the rocky horror show at leeds grand theatre

photo taken from the rocky horror page on the website for the alhambra theatre in bradford. more info on the show and specifically the 40th anniversary tour can be found here.

after maybe 10 years of adoring the rocky horror picture show, i finally got to see the stage show a month or so ago (on the 14th of june, 2 days after my last exam). maybe some of you are thinking, "10 years? but you're only 18?" well yes, someone should tell my dad that it probably wasn't appropriate to buy his 8 year old daughter the dvd when she asked about it after watching one scene on vhs at a friends birthday party, haha!
i didn't dress up, because i went by myself and i didn't have the balls. plus, it was the 5pm show (as opposed to the 8pm) so i thought it might be a bit more reserved, but loads of people dressed up. there was this guy sat behind me, he must have been at least 65, and i thought he was wearing like a suit with a bow tie, but when he got up in the interval he revealed that on the bottom half he was only wearing suspenders and red french knickers, it was insane! high five to that guy!
anyway, the show was FANTASTIC. i was a bit concerned that, because i had loved the picture show so much and for so long, that i wouldn't warm to other people playing the characters or whatever, but it was fine. not to be rude to tim curry, but oliver thornton was the PERFECT frank. he was so charming and charismatic and he worked the stage like nothing i've ever seen before. like, when he says, "i see you shiver, with antici..." he held on to that pause for SO long, and the audience were cheering and going, "say it! saaaay it! you know you want to!", and he just had this fantastic sexy smirk, ahhh, he was great. and his legs! he looked incredible.
dani harmer was hilarious as janet, but i must say it was kind of weird watching her sex scenes considering i grew up watching tracey beaker, haha. she was so funny though, like janet isn't really very funny in the film but dani harmer got some of the biggest laughs of the night. also, i wasn't expecting her to have a good voice but she could really sing!
i didn't think there would be so much audience participation, other than the time warp, but it was like the audience knew some unwritten script. the narrator was getting heckled every time he opened his mouth but he was so funny and clever with it, like that was maybe my favourite part of the show. here are some of my favourite examples (sorry if i'm paraphrasing the actual lines):

• "it was a journey they would remember," "for how long?!" "for a very long time."
• *about the floor show* "it was going to be," "a picnic?!" "no picnic."
• "it seems janet was riding on a-" "cock!" "really! from the home of opera north!"
• "brad and janet had both tasted-" "frank's cock!" oh my god

it doesn't look too funny written down but you have to take into consideration things like how he would smirk when he realised the audience had just made his next line sound ridiculous. 

i absolutely ADORED the time warp encore. other than wwry (lots of people clapping and screaming along with 'bohemian rhapsody' at the top of their lungs), it was possibly the best finale i've ever seen. the whole audience, even the losers who had sat next to me who didn't clap or sing or dance at all, were up on their feet time warping and went absolutely INSANE when frank strutted out to do a little reprise of 'sweet transvestite' and, oh, it was incredible. i've never really, like, whooped and clapped at points of a show that weren't the end of songs (like when i saw wicked, people cheered when elphaba came on stage for the first time, and i remember thinking that was a bit weird) but this show just warranted it, like i was clapping at every funny thing and cheering every time someone appeared on stage, i LOVED it. maybe that's just because i'm so passionate about the whole rocky horror thing but it seemed like everybody else was doing it too.
i won't go into too much detail about actual parts or lines of the show, mostly because it would take too long as there was just too many things that i loved about it, but also because i don't want to ruin the show for you guys. you should definitely go see it, though. there are still lots of places that the tour is coming to so go see it! even if you're not into this kind of thing, it is an incredible night out. it was just perfect, so fun and sexy and  witty. i'm actually considering going to see it again when it comes to bradford in september, i loved it that much!
i think i've said enough here so i'll leave you to find out more about the show yourself if you want to. sorry this post was so late - i've been so busy lately haha! xx