You’ve got to love a fad, and Facebook (there’s that name again!) is full of them. Last month it was a charitable homage to the Bucket Of Water Song, this month it’s all about posting your top 10 musicals. Here’s my list, in no order whatsoever. I’ll be posting the reasons why over the next fortnight.
The Rocky Horror Picture Show
Hedwig and the Angry Inch
Little Shop of Horrors
Gypsy
Bugsy Malone
Hairspray
Spamalot
Wicked
The Producers
Anything Goes
The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)
I was eight when I pulled a sickie and Mum had to take me shopping. I was allowed to choose a VHS to entertain me for the day. I chose this – the red lips on the black background jumped out at me. My mum happily bought me the 15 certificate film (fair play Mum) and I watched a funny film where lots of people danced, chased each other, a pretty sparkly girl tap danced and everyone fell into a pool at the end. Fast forward a decade and you’d find me at uni with a twisted ankle, running through my old VHS tapes and watching this for only the second time or so. And seeing so much more. This led to attending a theme night at a local pub, then onto travelling to London every Friday night to catch Charming Underclothes perform a shadowcast to it at the Prince Charles Cinema. I found an outlet for my mischiefness. Costumes, callbacks and company. I learned every movement, every nuance, every soundbite. I learned to sew. I founded my own shadowcast, Less Vulnerable. I performed in England, Scotland, NI, NYC, conventions, screenings, charity events. I even went to Richard O’Brien’s birthday party.
Less Vulnerable as we were in 2004
And then it and everything I’d known collapsed underneath me. I walked away. It’s only in recent years that I’ve been able to go back and watch it and enjoy it. I still want to be Columbia. I still want to shadowcast, I’m just too sleepy for midnight shows now I’m older. But there’s still a little sparkle in me.