Rocky Horror - on stage!

I saw my very first stage production of Rocky Horror last night! It was brilliant! It was at a theatre downtown - not a huge production like in Toronto or New York, but it was still great. This post will have some swearing and R-rated mature content, so proceed with caution, and don't let little kids read it ;)


My parents surprised me, so I didn't dress up. Katie had come up to give Mom her birthday present (today is her birthday - happy birthday, Mom! :D), and we went out to our favourite Mexican/Central American restaurant. I had a bad stomachache and heartburn from dinner (I overate a little), so I was panicking about where the hell we were going. I honestly thought they were going to take me to a tattoo parlor or something! But I was pleasantly surprised when we were walking towards the theatre and Mom pointed to one of the Rocky Horror posters and said, "Look! Look at what you're going to go see!"

They were selling party packs and t-shirts in the lobby, but we wound up not getting any - I think they stopped selling them after the show. We had fabulous seats: dead centre, and I think eighth row. There were people in the row in front of us that knew some other folks in the row behind us, and they were chatting before the show. The actors playing Columbia, Magenta and Riff Raff were dressed as ushers and were walking through the aisles with flashlights, chatting with the audience and handing out glowsticks (our row wound up not getting glowsticks for some reason - I think they ran out), and the actor playing Riff Raff was shining his flashlight at people and quizzing them on audience participation lines. He'd say, "What do you yell when someone says 'Brad'?" And people would yell back, "A**hole!" "What do you yell when someone says 'Janet'?" "Slut!" "And what do you yell when the narrator appears?" "BORING!" It was pretty fun. Out of those three, I only knew 'slut' for Janet, because I'm used to Mom yelling 'no-neck' for the narrator when we watch the movie, because Charles Gray wore a suit with a very tight collar that didn't show his neck. The only other audience participation line I knew was 'Say it!' for the 'I see you shiver with antci....." part, before Frank says '...PATION."

When the show was just about to start, the actor playing Riff Raff got up onstage and did a little intro to tell us where the bathrooms were, using his flashlights to point the way; asked us to not throw anything onstage, etc. Partway through, he said, "I know we have some virgins here, ooohhh!" and shined his flashlight around. I didn't see any virgin sacrifices, and I wasn't sacrificed. Actually, I'm surprised Mom didn't yell "We have a virgin here!" when we arrived!

The show was awesome. I really liked the actor that played Frank - he was rather cute, and very cool. And the actor playing Rocky was so buff! I loved the whole cast. I tried my best to keep up with the audience participation, but I forgot 'slut' a few times, and I kept forgetting 'a**hole'. But I tried to yell 'BORING!' when the narrator appeared, and when Frank said "I see you shiver with antici...." I yelled, "SAY IT!" with everybody else before he finished, "...PATION." Dad really got into it, too, and Mom was yelling and singing so much she went a bit hoarse. Mom and I were both a bit stuffed up from springtime allergies, Mom more so than I, so Mom was already a bit gravelly. I heard some interesting AP (audience participation) lines. When Riff Raff told Janet "You're wet," somebody yelled "YOU'RE ALWAYS WET, JANET!", or something like that. It was freakin' hilarious. My favourite one was when, just before Frank was supposed to say "Come!" (I think it was just before the floor show scene), somebody yelled something like, "What's your favourite flavor protein shake?" and the actor playing Frank actually broke out of character for a few seconds! I don't think he was expecting that! And then he said, "Come!" (get it? ;D) and I nearly fell over laughing.

And during 'Planet Schmanet Janet', Magenta continued singing "You're a hot dog, but you'd better not try to hurt her, Frank N. Furter!" after the band stopped playing, and Frank yelled, "Shut the f**k up!" It was hilarious!

I really liked how they did some of the more tricky scenes, like the bedroom scene (which was funny beyond words), and the pool scene in the floor show, and the driving scene (also funny beyond words). And both acts went by so fast - there was no lull at all. It certainly didn't feel like two-ish hours! It was just so awesome. During the Time Warp, I had to stand up because EVERYBODY was dancing, and I couldn't see by sitting! So I made Mom get up and do the Time Warp with me ;D It was tricky, because the rows were so narrow, so we couldn't do a full 'jump to the left, step to the right', but we managed the pelvis thrust okay ;) At the end, after the actors took a bow (I yelled, or perhaps screamed, a little when Frank came back out), we all did the Time Warp again. It was just so freakin' awesome.

As we were walking to the car, my hands were tingling from all the clapping, and Mom's voice was really hoarse. I was a little croaky, too - and my shirt was drenched under the armpits! I wore the blue floral shirt I got at Winners when I went with Mom and Katie a few months ago (I think I mentioned the shirt before) with my brown belted shorts.

If we get tickets for another show, I want to dress up. I have a red lamé buttoned shirt that's a tad big on me, and a black sleeveless dress to go overtop of it, so I can go as a party guest. I have a black catsuit dress from an old Halloween costume, too, but it's a bit too small and I put it in a bag for Value Village. I still have it, though. Or I might be able to find a sequined jacket and go as Columbia, or I can buy a French maid costume just before Halloween and go as Magenta. Even easier, I could go as Janet - I have a modest dress that's a bit big on me - it was my mom's old dress, a white cotton dress a blue and purple flower print. All I'd have to do is find a belt to cinch up the waist and a sunhat, and voila! Mom was saying about maybe getting four of us together for their ladies' night package. I hope we can do that someday.

Wow, this post is really long. My right arm is beginning to hurt, and I think my fingers are tingling a little! I'll close now, and I might write more about Mom's birthday in another post. Peace :)

edited to add little things I forgot :p