Tell us about it, Janet!

Normally, I'm at work on Hallowe'en (I love seeing all the little kids in their costumes,) but this year an old friend from high school invited me to go with her to see The Rocky Horror Show live at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center. The 11:00 pm show was the Audience Participation one, where you could throw rice and toilet paper and AP lines and such and not get kicked out. :D It was tonnes of fun!

The stage show was the last incarnation I needed to see in order to say that I've seen Rocky Horror in every medium. I didn't think I was going to have the chance to do so for a while, but luckily TBPAC had it and I could go! So awesome...

It was on a small stage on the TBPAC campus, the Jaeb Theatre, but that made the experience all the more intimate, especially with the catwalk that extended into the audience. We sat all the way in the back on the first floor and the seats were still awesome...except that when we moved over a little during the intermission I ended up sitting behind someone very tall. I had to lean for the rest of the show. Ah well.

The cast was awesome. I thought their Frank was too spastic and sort of characatured Tim Curry's Frank a little too much, but was otherwise solid. Janet, Brad, Columbia, the Criminologist, and Riff Raff were excellent. Magenta had a great voice, but I didn't think she played the role very well. Rocky was exactly who I would cast body wise. I've seen way too many skinny Rockys...this kid had the body and the voice. Eddie and Dr. Scott was played by a girl, the co-director of the show with the man who played the Criminologist. She had a great rock'n'nroll voice, but seemed a bit stiff when it came to the dialogue and the Crim was excellent!

The lighting and sound designs were wonderful, the props were great (especially the bed, a great idea the way it was done), and the live band was great.

A perfect way to spend my Hallowe'en. It's hard to recommend something like this because I don't know if it's a tour or if this was just a local production, but I would say that if someone is staging the live show near where you live and you like Rocky Horror that you should go.