The first pleasant surprise was a roaming bunch of very sexy male and female 'phantoms', climbing over seats, sipping from people's drinks, ruffling hair, sitting in the laps of anyone remotely conservative looking, and even taking a bite from someone's icecream. The 'Transylvanians' from the film (which aren't in the original stage production) have been recast as 'phantoms' in this production, dressed as a sort of goth/vintage burlesque collection of archetypes (sailor boy, goth Lolita, cub scout etc). They serve as chorus, dancers and scene arrangers. One particularly sexy boy with abs of steel, a sailor in white pvc hot pants, saw that Nat & Linda were dressed up for the show in fishnets and boas and came and crawled over the three of us. A nice start to the show!
I'd love to say I 100% loved the show, but I didn't. Let's say 90%. I enjoyed it very much, but I didn't agree with some of the choices the director made. She was probably aiming for a high energy show, which we definately got, but it was also kind of shrill. Everyone's dialogue was pitched at full volume, with some of the female performers climbing the scales to sounds only dogs can hear. What it did was rob the show of light and shade. Even some of the quieter moments, some of the narrator's exposition for example, were declaimed and shouted at full volume. All the cast were miked so it wasn't a question of projection. I had a few of the teeth gritting/sphincter clenching moments that usually only come from shrieking toddlers in supermarkets.
Anyhoo. That was really my only beef with it. iOta, who I saw as Hedwig in "Hedwig and the Angry Inch" a bunch of times, was fabulous as Frank-N-Furter. I LOVED this Columbia, who's 'Betty Boop' style New Yoyk accent was a fun addition. Magenta did not work for me at all, even though she was played by a very well respected musical theatre actress. In general the cast were fantastic though, the musical numbers were excellent, and the design was fabulous. I like that they played around with the look of the show without going so far away from it that it lost its feel.
The theatre has come under some criticism for discouraging people to get up and dance and participate, so it does seem like a very well behaved crowd for Rocky Horror. But the encore was a reprise of "The Time Warp" where everyone was encouraged out of their seats, so I got my chance to take that Jump To The Left, closely followed by the Step To The Right after all!
7 comments:
Having been one of the "bunch of us' who went to see it, I have to agree on the lack of light and shade. Rocky Horror actually (at least for me) has some moments of high pathos and these were to some extent lacking in this production. While I thought Brad and Janet were very good as actors, I thought the fact that they were both singers actually detracted a little from the innocent simplicity of what I was used to from the film version of Brad and Janet (Barry Bostwick and Susan Sarandon not being noted as singers). While I've also seen two different stage productions, I guess it's the film that I remember best and I felt a lot of the cast were almost consciously and visibly trying to be "not like their movie counterparts" which made it a little uneven for me.
Having said that, the costumes and stage design were fabulous and the "phantoms" added a lot of fun. You can see "abs of steel" guy in the back right of Andrew's second photo with Columbia in it. The songs are all great and notwithstanding what I said about Brad, he was also very good. Rocky was suitably hunky (and very strong...) and the show was nicely saucy with an even camper edge than the film. Of course, iOta is just an amazing singer and a great stage performer and just fabulous as Frank. He did manage to extract as much pathos from the role as the production allowed and I still got a bit misty eyed during "I'm Going Home". Paul Capsis as Riff Raff was also just brilliant, though you could see him struggling to give back centre stage all the time, he is such a diva. Most fun. And Linda and Natalie (who both dressed up) looked great as well.
Whew... long post. Sorry about that.
No, don't apologise I like reading your take on it too!
Regardless, it sounds like a fun time!
The woman who directed it was on the Sunday Arts show on the ABC last week... and I was only really half paying attention to it, but I do remember thinking at the time that she needed a sharp poke in the eye...
Nice abs on the sailor boy too... :)
Thom, it was. I didn't want to make my review overly negative because I really did enjoy it, but it just could have been that bit better.
Yani, he was a dish. Especially when he waggled that cute bum in our faces!
Well, I saw the show on the 29th February and I am STILL outraged that we were told to sit down, shut up and we couldn't go to the bar because we were showing too much leg! RUBBISH!
The full version of my rant can be found on my blog:
http://variouspieswithmustard.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!F491D85803D981F1!954.entry
Yeah, I read your blog post about and I must say it sounds like your treatment was pretty harsh! Our experience wasn't so bad, but it was unusual to have such a well behaved audience at Rocky! Maybe they've relaxed a little since then?
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