Originally, The Rocky Horror Picture Show was supposed be 1 of the 52 movies I saw in 2010. There are weekly midnight screenings of it at Chelsea’s Clearview on Fridays and Saturdays. Asking people to dress up in skimpy costumes in December seemed cruel though, so I held out until the summer. Plus, if I learned anything from one of my friends, it’s that you can get people to dress up in costume if it’s your birthday.
I wanted to dress in costume. I knew people did this from my first exposure to Rocky Horror, an old episode of The Drew Carey Show. I couldn’t decide on a costume though. I put this outing together kind of last minute, so I didn’t have time to get too elaborate. My penchant for wearing costumes that don’t require wearing a shirt had me considering heading to American Apparel for some gold-lame briefs. My next idea was to get silk American flag boxer shorts, a pair of boxing gloves and a fake moustache and go as Apollo Creed from Rocky. I’d walk into the theater, look confused and realize I picked the wrong Rocky. In the end, I decided to go as Brad when I realized I had most of his costume in my apartment already. Ah, the path of least resistance, how I adore thee. The hot June weather would have totally justified going the Brad in his undershorts route, but instead I decided to wear dress pants, a dress shirt and a blue sweater. Because nothing says “Hello, June in New York” like a sweater. I had no tan windbreaker, but figured I looked Brad enough to get by.
Before the movie, we hung out at the Trailer Park Bar, picked for its choice location of being directly across the street from Clearview’s Chelsea in case anyone in our group went with a more risqué costume and didn’t want to walk far in it. We were barely in the bar for a minute before someone asked if we were dressed up for Rocky Horror. We responded that we were. It turned out that the woman asking us this from the New York Cast and asked if we’d take a picture with the other actors in the cast. They were all extremely nice. Their Brad even said he would have lent me a tan windbreaker if he knew I needed one. Cool people all around. We even met a guy from the Pittsburgh cast who was in town to check out the NYC cast.
The energy at the Saturday, June 25 show was amazing. The NY State gay marriage bill was passed less than 24 hours earlier, which definitely had people in a good mood. There was a dance party before the movie started and a contest for Rocky Horror virgins on who could make the best orgasm noise. I went second, and went with a quiet “Oh. Sorry. I swear this never happens.” I was totally robbed of the first place prize by a overweight South American yelling “Ay, papi!.” Now I know how Daughtry felt losing to whomever Daughtry lost to on American Idol.
Saturday, June 25 was in the middle of Pride weekend, so this live show was played by an all-male cast, dubbed The Rocky Homo Picture Show for the night. The cast was awesom!. They had all the parts down. There were more Lord of the Rings references than I expected in the live show, but I guess that’s to be expected when your Rocky is the size of a Hobbit.
If you sit on the aisle, take heed: there’s a decent chance Hobbit Rocky will jump on your lap or you’ll get a close-up view of Frankenfurter’s crotch. Was it because I was on the aisle? In costume? Or both? In any case, I’m not complaining. If you’re going to get freaked out by a transvestite transsexual from sexy Transylvania gyrating in front of you, maybe you picked the wrong midnight movie.
The Greek chorus was jarring at first. It was like listening to Riff Trax if Riff Trax had much more people and a potty mouth. After some time, I managed to tune them out while still picking up on their better one-liners.
Our group of 13 people came ready for the movie with the necessary fan-participation props: newspapers, rice, toast and confetti. We missed the toast cue, but that worked out as I was then able to spend a few minutes throwing toast bits at friends, the South American guy who robbed me in the orgasm contest and a girl across the aisle who fell asleep. How does anybody fall asleep during this show?!
Go see Rocky Horror at Chelsea’s Clearview. It’s an awesome experience. If, like me, this would be your first time seeing it, this is definitely the way to go. Just bring some friends along to explain the parts that don’t make sense. But really, those parts probably won’t make sense to them either. Tickets are only $9, which gets you a movie and live show. As The Who once sang, I call that a bargain. You can find more details about the weekend midnight shows of The Rocky Horror Picture Show at Chelsea’s Clearview at the New York Rocky Horror website.