Tonight was New Year’s Eve, so I grabbed the chance to go out for a New Year’s Eve tradition: a viewing of The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
You can, of course, just play the movie on DVD or streaming. Disney + streams it, or you can buy and download it. But it’s not the same.
If you go to see it at the cinema, it’s a sing-along with a pre film show, an MC dressed as the main character, Frank N Furter, who calls out the “virgins” who haven’t seen it before and stages a costume parade for the cosplayers, with prizes for the best ones. I’ve been to a showing where people dressed as some of the characters turn up on stage to sing along.
Tonight I went to my local cinema, the Classic. We were offered sparkling wine and a pack which contained a number of items that helped us do the traditional stuff, eg confetti to throw in the opening wedding scene and a newspaper to put over our heads during the rain scene(and were showered by people with spray bottles). During “There’s A Light Over At The Frankenstein Place” we all sang along and waved our phones using the torch app. When I first saw this film, with my cousin and his wife, people brought candles and lighters - how times have changed! I think the phones were much safer than candles.
Of course, there was “The Time Warp”, only this was the first time I saw everybody dance it! When I was going to the Year 12 Formals the kids danced it every year, as well as the Macarena and “Summer Lovin’” from Grease.
And the film was just as much fun as always. In case you aren’t familiar, it has fun with old science fiction movies of the 1940s and 50s. You know the drill: the young lovers have a car breakdown and go to a scary house and ask to use the phone…
Richard O’Brien, the show’s creator, was in it. You may have seen him elsewhere in, say, Flash Gordon and Season 3 of Robin Of Sherwood, in which he played an evil sorcerer working for the villain. The lead, Frank N Furter, was played by Tim Curry, who is best known for this film, but has done plenty of other shows and films, such as a dashing Pirate King in a stage production of Gilbert and Sullivan’s Pirates Of Penzance. I’ve also seen him in The Life Of Shakespeare, in the title role. He made a wonderful Shakespeare, but you wouldn’t recognise him between this and Rocky Horror.
If you’d like to see the stage show, with Richard O’Brien, here is a link to it on YouTube. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rYZOFZrghqE&pp=ygUWcm9ja3kgaG9ycm9yIHNob3cgbGl2ZQ==
Anyway, I had a great time! I haven’t seen it since before the pandemic, so I was glad to go tonight.
6 comments:
The ultimate in audience participation! I love Rocky Horror but have only seen it at home. So fun that you went to a theatre for the "event!" Happy New Year!
Happy New Year, Debra! Yes, the cinema showing is an annual tradition. I used to go every year, till the pandemic shut it down, and in recent years I’ve been looking after my mother on New Year’s Eve. This year my sister was with Mum, so I could go. I’m very glad I did!
I have never seen Rocky Horror in a cinema (the first time was on VHS, lol). Sounds like it would have been a lot of fun, though!
Happy New Year - here's to a wonderful 2024
Happy New Year, Anita! This show is always worth watching. But people who go to see it at the cinema don’t just go for the film, they go for all the extra stuff. I know I do. And I was sitting next to a super fan, one Sonya, who practically had it off by heart. We sang along together.
Happy New Year :)
I didn't realise Rocky Horror Picture Show still screened in cinemas. It's so cool that you got to have a great time there.
Cheers
Happy New Year, Terry! I hope we get a chance to catch up soonish.
Yes, Rocky Horror New Year’s Eve was off for a while, during the pandemic, but it’s back. I used to go to the showing at the Astor cinema in Windsor, but this year it was showing at the Classic, my local cinema, and it was very convenient.
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