sissymaidlola
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quote:
Trivia: Did you know that someone by the name of Robert Muldoon played the character of the narrator in the stage version of Rocky Horror ? Yup, 1986 in Auckland, Sir Robert Muldoon, former Prime Minister of NZ, appeared for one week.
There Ya go, Paul, sissy thought he was English because when the initial stage show opened as a play production at the Royal Court Theater in London in 1973 it was essentially an all-Brit thing, although sissy doesn't believe Tim Curry was involved at this point (nor Richard O'Brien as an actor, for that matter, although as the playwright he probably was connected with it). It was the next year (1974?) when the show was moved out to Hollywood (Roxy Theater?) that Curry got the lead role that he made his own, and of course he would be the natural person to continue that role in the movie when shooting for RHPS started at the end of that year. But that's how a Brit ended up playing probably the world's most famous transvestite role (well, at least, if this poll is to believed <giggles>) in what was essentially a relatively low budget American produced, directed and cast movie.
But what most people don't seem to realize is that the RHPS movie completely bombed when it was initially released in cinemas in 1975. This despite the fact that the initial British Royal Court stage version had been acclaimed as the "Best Musical of 1973" and run for six or nine months, and the subsequent stage version on Sunset Strip had been equally successful and run for about as long again ... in fact, the Hollywood stage show may have still been running at the end 1974 when filming for the movie commenced. OTOH, the movie was pretty cheesy (let's face it, that's one of its major attractions!) and flaunted an almost totally taboo topic (transsexualism and transvestitism) and used relatively unknown actors and actresses - Susan Sarandon (this was only her second or third movie), Tim Curry (his movie debut) and Meatloaf (only his second movie, his first movie role being uncredited) were NOT recognized names in cinema back then.
The movie would probably have completely died and disappeared into the forgotten annals of film history, but about six months after its release (we're into 1976 now), 20th Century Fox decided to change it into a midnight movie at the Waverly Theater in Greenwich Village. This late night approach caught on and its reputation spread purely by word of mouth to other theaters, which also all started screening the show at midnight. It was at this time that repeat viewers of the movie started to sing along and participate along with the action on screen. They say that the first official dressing up for the movie started out in California, probably in LA - where else? And the rest is history, as the expression goes ... 
So much for sissy's piece of RHPS trivia ... WRT to Your own, Mr. Robert Muldoon seems to have been pretty busy in cinema and stage drag circles in the eighties! Because that is also the name given by John Irving to his M2F transsexual character in The World According to Garp, the role of this former Philadelphia Eagles tight end football player being played by John Lithgow in the 1982 movie. It's just occurred to sissy in writing that, that Robin Williams (who plays Garp in the movie) must have also appeared crossdressed in that movie. In the novel, Garp's best friend Robert (or rather Robeta, because he has completely transitioned by this point) dresses Garp in women's clothing to disguise him so that he can attend his mother's "feminist" funeral (at which no men are allowed). It is quite a while since sissy has seen this movie and, although Lithgow's performance as Roberta (for which Lithgow was nominated for a "Best Supporting Actor" Oscar) is as vividly etched on his memory as the bouncing baby in the film's opening sequences, he doesn't remember Robin Williams in drag for this portion of the plot, but the film is pretty faithful to the novel, so it must have happened.
If so, this means that Robin Williams has appeared in four of the above tranny movies, and en femme in two of them. Robin played the uncredited role of the character John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt in the movie To Wong Foo ... and was of course the gay lover of the drag queen Starina (Natahan Lane) in the film The Birdcage. Taken together with his crossdressed Garp and Mrs. Doubtfire roles, that's a lot of gender-bending screen time. Plus there is a Mrs. Doubtfire sequel scheduled, which will bring his total gender-bending movie appearances to five (assuming there are no others that sissy has forgotten about). That might be more than the number of trashy on-screen drag queen roles played by the real-life TV actor Divine. sissy Will have to do further research on that one ... 
Best Regards,
sissy maid lola
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