The day before the party...

Well tomorrow see's my 21st annual Halloween Party... and I already have pictures to upload on here of things we'll be eating and possible pumpkin designs for my entry in the carving contest... but I won't spoil the surprise!

Instead, I found these pictures from way back in 1994 when I was a member of Folkestone Rotaract Club and we went to support Bexley Rotaract Club who were holding a Rocky Horror themed disco to raise money for some charity. Anyway, the then newest member of the Folkestone club certainly went all out on his fancy dress costume!

Andy Renfrew, wherever you are now, I hope this doesn't embarrass you too much!!!

Friday 26th October 2012

Rocky Horrow Show 2000

Another flyer from the vaults. This one was for a performance at Canterbury's Marlowe Theatre that I went to on Tuesday 13th June 2000. As with many touring productions it always seems to me that the law of diminishing returns seems to apply. I first went to see the Rocky Horror Show upon its 1990 relaunch in London with stars such as Adrian Edmondson (The Young Ones / Bottom), Gina Bellman (Denis Potter's Blackeyes) & Tim McInnery (Lord Percy in Blackadder). It was excellent and I rather regret giving away my programmes to a friend when I was having a clear out a few years later.

Lord Percy then gave up the role of Frank'N'Furter to a pre-Buffy Anthony Head (I still have the CD single he did of 'Sweet Transvestite'). At the time Tony Head was really only famous for being the love interest in a series of Nescafe Gold Blend coffee adverts in the UK and so his appearance was at the time a bit of a watering down of the star studded London cast before the show went on tour.

Ten years later in 2000 the show is still touring. The production values are still good for a provincial theatre. The somewhat unknown cast still competent and professional. However the star performer has gone down to 'Z' list celebrity status with the Narrator being played by an actor more renowned for being an annoying shopkeeper in the UK soap opera 'Coronation Street.' One could hear the death knoll for this particular touring incarnation tolling. At least the flyer looked good though... although I wasn't going to part with my hard earned cash for a programme packed mainly full of irrelevant adverts and no real RHPS history!

Thursday 13th October 2011

Rocky Horror

With the Marlowe Theatre in Canterbury soon to be reopening and with me going through some old scrapbooks of the sadly defunct Folkestone Rotaract Club, I found this flyer from March 1994.

Wednesday 28th September 2011

New stamps...

The Royal Mail in the UK have just issued a set of 8 stamps featuring successful musicals. Obvious choices such as "We Will Rock You," "Blood Brothers" & "Oliver" in there... but it's really nice to see recognised: "The Rocky Horror Show" & "Return to the Forbidden Planet."

The latter was a very successful show that I saw back in the early 1990s and was the only non Lloyd Webber or Cameron Mackintosh show to make it then into the top 10 most successful London musicals. Obviously a few decades later it will no longer be ranked in this position, but it does go to show that a quirky tribute to the classic film Forbidden Planet (which itself is a tribute to Shakespeare's Tempest) filled with late 1950s/early 1960s Rock 'N' Roll numbers can beat the mawkish, bland and over-commercialised rubbish that's out there.

Saturday 5th March 2011