The Rocky Horror Show in Malta
Masquerade are doing it again, doing another bold event, they are going to stage the world’s favourite O’Brian’s Rocky Horror show at the MMCC in Ta’Qali. 
I happened to come across the movie one night when I couldn’t catch any sleep and I was kind of intrigued, so when I saw a poster, I tried to allure my partner, whom she is a keen fan of musicals to make her belief that it would be a big miss, if she doesn’t buy a couple of tickets for one of the performances. Preferably, yesterday’s performance, the perfect day since I was on leave and we have other nice things to do during this weekend.
Even if the very important etiquette instruction kit for such a non conventional musical were not given to everyone who purchased the tickets (in fact ours was a photocopied version given to my partner by her friend) I ended up going to it not prepared, in fact I went wearing smart pants and a jacket(the mafia boss if anyone had to ask what character I was representing)(Again showing how ignorant I am when it comes to this production) Little did I know that what made such a musical so popular was the vivid participation from the audience, until I arrived and the first thing that struck was the sign reading "Do not throw stuff at the actors!" as patrons entered the large lobby, decorated with faux velvet walls, red lighting and vendors dressed in colourful wigs and all of them wearing fancy lingerie with suspenders(shame that only men were topless), hawking "Audience Participation Bags." The transparent plastic bags contained toilet paper and water pistols, but I ended up buying only the program, since my partner told me that she has taken care of the stuff herself.
It is clear we are not talking Phantom of the Opera here. (One of the audience was dressed as The Phantom, probably just to take the piss)
Distinguished designers Harry Borg and Peter Hewitt, macabre sets and motif continues throughout this latest production.
Trance beats and 80’s disco pop pulsate and beams of brilliant light illuminate expectant faces in the crowd all dressed up to the occasion. Two hours, sixteen songs, and one floorshow later, after the reprise of "Science Fiction Double Feature," there's nary an unsatisfied creature of the night in the toilet paper and rice-strewn theatre and hopefully puddles of just water, since it seems that the audience took it to heart to make it rain throughout the whole show.
For those who've never thrown rice and toilet paper in a theatre or yelled "slut!" at a shivering Janet and ‘asshole!’ to Brad, The Rocky Horror Show, which debuted on stage in London in 1973, yep that’s almost 35 years ago, has since transformed into the ultimate cult film and a very popular musical with full theatre nights. Devoted fans, for whom Halloween comes whenever it happens to be staged, dress in the fishnets, glitter or hunchback of their favourite character, sing and dance in the aisles and lose track of how many nights they've spent acting like Ziggy Stardust's worst nightmare.
Story has never been the show's strong suit. Moreover, some things never change. What little there is of a plot is about a nerdy couple whose car breaks down one frightful night and the eerie, erotic misadventures they endure in the kinky castle of Transylvanian transvestite Frank 'N' Furter (played to the spike-heeled performance by Matthew Simpson). As bad luck and taste would have it, Brad Majors (Chris Dingli), Janet "Damn It!" Weiss (a very adequate Dorothy Bezzina ) have come inside the castle on a special night. (As if any of the nights are normal around the ol' Furter place.) Brad and Janet are introduced to a ghoulish gallery of Frank 'N' Furter's followers, including a butler named Riff Raff , who turns out to be more master than servant by the show's end.
After a few rounds of "The Time Warp," a "folk dance" involving much pelvic thrusting and jumps to the left and right, Brad and Janet meet their wicked nylon-clad innkeeper, Frank 'N' Furter, who is at last ready to bring to life his latest creation. It's the ultimate toy for a corseted Ken who'd rather be Barbie: a platinum blond, muscle man wannabe named Rocky (Roger Rowley). In true horror-film fashion, Rocky shuns his creator and flees into the depths of the castle, only to emerge in the second act as Janet's object of desire, to the toe-tapping tune of "Touch-A-Touch-A-Touch Me." Meanwhile, Frank 'N' Furter's heart is crushed flatter than the pancake in his makeup. He goes on to seek hormonal happiness in contorting both Brad and Janet into the most compromising carnal positions possible without throwing one's back out.
By now, we're halfway into the second act and, unfortunately, the good times start rolling less quickly as the plot thickens to the point of suspended animation. What eventually transpires involves androids, a transit beam, and the castle blasting off into outer space. The production values, however, remain stellar throughout the show's confusing conclusion and the ending seems happy enough, even if you aren't sure exactly what happened.
The majority of pretty things going to see this show know what they're getting and have never gotten it better. For the most part, the performances and production are equally entertaining and extravagant. True fans of transvestite science-fiction rock-n-roll comedy won't find anything on Broadway offering a greater degree of ultimate pleasure than The Rocky Horror Show, especially as in our case we happened to have within the audience the couple of weirdo show-offs which made the show even more entertaining by screaming some remarks which made us laugh and sometimes even cry with laughter like ‘Ara waslet Rachel Vella’, ‘Fejn hu id-Daddy’, Tista tkun int’ when Brad realized that he has been tricked, but the funniest one was ‘Kif tista ma cempilx’ during the orgy.
Any how I have only one recommendation, Don't dream it; see it. even if the price is a little steep and it is not easy making it to the theatre in a pitch dark road which you realize that they are fixing up just when all cars break hard and do a weird u-turn in a small parking area and go from a straight road to the other side(dark as hell too), behind the national stadium. Yes it happens only in Malta, no lamp posts so I don’t see any reason why they should put up signs so one takes a different route...why waste so much labour and resources, public stuff are better kept at home then leave them loitering around malta...so for once I don’t blame that the performance had to start fifteen minutes late since 90% of the patrons turned up late...
