A Jump to the Left...

If someone said "It's just a jump to the left..." to you, what would your reaction be?

I'd hazard a guess it would be: "And then a step to the ri-i-i-i-i-ight!"

And you'd be fighting the urge to put your hands on your hips and perform pelvic thrusts that would have you arrested under other circumstances.

The Rocky Horror Picture Show is forty years old. Wow. That's pretty impressive. Even though many younger people might not even realise that the Timewarp actually came from a film (let alone be allowed to watch such a movie) they still laugh and dance and sing. .

This is exactly what happened on Saturday night in Grimsby.

Freezing. Ice on the paths and temperatures lower than a snake's belly. The Grimsby Auditorium was sold out and, in such pseudo-arctic conditions, a multitude of people dressed in stockings and basques - men and women - to thrust their pelvises and have the place, literally, swaying. I doubt that such apparel could be worn in public with no-one raising an eyebrow at any other time.

The house was packed. It felt as if I'd never seen so many people there. Granted, when I've been to watch Derren Brown or other shows, it's been a sell out, but it seemed to bulge at the seams this time around. Especially when the seminal Timewarp came on. It's fairly close to the beginning of the show and, though people were laughing and clapping etc., not everyone sprang up. There were enough, however, to make it so you could feel the seating structure move with the dancing. By the end, when they reprised some of the bigger songs and repeated the Timewarp, the whole house was on its feet.

The hecklers that were in the audience to interrupt the Narrator and Frank N Furter were obvious plants, but it didn't matter. It had other members of the audience blurting out crudities and such, and had everyone laughing their backsides off. Both Sam Attwater and Roxanne Pallett did great jobs as Brad and Janet. Kristian Lavercombe as Riff Raff was excelkent but the roll will never be captured quite as brilliantly as the show's creator Richard O'Brien. Oliver Thornton, as Frank N Furter himself could give Tim Curry a run for his money, leaping into stockings and part with abandon.

Applause to the Narrator, too - in particular for his Meerkat impression.

Apparently, Rocky Horror holds the record for the longest running theatrical release of any movie in film history (as it is still shown in cinemas across the world), and even then is based on a play from earlier yet. I would hope that it keeps that accolade.

As my wife and I walked home along our street, we were still laughing and 'timewarping' as we went. That has to be tribute to such a fantastic show.

We're taken our eldest daughter to see Cirque du Soleil's Michael Jackson tribute next week and I can’t wait. I'll let you know how it goes.

In the meantime...

"Don't dream it, be it!"