Idioties and Oddicies
Jun. 23rd, 2008 10:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
captainsblogYou may have seen an entry of mine magically appear, then disappear within seconds. More than once over the past days, in fact. That's from being generally stupid about not checking my Semagic settings before posting, resulting in at least a couple of baseball entries winding up here, however ephemerally. They're where they belong now, if Jim McKay Youtubes and MST3k parody songs are your sort of thing.
More likely, the pictures below the cut will be your sort of thing. In writing about the Rocky Horror business the other day, I implied that the Brits were, shall we say, less than enthused about the experience when I saw the film there in '83. I've since been informed that their later generations of cinemagoers are far more up on the lines (most of which, incidentally, you can read in an online version of the audience-participation script here), and indeed, that the film still shows regularly in London at a place called the Prince Charles Cinema.
Been there. Didn't done that, but done something equally ill. I'd just mentioned this to another UK Friend a week or so ago, but good Lord I've found the pictures from our last visit.
----
As much as a box-office bomb as RHPS cried out for audience participation, what other far more popular film of my early years was destined to mass-MSTizing by hairy-legged guys in drag? Anyone? Anyone?
No, NOT Ferris Bueller. (That might be fun to try, though....)
Rather, sometime a decade or so ago, some British geniuses got the idea to caption the song lyrics onto their print of The Sound of Music, and to make a spectacle out of near-weekly raves at the screen, also, originally and still most often, at that self-same Prince Charles Cinema. (I wonder what His Royal Architectural Genius Highness thinks of both of these shows now going on at a theater named in his honour.) We learned about this experience from, where else?, the New Yorker, and on our last trip in 2000, going to this Sunday matinee was among the few firm plans we both made and kept. It's since played outside the UK, but none of these ventures has never quite gathered the necessary critical mass of outrageous, gay and slightly stupid that makes British entertainment run like a top.
If you've done Rocky Horror, you can loosely translate the experience into bad Austrian. Boo the Nazis! Hiss at the Baron! Do a veritable "wave" to the opening notes of "Theeeee HiLLLLLLLs are alive....!"
Okay, maybe you had to be there. Ah, but we were, eight Aprils ago but seeming like only yesterday. Shots in the dark wouldn't have been much use, so Eleanor saved her camerage for the Fancy Dress contest which took place at the intermission:
From left: some kid I have no idea what he's doing there, a couple Radio London personalities of some sort emceeing the thing, "Sister Beaver," Gary the Austrian hausfrau, and the two bravest remembers of the Edelweiss Society.
Gary giving it his all. He may be singing, although that would not have been consistent with the camera still working.
And here he is, proud in his victory over the other crazed men on the stage! I've no idea what the prize is, although I suspect he had his eyes more on the champagne bottle.
Other past winners included people who attended as Brown Paper Packages Turned Into String, varieties of profanely-named nuns, and, in a mistake of epic proportions once, Ken Livingstone. (At least he didn't offend any West Indians when baring his knickers.)
The show seems to remain a fixture at the Prince Charles, with a road show around most of Britain. No US shows are currently scheduled, although the official Singalonga site makes clear that they now own the worldwide rights, not just to this performance medium, but to any public screening of The Sound of Music, so if you want to see this bit in public ever again, you'd better be ready to do some serious singing, hissing and waving of edelweiss.
More likely, the pictures below the cut will be your sort of thing. In writing about the Rocky Horror business the other day, I implied that the Brits were, shall we say, less than enthused about the experience when I saw the film there in '83. I've since been informed that their later generations of cinemagoers are far more up on the lines (most of which, incidentally, you can read in an online version of the audience-participation script here), and indeed, that the film still shows regularly in London at a place called the Prince Charles Cinema.
Been there. Didn't done that, but done something equally ill. I'd just mentioned this to another UK Friend a week or so ago, but good Lord I've found the pictures from our last visit.
----
As much as a box-office bomb as RHPS cried out for audience participation, what other far more popular film of my early years was destined to mass-MSTizing by hairy-legged guys in drag? Anyone? Anyone?
No, NOT Ferris Bueller. (That might be fun to try, though....)
Rather, sometime a decade or so ago, some British geniuses got the idea to caption the song lyrics onto their print of The Sound of Music, and to make a spectacle out of near-weekly raves at the screen, also, originally and still most often, at that self-same Prince Charles Cinema. (I wonder what His Royal Architectural Genius Highness thinks of both of these shows now going on at a theater named in his honour.) We learned about this experience from, where else?, the New Yorker, and on our last trip in 2000, going to this Sunday matinee was among the few firm plans we both made and kept. It's since played outside the UK, but none of these ventures has never quite gathered the necessary critical mass of outrageous, gay and slightly stupid that makes British entertainment run like a top.
If you've done Rocky Horror, you can loosely translate the experience into bad Austrian. Boo the Nazis! Hiss at the Baron! Do a veritable "wave" to the opening notes of "Theeeee HiLLLLLLLs are alive....!"
Okay, maybe you had to be there. Ah, but we were, eight Aprils ago but seeming like only yesterday. Shots in the dark wouldn't have been much use, so Eleanor saved her camerage for the Fancy Dress contest which took place at the intermission:
From left: some kid I have no idea what he's doing there, a couple Radio London personalities of some sort emceeing the thing, "Sister Beaver," Gary the Austrian hausfrau, and the two bravest remembers of the Edelweiss Society.
Gary giving it his all. He may be singing, although that would not have been consistent with the camera still working.
And here he is, proud in his victory over the other crazed men on the stage! I've no idea what the prize is, although I suspect he had his eyes more on the champagne bottle.
Other past winners included people who attended as Brown Paper Packages Turned Into String, varieties of profanely-named nuns, and, in a mistake of epic proportions once, Ken Livingstone. (At least he didn't offend any West Indians when baring his knickers.)
The show seems to remain a fixture at the Prince Charles, with a road show around most of Britain. No US shows are currently scheduled, although the official Singalonga site makes clear that they now own the worldwide rights, not just to this performance medium, but to any public screening of The Sound of Music, so if you want to see this bit in public ever again, you'd better be ready to do some serious singing, hissing and waving of edelweiss.
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no subject
Date: 2008-06-24 04:44 am (UTC)I would have, very much, liked to have gotten up during "My Dinner with Andre" and chatted up the coat check girl, though.
;P
no subject
Date: 2008-06-24 02:13 pm (UTC)