I happened to come across the movie one night when I couldn’t catch any sleep and I was kind of intrigued, so when I saw a poster, I tried to allure my partner, whom she is a keen fan of musicals to make her belief that it would be a big miss, if she doesn’t buy a couple of tickets for one of the performances. Preferably, yesterday’s performance, the perfect day since I was on leave and we have other nice things to do during this weekend.
Even if the very important etiquette instruction kit for such a non conventional musical were not given to everyone who purchased the tickets (in fact ours was a photocopied version given to my partner by her friend) I ended up going to it not prepared, in fact I went wearing smart pants and a jacket(the mafia boss if anyone had to ask what character I was representing)(Again showing how ignorant I am when it comes to this production) Little did I know that what made such a musical so popular was the vivid participation from the audience, until I arrived and the first thing that struck was the sign reading "Do not throw stuff at the actors!" as patrons entered the large lobby, decorated with faux velvet walls, red lighting and vendors dressed in colourful wigs and all of them wearing fancy lingerie with suspenders(shame that only men were topless), hawking "Audience Participation Bags." The transparent plastic bags contained toilet paper and water pistols, but I ended up buying only the program, since my partner told me that she has taken care of the stuff herself.
It is clear we are not talking Phantom of the Opera here. (One of the audience was dressed as The Phantom, probably just to take the piss)
Distinguished designers Harry Borg and Peter Hewitt, macabre sets and motif continues throughout this latest production.
Trance beats and 80’s disco pop pulsate and beams of brilliant light illuminate expectant faces in the crowd all dressed up to the occasion. Two hours, sixteen songs, and one floorshow later, after the reprise of "Science Fiction Double Feature," there's nary an unsatisfied creature of the night in the toilet paper and rice-strewn theatre and hopefully puddles of just water, since it seems that the audience took it to heart to make it rain throughout the whole show.For those who've never thrown rice and toilet paper in a theatre or yelled "slut!" at a shivering Janet and ‘asshole!’ to Brad, The Rocky Horror Show, which debuted on stage in London in 1973, yep that’s almost 35 years ago, has since transformed into the ultimate cult film and a very popular musical with full theatre nights. Devoted fans, for whom Halloween comes whenever it happens to be staged, dress in the fishnets, glitter or hunchback of their favourite character, sing and dance in the aisles and lose track of how many nights they've spent acting like Ziggy Stardust's worst nightmare.
Story has never been the show's strong suit. Moreover, some things never change. What little there is of a plot is about a nerdy couple whose car breaks down one frightful night and the eerie, erotic misadventures they endure in the kinky castle of Transylvanian transvestite Frank 'N' Furter (played to the spike-heeled performance by Matthew Simpson). As bad luck and taste would have it, Brad Majors (Chris Dingli), Janet "Damn It!" Weiss (a very adequate Dorothy Bezzina ) have come inside the castle on a special night. (As if any of the nights are normal around the ol' Furter place.) Brad and Janet are introduced to a ghoulish gallery of Frank 'N' Furter's followers, including a butler named Riff Raff , who turns out to be more master than servant by the show's end.
After a few rounds of "The Time Warp," a "folk dance" involving much pelvic thrusting and jumps to the left and right, Brad and Janet meet their wicked nylon-clad innkeeper, Frank 'N' Furter, who is at last ready to bring to life his latest creation. It's the ultimate toy for a corseted Ken who'd rather be Barbie: a platinum blond, muscle man wannabe named Rocky (Roger Rowley). In true horror-film fashion, Rocky shuns his creator and flees into the depths of the castle, only to emerge in the second act as Janet's object of desire, to the toe-tapping tune of "Touch-A-Touch-A-Touch Me." Meanwhile, Frank 'N' Furter's heart is crushed flatter than the pancake in his makeup. He goes on to seek hormonal happiness in contorting both Brad and Janet into the most compromising carnal positions possible without throwing one's back out.
By now, we're halfway into the second act and, unfortunately, the good times start rolling less quickly as the plot thickens to the point of suspended animation. What eventually transpires involves androids, a transit beam, and the castle blasting off into outer space. The production values, however, remain stellar throughout the show's confusing conclusion and the ending seems happy enough, even if you aren't sure exactly what happened.
The majority of pretty things going to see this show know what they're getting and have never gotten it better. For the most part, the performances and production are equally entertaining and extravagant. True fans of transvestite science-fiction rock-n-roll comedy won't find anything on Broadway offering a greater degree of ultimate pleasure than The Rocky Horror Show, especially as in our case we happened to have within the audience the couple of weirdo show-offs which made the show even more entertaining by screaming some remarks which made us laugh and sometimes even cry with laughter like ‘Ara waslet Rachel Vella’, ‘Fejn hu id-Daddy’, Tista tkun int’ when Brad realized that he has been tricked, but the funniest one was ‘Kif tista ma cempilx’ during the orgy.
Any how I have only one recommendation, Don't dream it; see it. even if the price is a little steep and it is not easy making it to the theatre in a pitch dark road which you realize that they are fixing up just when all cars break hard and do a weird u-turn in a small parking area and go from a straight road to the other side(dark as hell too), behind the national stadium. Yes it happens only in Malta, no lamp posts so I don’t see any reason why they should put up signs so one takes a different route...why waste so much labour and resources, public stuff are better kept at home then leave them loitering around malta...so for once I don’t blame that the performance had to start fifteen minutes late since 90% of the patrons turned up late...
Comments