Queensand Empire, after all—was so afraid of putting sex and gore on screen. Those shows are far more sensual and, in the case of the former, explicitly macabre, than anything Ortega and company offer. Was it an attempt to keep the TV musical family- friendly? Because, if so, Fox picked the wrong project to redo. Does anyone get it right? Ryan Mc. Cartan is endearing as Brad, and Annaleigh Ashford is a hoot as Columbia. Legendary theater veteran Ben Vereen is also a welcome addition when he wheels in as Dr. And then there’s Curry himself, in the role of the narrator- figure, The Criminologist. It’s heartening to see Curry in action, given that he suffered a stroke back in 2. Fox could have better honored his legacy. The original Rocky Horror Picture Show is schlock in the best possible sense. This is just trash. Rocky Horror Show Live (2. I spent an excellent summer going to the midnight showings of Rocky Horror at the Art Cinema in New Brunswick, NJ every Saturday night. This one of the earliest showings of the movie outside of NYC apparently, and the cult was still in its infancy when I started going - - there'd only be a handful of us in the early days, but by the end of the summer, the house would always be packed, and people were shouting more and more things at the screen. We were encouraged to dress up, of course, but it hadn't yet reached the point where people started doing full- scale shadow performances during the screening (which I'd have found annoying anyway). The point is, it was an excellent summer, and I have great memories of it. I do watch the movie now and again at home, but it'll never be the same.. Which is probably what makes it so excellent. The great cast, great performances and - - above all - - the great spirit both by the performers AND the audience really makes this a new experience of its own. My favorite of the cast was Haley Flaherty, whose Janet Weiss was perfection. I really appreciate the fact that she, and pretty much all the performers, didn't try to reinvent their roles, but stayed true to the original performances. It was great to see Richard O'Brien there too.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
March 2019
Categories |