Rocky Horror Tribute

Essentially the show pays homage to the original Rocky Horror Show but by voluntary agreement with Richard O'Brien (the creator/ owner of the copyright) we perform our show "in the spirit of" and as a live gig. It is fully costumed and contains all of the best known songs from the original. It is not a theatre production, but with dialogue devised by ourselves, there is a narrative through-line that sets the characters that appear in context within a series of events which compliment songs performed. For example, as the show starts one of our girls appears dressed as a cinema usherette (as per the current stage show) to the opening song Science Fiction, sung live. Either myself contextualised as a Meat Loaf impersonator (Meat was in the original show and film) or, should you choose not to use my Meet Loaf character, a narrator (as per the stage play and film) to introduce and link the various songs.

After the initial opening, the narrator sets the scene by asking the audience to imagine themselves needing to knock on the door of a "spooky castle" (B Movie Horror Film references are all part of Rocky Horror) whereupon our sound engineer as Rif Raf re-creates the scene from the film in suggesting the audience had "better come on inside". Suddenly the rest of the cast (except Dr Frank) burst onto the stage and perform The Time Warp. The next job for the narrator is to introduce "the very lovely, the very sexy...Dr Frank". At this point our main character (in full transvestite costume hidden by a cape) appears on stage and begins to encourage audience participation, then sings the other key song from the original show Sweet Transvestite. The magic moment is when Dr Frank whips off his cape to reveal his stockings and suspenders, gloves, 6" stilettos, and basque. I do stress that this is not an adult strip show. It is tongue in cheek a la Carry On level. I'd align it with a 12A or 15 movie rating.

Through the use of double-entendre, humour, references to sentiments expressed in the original (not the exact script for copyright reasons), and costume changes between the four or five characters (depending on your budget) on stage, the show presents the rest of the material in a light hearted way, ever responsive to feedback from the audience.

The show culminates in a re-working of Time Warp. Throughout our time on stage we positively encourage the audience to sing along, dance, and generally join in. More often than not there are many guests who arrive in costume. With our main aim being to entertain our audiences, we are the first to realise that some people have never heard of Rocky beyond Time Warp and Sweet Transvestite. Also, that some attending are ardent fans of the film and the stage show. We do recommend the inclusion of some Rock n Roll Classics (Johnny B Goode, Great Balls of Fire, I Love Rock n Roll) to help make any evening inclusive.

Although the show works as a tribute to Rocky Horror in its own right, it can be booked with any of the other tributes shows I have devised, currently perform in and manage. Adding me as Meet Loaf does of course add an extra dimension (Meat played both Dr Scott and Eddie in both the film and stage productions). If I open the show with one or two Meat Loaf songs, it helps to warm the audience up. Furthermore, for a small additional charge (POA less than the cost of hiring an independent performer from elsewhere) an extra Meet Loaf set can simply be added on to extend the evening's entertainment.