Caught in a Celluloid Jam

Science Fiction – Double Feature
Dr. X will build a creature
See androids fighting Brad and Janet
Ann Francis stars in Forbidden Planet
Oh-oh at the late night, double feature, picture show.

 

It was a Saturday afternoon in early October. There are a lot of events in the City at this time of year. I was part of the packed house who’d come to see Pandora Production‘s staging of The Rocky Horror Show. Who’d have thought a matinee would be a sell out? Like many people, I know this tale very well, and saw it numerous times when it played at the Vogue Theatre, but I had not seen it as a live production.

Also, noteworthy is that while there were plenty of gay folks in attendance, there were also quite a few straight couples. That’s absolutely great news — for Pandora, Louisville, and the nation.

I think I’m far more fond of it — if you can image that — as a stage production that as a movie. The actors had great voices, there was a live band tucked behind stage, and Pandora’s Rocky is far hotter than the film’s Rocky. My favorite part was at the end looking around at the audience members giving a standing ovation — and doing the Time Warp. It was astounding.

As of this writing, there’s only one more performance — at 1930 tonight, but it’s just the beginning of what promises to be another fabulous season for my favorite theatre company.

First Couple from Pandora Productions

I loved this play! It’s funny and poignant. What all American boy hasn’t dreamt of being POTUS? What man doesn’t have the idea, no matter how deeply buried, that he could be the leader of the free world? This presentation by Pandora Productions is both timely and hopeful. In my lifetime, I might just see an openly gay president and his husband in the White House. May it be so. In this play Blair Tyler isn’t elected, he’s appointed, but still, I can look around and say: “One of us made it!”

“First Couple reflects the current political climate as Blair Tyler, a young gay Congressman, suddenly finds himself Vice President when his predecessor is forced to resign.  Before he and his partner, Jason Lawrence, a free-lance journalist, have time to adjust to Blair’s new, very public role, the President of the United States resigns, propelling Blair and Jason into the White House.”

During the curtain speech, Michael J. Drury said that he’d found out that neither the Courier-Journal  nor LEO would be reviewing local theatre anymore — more’s the pity. He asked people to help spread the word about the company and the productions. I’m happy to do that. I was introduced to Pandora a few years back when they did The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told as the season opener. I found out about it reading LEO. I went to the performance at the Thrust not knowing quite what to expect. I left barely able to contain myself until the next production.

The threatre, located on the third floor of the Henry Clay Hotel at Third & Chestnut, was, as always, wonderful. And the homemade cookies at the intermission combined with the scene where Brett and Aurion were eating cookies and milk (to help make everything better) made my decision for supper an easy one. No, I didn’t go gayly for cookies and milk — though I seriously considered it. I had graham cracker and peanut butter washed down with skim milk. But I digress. One of the actors looks a lot like a guy I dated in college. It’s tends to be somewhat freaky, for that first instant, when I see him on the stage. See the show. You won’t regret it.