www.manx.com.au

Comedy Theatre, Melbourne
Nov 13 2008

Rocky Horror

I first saw the Rocky Horror Show at the HSV7 tele-theatre in Fitzroy, some time in the mid 70s and I can’t remember if it was Max Phipps or Reg Livermore in the Frank-n-furter role.
I do remember vividly what an impact it had on me in my late teens.
What was not to like?
1) The music was basic, sounded like re-works of old 50s/ 60s standards and played by a live and loud guitar based band.
2) The plot borrowed from the 60s/70s sci-fi/horror movies.
3) The previous stage musicals I’d seen were Jesus Christ Superstar and Godspell
4) The cast was full of half naked women in stilettos, fishnet stockings and very little else.
This was also before drink-driving blitzes, .05 and booze buses so we’d had a few beers and driven straight to the theatre ready to have a good time.

This now brings us to 2008 and we’ve paid top dollar for tickets, been dropped off at a respectable theatre by a designated driver; lingerie catalogs contain more explicit images than the cast costumes; the band is regulated by a device that cuts out if it gets too loud and the place is full of grey and bald heads who’ve bought their mums along for a night out. Aahh! Welcome to another nostalgic evening.

I think for the same reason that I never liked the movie version, the current live performance left me wanting more. For me, it has lost all of it’s rawness and is no longer the “Shock” or excitement that it was when I was younger. Did I enjoy it? Yes I did but it made me realise that this was not the 70’s and that I’ve moved on.