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Are midnight shows less intense these days?

posted 8 years ago by acatnamedcece
3 replies | jump to latest

I'm starting to get the impression that RHPS is becoming less of a cult picture and more of a weird novelty thing. That sounds odd... and it's probably not the best way of describing this feeling. I can't help feeling a bit saddened when I go to a midnight show and see only a few people (myself included) shouting callbacks. My local theater's audience is often at least 50% 'virgins' that never come back.
Now, my dad would go to the show when he was in high school in the 'early days' of RHPS audience participation. He's mentioned that people seem less into it nowadays. Though it might just be how things are at the theater I go to.

Anyone else observing this?

[–] rck_n_rll 8 years ago

I wouldn't consider it a cult thing anymore. I'm 28 now and first found out about it when I was like 13 or 14. Back then it definitely seemed to be more of a cult thing. Now everybody knows about it. Whether or not they actually like it, is a different story.

[–] davidcoppola36 8 years ago

I was a cast member back in the very early 80s and we all did our best to try to be professional actors. The audience was in unison as far as call backs.
I've seen it locally (here in Rochester, NY) in the past few years and it just seems to be a free for all with people just running around being stupid.
Kinda sad.

[–] Picnic10 8 years ago

I went to a Rocky Horror stage show in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England and about dead on 50% of the audience properly dress as a character.

In the UK we have a tradition of pantomime where young children are used to seeing men dress up as women from an early age, as extensions of Shakespearean kinds of conventions, in such productions as Cinderella. We also have some 18 rated adult versions of pantomimes eg 'Cinderfella'.

So I think, in the UK, the Rocky Horror Show has always been understood by the mainstream, perhaps as an upper class kinky pantomime kind of thing.

Whereas perhaps in America it's regarded as a more countercultural vaudeville meets rock and roll thing?

So I imagine that the changes in American audiences has been a bit more pronounced than with British audiences because we were very used to pantomime.

There are always shouters at the performances during the first half an hour or so, water pistols squirted for the rain, confetti, lighters held aloft, and then it stops. Some places understandably ask that confetti not to be used as it's really hard to make the place clean again.