Alex Timbers Directed Rocky Horror — Page 2

g.d.e.l.g.i. said: "Jordan Catalano said: "Hell we don’t even have the film playing in NYC anymore."

Your other points are valid, but I beg to differ on this one. A seasonal screening in Industry City last week was a massive hit, and NYCRHPS is still going strong every first and third Saturday at Village East, and various other venues all over the city."

Tonight's 11:30 pm screening at the Village East is sold out.

darquegk said: "In my experience, the only bad Rocky I’ve ever seen has been the one or two productions that explicitly said “we aren’t doing a multimedia immersive participatory communal event with improv and such; we are doing the musical play written by Richard O’Brien, so view it as you’d view any other musical.” You can’t unring a bell, and Rocky doesn’t thrive in such an environment."

Exactly! It most certainly does not. I saw an old Siskel & Ebert program from the early 1980s on YouTube where they re-reviewed "Rocky Horror" and Gene Siskel said that the floor show was as important if not more important than the actual movie itself. He felt that if the projector broke down it wouldn't matter because the floor show cast would just go on an act out the whole movie to the audience anyway.

BTW - I'm a RHPS fan from way back. I was at the 8th Street Playhouse religiously every Friday and Saturday back in the 1980s. I have such great memories of that time.

joevitus said: " I mean, it used to be genuinely beautiful when the entire screening room was illuminated by hundreds of lighters, all going off on cue at the word "darkness" in the chorus. But all that was a long time ago."

The actual cue is "there's a light"....but I digress. It was a beautiful sight. I looked around the first time I went (back in 1983) and it was like a mass - a religious experience.

joevitus said: "Meh. The problem is the audience participation mostly isn't clever, while the show is. It's frustrating to hear people making fun of what they don't understand. Audience participation used to be a gas up though the mid-80's, when the barrior between film and audience literally seemed to collapse, but then it because this weird competitive thing ("_I'm_ going to say the line first before everyone else to show I know it better--never mind that then it doesn't match up with the line it cues in the film.."

This is a spot-on assessment. The call-and-response of yesteryear is long gone, now it's just a bunch of rowdy raucous millennials screeching utter nonsense from the top of their heads in a bid to outdo each other.

CarlosAlberto said: "joevitus said: "I mean, it used to be genuinely beautiful when the entire screening room was illuminated by hundreds of lighters, all going off on cue at the word "darkness" in the chorus. But all that was a long time ago."

The actual cue is "there's a light"....but I digress. It was a beautiful sight. I looked around the first time I went (back in 1983) and it was like a mass - a religious experience."

Ugh. Typo on my part. I meant the lighters would go on at the first "There's a light" on the word "light" and then all would go off at "in the darkness of everybody's life" at the word "darkness." At least that was the tradition down here. I may not have worded that as well as I could.

Jordan Catalano said: "Yes, I know there's an occasional screening here but it's not like it used to be every weekend with a cast, sorry if that wasn't said correctly."

I literally described a standing engagement in a set location that, at least per Carlos, still sells well. I, uh, I don't know what more you want...

darquegk said: "In millennial rocky horror, Frank throws a party to celebrate his creation, avocado toast."

Or, at the dinner party when Frank proposes a "toast to absent friends..." the audience throws avocado toast at the screen.

Ugh, that hurt.

darquegk said: "Bucks County always ran a Narrator/Eddie/Dr. Scott triple role, which has Alex Brightman written all over it."



They did Evita just recently and not Rocky Horror. Which is weird because even when it was a summer stock theater, they always did the best and craziest version. And they always had sold out houses. Why do Evita over Rocky Horror if the rights are available?

This show is constantly touring here in the UK in 2000 seat theatres and playing to packed houses. The production lacks the grit and the filth of the original though, it's almost like a bog standard touring show now, and I don't think it was built to be that commercial and that big.