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Rocky Horror again, this time, live
Wed, Nov. 9th, 2011 08:01 amOn Saturday night, I attended a live performance of the Rocky Horror Show at Re-Bar. The first ad that I saw for this show included the tagline, "This isn't your daddy's Rocky," and it gave me pause, as I mentioned last week. Having seen the play, I'm here to tell you that they weren't kidding. I knew it was going to be truly different as soon as I saw Riff Raff shooting up during "Over at the Frankenstein Place."
Yeah.
The Schoolyard's production of the Rocky Horror Show puts the "horror" back. It's a mad, bad, and dangerous production, edgy and dark, full of overt sexuality and a much stronger through-line for Frank 'n' Furter than the film ever had. It's a punk rock pastiche of burlesque and B-movie bad-ass, with a dash of full frontal in case you weren't sure anyone was actually having sex.
The cast boasted some true stand-outs, especially Josh Hartvigson as Frank 'n' Furter, both the most dangerous and the most vulnerable Frank I've ever seen on screen or on stage (and I've seen two other live performances over the years besides the 75+ times I've seen the film). He's charismatic, in your face and in your bed, as ready to whip out a machete as he is his pointedly pointy black leather codpiece. His songs aren't just songs, they're challenges, threats, growls at the audience. He makes you believe that he's capable of bloody murder, rape, and cannibalism, and still makes Frank uncomfortably sympathetic. Hartvigson works his ass off and it's worth every second to see it. Andrew Murray plays Riff Raff as isolated, rejected, and solitary, angry about being ignored by Frank, resentful at his place in the castle, and consoled only by his sister. At the end when he cries, "They never liked me!" it's a crie de couer and you actually believe it, a line that never really resonated in the film. Tadd Morgan and Monica Wulzen as Brad and Janet are strong in roles that aren't inherently likeable--at least not to me. Wulzen is winsome; Morgan's performance of "Once in a While" is a great illustration of hypocrisy and angst all rolled into one, and hilarious given, um, how it's performed.
It's a loud and raucous production, angry and truly terrifying in spots, and somewhere along the way I found myself thinking that there's a lot more going on here than just a send-up of old horror/sci-fi flicks. Toward the end when Riff tells Frank that his lifestyle is too extreme, I realized that in a show that, on the surface, celebrates alternative lifestyles, there's a statement being made that sometimes too much really is too much, that a little self-examination really is good for the soul, and that it's one thing to parody a genre and another thing to create relevant satire--and that's what this production does. With its bare-bones set, its bare-boned performances, and its burlesque/punk costuming, it achieves more than just entertainment; it has something to say about the choices we make and the people we are when we make them.
The show's weaknesses were few: Eddie's appearance was fast and without context (which is a weakness of the script as much as it is of staging--which was odd in a production that made sense of so many other things that are unclear or cleaned up for an R-rating in the film), the music was so loud that it sometimes overwhelmed the vocals (that's a result of bad sound mixing), and at one point at least one speaker blew out, giving some of the vocals a broken-up quality that made lyrics harder to understand.
But the band was strong, the supporting players mostly on their game, and the Re-Bar itself was the perfect venue for this raunchy, relevant production. It's playing every Friday and Saturday night through November 19. Don't expect or plan for audience participation--the venue is too intimate to make it safe and the play too fast-paced to allow time for interjection--which was right and appropriate. Prepare for a true theater experience; only Frank 'n' Furter can break that fourth wall, and he will, in all his seductive, penetrative glory. I strongly suggest you see this show if you can--especially if you're a Rocky Horror aficionado. This show makes my beloved movie look like a romp through Marshmallowland. It doesn't ruin the film; it just gives you a whole different perspective and--I promise--you'll never look at it the same way again.
Yeah.
The Schoolyard's production of the Rocky Horror Show puts the "horror" back. It's a mad, bad, and dangerous production, edgy and dark, full of overt sexuality and a much stronger through-line for Frank 'n' Furter than the film ever had. It's a punk rock pastiche of burlesque and B-movie bad-ass, with a dash of full frontal in case you weren't sure anyone was actually having sex.
The cast boasted some true stand-outs, especially Josh Hartvigson as Frank 'n' Furter, both the most dangerous and the most vulnerable Frank I've ever seen on screen or on stage (and I've seen two other live performances over the years besides the 75+ times I've seen the film). He's charismatic, in your face and in your bed, as ready to whip out a machete as he is his pointedly pointy black leather codpiece. His songs aren't just songs, they're challenges, threats, growls at the audience. He makes you believe that he's capable of bloody murder, rape, and cannibalism, and still makes Frank uncomfortably sympathetic. Hartvigson works his ass off and it's worth every second to see it. Andrew Murray plays Riff Raff as isolated, rejected, and solitary, angry about being ignored by Frank, resentful at his place in the castle, and consoled only by his sister. At the end when he cries, "They never liked me!" it's a crie de couer and you actually believe it, a line that never really resonated in the film. Tadd Morgan and Monica Wulzen as Brad and Janet are strong in roles that aren't inherently likeable--at least not to me. Wulzen is winsome; Morgan's performance of "Once in a While" is a great illustration of hypocrisy and angst all rolled into one, and hilarious given, um, how it's performed.
It's a loud and raucous production, angry and truly terrifying in spots, and somewhere along the way I found myself thinking that there's a lot more going on here than just a send-up of old horror/sci-fi flicks. Toward the end when Riff tells Frank that his lifestyle is too extreme, I realized that in a show that, on the surface, celebrates alternative lifestyles, there's a statement being made that sometimes too much really is too much, that a little self-examination really is good for the soul, and that it's one thing to parody a genre and another thing to create relevant satire--and that's what this production does. With its bare-bones set, its bare-boned performances, and its burlesque/punk costuming, it achieves more than just entertainment; it has something to say about the choices we make and the people we are when we make them.
The show's weaknesses were few: Eddie's appearance was fast and without context (which is a weakness of the script as much as it is of staging--which was odd in a production that made sense of so many other things that are unclear or cleaned up for an R-rating in the film), the music was so loud that it sometimes overwhelmed the vocals (that's a result of bad sound mixing), and at one point at least one speaker blew out, giving some of the vocals a broken-up quality that made lyrics harder to understand.
But the band was strong, the supporting players mostly on their game, and the Re-Bar itself was the perfect venue for this raunchy, relevant production. It's playing every Friday and Saturday night through November 19. Don't expect or plan for audience participation--the venue is too intimate to make it safe and the play too fast-paced to allow time for interjection--which was right and appropriate. Prepare for a true theater experience; only Frank 'n' Furter can break that fourth wall, and he will, in all his seductive, penetrative glory. I strongly suggest you see this show if you can--especially if you're a Rocky Horror aficionado. This show makes my beloved movie look like a romp through Marshmallowland. It doesn't ruin the film; it just gives you a whole different perspective and--I promise--you'll never look at it the same way again.