"The Rocky Horror Show" is an unforgettable experience, but not because of what was on stage
An international production of the campy cult hit has arrived in Israel with a likable cast and Yuval Caspin as the narrator, and even if it is very absorbing even in 2022 - the really exciting happening was in the chairs and in the corridors, where the audience is the one who ran the show, even without a single grain of rice being thrown into the air
Nadav Menuhin
08/23/2022
Tuesday, August 23, 2022, 10:40 a.m. Updated: 10:42 a.m.
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Trailer for the musical "The Rocky Movie Show" (PR)
In May 1980, a resident of Kfar Saba visited the movie "Rocky's Movie Show", and returned shocked.
"In the cinema, I witnessed a double-screen projection: what appeared on the screen changed, like a monkey act, even in the hall. Every image that appeared on the screen was illustrated by the spectators in the hall," he wrote at the time to the "Davar" newspaper, and explained: when fire was seen on the screen - matches and lighters were thrown in the space the hall, and during a scene of a marriage ceremony, "a shower of sawdust flakes" was thrown into the hall.
"If the members of the committee [for reviewing films and plays] had been present at the screening of the film... they would have been amazed by the audience's reactions," he emphasized.
This amazing description is fundamentally true from then until today: "Rocky's movie show" - the ultimate example of a cult film - is a ritual in which the audience actively participates: sings the songs, reenacts scenes and adds their own comments, which over the years have accumulated into a kind of tradition that is passed from mouth to mouth.
It is not at all certain that the main event takes place on the screen - but among the viewers.
Over the years, this ceremony has been held in active screenings of the film or in amateur performances, but this week, ardent fans were offered an unusual opportunity: an international production by the Ambassador Theater from the West End, directed by Christopher Luscombe and Tony Castro, came to a series of performances in Israel.
As close as possible to the original, with one request from the production side: don't throw rice on stage.
like a ritual
From "The Rocky Horror Show" (Photo: Jeff Brod)
An order will be made for the benefit of those who happen to be in the situation: in the 1970s, Richard O'Brien and Jim Sherman created a musical that is all parody and tribute with a queer twist to old horror and science fiction films, called "Rocky's Horror Show".
The plot doesn't really matter, but by and large it describes the unfortunate story of Brad and Janet, good kids in Jerusalem, who find themselves seeking refuge on a stormy night in the castle of Frank N. Porter, a sweet transvestite from the transsexual star in Transylvania.
On that occasion, Frank brings to life if Rocky, an artificial person he built, and from then on the hallucinatory evening gets more and more complicated.
This is a comic carnival, which mixes the high and the low, the allowed and the forbidden, and as it will turn out later - also the stage and the audience.
The musical was in turn adapted with minor changes for the big screen under the name "Rocky's Movie Show".
The film failed and was killed, but relatively quickly became an unusual cultural phenomenon, fragments of which were described above, with fans all over the world memorizing every line and reacting during the screening.
The layers in this cake - the old movies on which the parody was made, the original musical, the film and the additions of the audience - accumulated into a monster of gigantic proportions, and each of them is an integral part of the work as it is today.
There is a dimension of irony in this: what crashed at the box office and became an underground and radical cultural phenomenon is today once again a thriving show at the Culture Hall, to which the audience comes in tie-dyed clothes after paying a ticket that costs hundreds of shekels (although there were also a few costumed spectators here and there).
This is the capitalist wheel of life of popular culture.
Cultural conditions have also changed over time, and we must admit, watching Rocky in 2022 is a different experience: some of the references are no longer familiar to the audience, the queer representations are much more mainstream, and Frank's courting methods may be considered disturbing in today's terms.
But there is no need to grieve.
As the narrator tells Rocky: "You are the product of your time, don't get depressed."
A carnival that mixes the high and the low, the permitted and the forbidden, the stage and the audience.
From "The Rocky Horror Show" (Photo: Jeff Brod)
You are a product of your time, Rocky.
From "The Rocky Horror Show" (Photo: Jeff Brod)
Even as a product of its time, "Rocky Horror Show" is still gripping.
The magic is preserved and the spirit lives on.
The show's powerful imperative - "Don't dream about it, live it" - is still a strong message that captures the heart, inspires and brings joy, and it passes on to viewers.
And between us: they are the strongest part of the whole story.
Much more than what happens on stage, which is nice and familiar and well-known, and in any case an exaggerated parody that is aided by flashy scenery and extreme acting - from the overall likable cast, nothing more and nothing less, we especially mention Stephen Webb who enjoyed every moment as the hypersexual and narcissistic Frank - the happenings in the chairs and corridors were exciting Really, not even a single grain of rice was thrown into the air.
In the third song, in which they sing about a light rising from Frank's castle, masses of telephones rang;
When "The Time Warp," the best-known song from the musical, came on, there were spectators who stood up and joined in the dance;
And almost every line - and this is not an exaggeration - was accompanied by chants from the audience according to all the rules of the ceremony.
The players know it's coming, and cooperate.
To an innocent observer it may seem puzzling, disrespectful and even disturbing or annoying.
The truth is the opposite: it's abnormal fun.
"The Rocky Horror Show" is their show.
The spectators are the ones who control the show, no less and maybe more than the actors on stage.
In fact, they are what make "The Rocky Horror Show" an unforgettable experience.
More in Walla!
The musical "Rocky's Movie Show" is coming to Israel, and it is simply unlike anything else
To the full article
Time to dance the time warp again.
From "The Rocky Horror Show" (Photo: Jeff Brod)
For the role of narrator, the production chose a local representative, the designer Yuval Caspin, and in a surprising or perhaps particularly puzzling decision - his role alone is spoken in Hebrew.
Caspin, who confessed that he is a fan of the musical, was very excited and did not shine.
It was mostly a shame that he read his lines off a shelf: more is expected from such a production.
On the other hand, if Caspin is a fan, why not also see his performance on stage as another great part of Rocky's cult and the fans' takeover of the show, one fan's dream come true?
In any case, it seems that the thought of the production to bring the local viewers together in this way turned out to be wrong: the audience would have gotten along fine with a number in English.
At the end of the show, after the prelude to "Science Fiction/Double Feature" (the most beautiful song in the musical, in my opinion), the actors came back to give the two other favorite songs from it as an encore: "The Time Warp" and "Sweet Transvestite".
This time the whole audience was already on their feet, until they came out of the fantasy back to the boring streets of Tel Aviv.
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