'Rocky Horror' should become seasonal classic
REVIEW
By George Hubbard
It's a screech and a scream, a shout-out super show.
Charleston Ballet Theatre's "The Rocky Horror Picture Show," which opened Thursday night at Black Box Theatre, should become a seasonal classic.
Parts of Tim Curry's classic movie roll on the upstage screen, and that helps if you've never seen it. But Jill Eathorne Bahr's choreography erupts onto the intimate stage with such verve that the film scenes sometimes seem an interruption.
Stephen Gabriel eats up his scenes as Dr. Frank-N-Furter, the hysterical master of his own "transvestite transsexual Transylvania." His long legs, encased in fishnet hose and garter belt, support him in dazzling turns and leaps.
Melody Staples as Janet Weiss and Steven Hammell as Brad Majors are appropriately innocent and bewildered at the outset, but stripped to their underwear they quickly get with the action, maintaining a sort of innocence, even while joining in the revels of the Transylvanians.
Rocky, the doctor's "creation," is played by the hunky Trey Mauldwin. Clad in gold lurex briefs and matching boots, he keeps a deadpan expression throughout, but dances with lively elan. He partners both Janet and Frank-N-Furter in pas de deux passages that riff on some of the cliched bits of classic ballets.
Additional performances are at 7:30 and midnight tonight and at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at 477 King St.
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CedarPosts (anonymous) says...
I hate to crack on the stage production, but just for fun I attended the "Rocky Horror" at the Black Box and found it lacking.
Maybe I was chasing those days long past, where going to the midnight movie holding on tightly to a waifish girlfriend with one hand and a loaf of bread in the other was all the joy I ever needed.
Alas the thrill of throwing bread at the screen is gone, perhaps in the advent of modern professional sports, dancing with the stars and remote control we have become observers and never more the participant.
I give the whole show a score of two out of ten which is what the original movie deserved. Only an inspiring generation could transform a terrible movie into an "event" and a fun date.
Without the bread tossing and rice throwing it is, as it first was, BORING!
http://cedarposts.blogspot.com
October 31, 2008 at 6:40 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
willie08 (anonymous) says...
I have been to so many of the horror shows..... But I got bored watching the audience compete for nerdy points. I know, I know, it is supposed to be a particepatory event, and this makes it perfect for halloween, but durn they show this every week in charlotte to packed halls, with the same all black goth folks.
October 31, 2008 at 9:01 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
wjhamilton3 (anonymous) says...
I don't think the Rocky Horror Picture show means the same thing it did thirty years ago. I'm not sure what it stood for then or now. Perhaps I've just never been able to give myself over to absolute pleasure. I think you need to be 18 to make the thing work.
October 31, 2008 at 11:08 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
CedarPosts (anonymous) says...
I think I must have gone a dozen times when I was twenty maybe twenty three. Then a dozen years later when I was dated a girl was a junior at UNC.
The whole thing had really taken on a life of it's own. The film was secondary to everything else.
Youtube is loaded with Rocky Horror too funny!
October 31, 2008 at 1:28 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
luvmydogs59 (anonymous) says...
I would say that Rocky Horror still means something even after 30 years, considering how popular it still is. I must have seen the movie in the theater about 20 times. I have the VCR tape of it as well. It's just one of those movies that was and is a lot of fun, and doesn't really have to make sense to be so.
Funny story regarding the movie...the first time my friends and I went to see it, they dared me to make my face up...with green eyeshadow that came from a tube. So I did, what the heck. Just before the movie ended, I got sharp pains in my side and wasn't feeling well. I went to the restroom to wash off the goop. A few hours later, I ended up in the ER with what turned out to be an appendix attack. My doctor came in and looked at my face kind of funny. I asked him what he was looking at and he put his hand on my cheek and came off with green goop!! Turns out I still had a ring around the edges of my face. I just told him "went to see Rocky Horror", and he busted out laughing. I'll always have that memory of my first time ever seeing it.
October 31, 2008 at 3:58 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
sherlock (anonymous) says...
got a niece that played columbia in the show before it shut down some time back. she loved it, i loved it and i know that if she could she would want to be a part of the troupe again. it IS great fun whether you get the meaning of it or not.
October 31, 2008 at 4:07 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
CedarPosts (anonymous) says...
luvmydogs now that is funny
October 31, 2008 at 9:49 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
frankfurter (anonymous) says...
I DEF. AGREE BECAUSE EVEN OVER HERE IN FRANKFURT GERMANY,THERE IS STILL TO THIS DAY,A MOVIE AVENT WHERE EVERYONE GOES DRESSED UP,& I MEAN NON GAY MEN IN BRA'S & PANTIES(SMILE)DURING THE MOVIE,WHEN DANCE PART COMES EVERYONE STANDS UP & DO THE DANCE WITH!!!! IT REALLY IS AN EVENT HERE& I'M GOING ON 50 & STILL ENJOYING THE FUN!!!!
November 1, 2008 at 5:36 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
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