How Close To The Show Do You Want To Get?
Published on Wednesday 2nd June, 11.15am, Written by Carrie Dunn
When I go to see The Rocky Horror Show – which is often – there are pretty much no limits to my engagement with it.
David Bedella in the 2010 touring production of The Rocky Horror Show
I go dressed up; I happily join in with the shout-backs (or call them out myself if nobody else seems to know the ropes); I’ll dance in the aisles to the Timewarp.
When my parents asked if they could come along one evening to find out for themselves exactly what I see in the show, I happily agreed. My mum liked the music but didn’t like the shouting; my dad loved the opportunity to shout obscenities at perfect strangers in a socially-accepted way.
And I was reminded of this when the news broke that Hair would be closing. I know a certain sub-section of theatregoers absolutely love the participation that the Tony Award-winning production offers, with the cast coming into the auditorium and dancing with the audience. I know equally that some people – more timid souls – have felt uncomfortable with the intimacy and the proximity to the action, and would rather actors stayed right there up on stage where they belong.
So I’m interested – how near do you want to be to the action? Is Hair’s in-your-faceness just too much for us straitlaced Brits? Is Avenue Q’s The Money Song and the subsequent hat-passing just about as far as you want to go? Or is even that too much for you?
Share your thoughts, please…
I love shows with audience participation! Obviously it wouldn’t work in some shows, but I eagerly await the Money Song in Avenue Q, I ADORED the amount of participation in La Cage Aux Folles, and perhaps one of my best theatre memories is of being pulled up onto the stage at the beginning of Act Two in Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.
On the other hand, if the Phantom suddenly sprang from the stage and started talking to me, I think I’d be a little bit terrified!
I have actually just loled at the thought of the Phantom wandering into the audience. Maybe when he does his magic trick and disappears, he could appear in the middle of the stalls?