Here’s one for the story book Alan
Hmm
today I’m a bit excited as I’m off to Melbourne to my best friend Tamara’s house ,
But the story begins such a long time ago when I was young and my sister brought an album , that was the Rocky Horror the musical ,
something intrigued me about the whole thing and I fell in love with both the story and the songs.
Fast forward a few years and for some reason I brought tickets to see the live show , and my wife and I attended and it was just incredible , I remember Red Simonds was the narrator and the show was so darn good ,
So a few years on I was going through a flat period of my life and my wife suggested that we join the local musical group as I love to sing given the chance , so I agreed and we turned up at rehearsal ,
and it just so happened to be an upcoming short performance of the Rocky Horror,
They asked me if I would play the main part of frankenfurter , and I hesitantly agreed ,
I think we had about eight weeks or so to practice , Pauli my wife had scored the part of Magenta .
So the thing was. at home I couldn’t practice as both our boys Ben and Dylan must have been a bit embarrassed by me playing that part and every time I tried to sing my songs they would cover their ears and scream to disrupt me .
So I was stuck with just practicing at rehearsal and in my head ,
As the date neared I grew more confident and tickets went on sale and it was a complete sell out in no time ,
All of my friends didn’t want to miss out on my making a fool of myself dressed up on stage .
So the big night finally arrived and the atmosphere back stage and in the building was electric,
The younger singing groups performed first , and then it was our turn ,
I was pretty nervous to say the least , and as I stepped out from behind the curtain onto the stage the noise from the crowd was deafening, and didn’t subside
I also noticed that it was standing room only and all in the isles and walkways they were chock a block full of people, and I would think we easily set a record for attendance at the Wonthaggi Union Theatre that evening ,
I started to sing and I couldn’t hear myself at all because of the massive crowd noise , the level of that also increased by a lot , when I took off my cape and got into performing the part , dressed fully in a corset and fish net suspender stockings
I think everyone got their moneys worth that night
it was so popular that they asked I I would be prepared to do another show at the Wonthaggi Workers Club in a fortnight. Which I agreed ,
The first show is floating around on Video at my best friend’s Tamara’s house , a few years ago at Christmas all of the kids watched it and absolutely loved it so much so they watched it twice,
The funny thing was Ben said to me that gee you can sing dad ,
like years late lol
So Today is an exciting and special day as I purchased two tickets to the Rocky Horror 50th anniversary show and I’m heading down to meet Tamara and go to the show ,
An extra exciting bit for me is the man playing frankenfurter at the show is Jason Donavan , who ironically I used to sit next to in English and economics at De La Salle college in Malvern .
I haven’t seen him since but I’m looking forward to him putting his spin on the character
So hears to another strange journey
Cheers xxx