Last night was a BLAST.

I went to the 11 p.m. (sold out, I hear) showing of The Rocky Horror Show, a stage version of the movie. This is the Big Thing in town this weekend.

I made sure to dress up for the occasion. I actually put on makeup for once (red lipstick and "people think she's a whore" black eye makeup), and a black dress I bought once that practically looks like a nightgown, it's so sheer and well, booby. Then I promptly slipped a purple dance skirt over it and a black tie-on sweater because, well, it's cold out there. I even got out my James Dean leather jacket, which only gets out once or twice a year because it really only works to be worn when the weather is a certain temperature and I'm going somewhere interesting where it isn't likely to be stolen. I bought some red temporary comb-in color and streaked my hair with red too. Whee! Heather was dressed up, but in a more classy way, since she'd had to go to some business dinner for Chris's work earlier. Oddly enough, she still fit right in.

Picture this, folks. It's around 10:45 p.m., and this chi-chi location, designed for rich old women in furs to strut through, is instead surrounded by people in fishnets, funky hair, and lingerie. My, it was a beautiful sight to see. The lines to get into the building were long, wacky, and crowded, and I was relieved that the show started late because it was obvious it was going to take a long-ass time to get everyone in. Especially since they were searching everyone at the door, which I hate. Yeah, yeah, I know, people weren't allowed to have Certain Props, but still, I get all discombobulated and panicky and suddenly unable to operate a zipper on my purse whenever I'm told to empty everything out without a table to stick it on. Plus there was Heather with a Zippo on her that they made her throw out, and me holding Heather's camera. It took some negotiation to get it cleared that I could still hold on to it as long as I didn't take pictures of the play (too dark to anyway!).

I was so proud of the UCD community. This is the same group of people who can't ever be arsed to dress up for Halloween, but people really outdid themselves for RH. The outfits were fantastic. I wish I'd brought my digital camera, but it hadn't even occurred to me that THAT MANY people would dress up in this town. I bet at least half of the audience had something special on.

And I MUST give special props to the UCD male community, for having the balls to wear tight, skimpy dresses and/or makeup and/or fishnets and/or heels. I am so proud of you guys, I could bust. And the guy sitting next to us gets the most props of all for bringing a 10-pound bag of rice and letting us throw from it. Merci beaucoup, mon frere/ma soeur!

Heather and I bought prop bags, something that gave her great delight considering that when she'd gone to RHPS as a teenager, she'd never had the money to buy one before. (Her parents gave allowances of $5/week per kid growing up, which usually got used on the cheapest/smallest amount of food possible or bus money.) I hadn't even known prop bags were a staple of the RHPS experience, since the only shows I've gone to were in this town and props used to not be allowed at all. Then again, RHPS used not to be allowed on campus at all, so things have lightened up. Anyway, the prop bag had a flashlight, TP, cards, and rice, plus you got a glowy necklace.

This was definitely a STAGE production- while they obviously had the ability to broadcast the movie behind the players, they chose not to. Instead, they showed clips from various horror movies/a countdown at the beginning and end for the opening/closing song, and used a video camera a bit on Rocky, but that was about it.
Most of the cast was dressed in random superhero gear or other odd costumes (Frankenstein, Lady Liberty on stilts, a Lightning Girl for the rain sequence, Catwoman, Spider-Man, etc., etc.). Some of the lines were different from the movie (as far as I can remember anyway, since it's been a few years since I last saw it), and it was less on the props and sets, more on the outfits and behavior. There was lots of cast wandering the audience and such, doing the Time Warp in the seats, and of course, fun with prop-throwing. I especially admired the people who dangled TP rolls like Rapunzel down from the balconies. Heather wanted to go do that. Heh. I even liked the second act, which is normally not my favorite section of the show (once Eddie's corpse is revealed, to me it all goes downhill).

There were some great catcallers in the back of my section- Heather thought they were part of the cast, I wasn't sure one way or the other- but they just cracked me up a lot. The guy playing the "I HAVE a neck, thank you" narrator was especially fabulous, because he yelled right back at the catcallers, at one point lamenting "the products of a UCD education." At another point he just stopped and yelled, "Listen, you FUCKERS," and everyone died laughing. He was great.

(Anyone know of a script or something anywhere that indicates what the catcall lines are for RHPS? Now I'm wondering, since oddly enough I hadn't heard all that many of them before this.)

A silly thing I did during the show was this: A few days ago when I was picking up Heather's ticket for her and exchanging mine, there was a cast member also picking up an extra ticket who was handing out coupons to the show. He was cute, and I couldn't help but wonder who he was playing. I never really figured it out during the show, but going on height and build and coloring I did think for most of the performance that he was Frank. Since my RHPS-participating ex used to play Brad in Berkeley back in the olden days, I started wondering if my taste was degrading going for a Frank over a Brad. But towards the end when Frank started walking around in my section (floor show), I saw him close enough to determine that he wasn't my cute dude. Ah well, I'm sure the cute dude was 22 at the oldest anyway.

I think this town DESPERATELY needs to have RHPS going on on a regular basis here. Something that actually gives people something fun to go to, that involves dressing up and throwing things and yelling comments and having a blast of a time. The venue for this was really fabulous with the size (according to Bev, the show I went to was sold out. And the director was worried about it being a flop!), and I wished halfway through that I'd held on to my old ticket for Saturday night and gone AGAIN to the show. Because this was damned cool.

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