The thing to remember about Rocky Horror is that what happens on screen is only half of the story. The other half is happening in the audience. Readers won't need me to explain about the audience participation, but it's worth remembering that screenings of the film are more like a pantomime, a highly enjoyable, somewhat sexy but fundamentally innocent game. Taking the film alone, it's easy to write it off as a low budget indulgence but what saves it is the high quality of Richard O'Brien's songs, and the tremendous fun that the actors are having with it. The film - and the show that it's based on - remain a one-off, and even O'Brien himself has never been able to duplicate it. It's a shame that the film ends up as a morality play, with Frank's extreme lifestyle thoroughly punished, but I can't think of any other film that has quite this exhilirating effect. Despite the fact that the film is supposed to be a comedy, nothing more than an entertainment, I can't help finding it quite moving and full of resonances with my own life. The only problem is that since taking the film's advice - "don't dream it, be it" - I find Rocky Horror parties to be rather tame, a bunch of normal people pretending to embrace a lifestyle that they are really too scared of. But if it helps anyone find fulfilment for a night, so much the better, and if not, so what? It's only a musical.
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Music / Performing Arts, Comedy - Director: Trevor Nunn, Geoffrey Posner - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over, Parental Guidance - Starring: Duncan Preston, Celia Imrie, Julie Walters, Victoria Wood, Jim Broadbent
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Advantages: MeatLoaf, the Time Warp, and as close to being at the theatre as you can be at home Disadvantages: It's Rocky, What disadvantages could there be??