Grosvenor Cinema
6th & 7th Oct 1996
(by Emma)
This was the first screening the Grosvenor had done since Nov 1994, making an average frequency of 2 years between shows at this point, probably due to the fact that the manager (my old boss) wasn't particularly keen on Rocky.
For this show we had prepared and rehearsed a pre-show number, but we decided to save it for the Saturday night. Just as well because we made our entrance on the Friday night to a hall with about 30 people in it. That was very disappointing, especially for the Grosvenor, where they used to need an overflow to the 275 seat Kelvin screen. The saving grace of the Friday night was that Jennie (a friend of mine from my days as a member of "IO" - the Glasgow Uni SF society) had brought about 10 friends all in kick-ass costumes.
On Saturday it was decided to bite the bullet and do our first proper pre-show number - Willkommen, from Cabaret. We had a better audience of about 70 people. I was Frank, dressed as Joel Gray the MC. Or Joel Gray with Frank makeup. Anyway, I started the song and I could feel the eyes on me, and minds that read "what the ****?" No matter, as soon as I introduced "The Cabaret girls" there was a huge cheer as they realised "ah something is happening and hey look they're dressed up" and they seem to genuinely enjoy it, even if they were somewhat bewildered. At the beginning of the film I changed out of my tails and shoved my wig on, and I noticed one man in the audience with "I've twigged" written on his face.
As usual, we all enjoyed the show - Martin as Trixie, Saff as Columbia, Leanne as Magenta, Carole as Riff, and me as Frank. But I for one realised that something that had once been a thriving cult late night experience now seemed to be yesterday's hot property and today's oh-do-you-still-do-that?
