Lips Down On Dixie

Considering the most recent review is from 2012, I figured I could go ahead and write a review about my experiences over the years. I’ve seen this particular Rocky Horror show at the Plaza about 4 times now (my most recent time about 3 weeks ago), over the past 5 years I’ve lived in Atlanta. I can’t say whether it’s been the same cast every time, but it HAS been the same Frank N Furter, and I’ve seen the same Rocky character a couple of times as well. It’s worth it, to experience it at least once.
These people know their stuff. The motions, the lyrics, the words in the show. Even the costumes are pretty good. The props and stage scenery is a stretch at times, but it’s all a part of the imaginative nature of this show. The first time I came here in 2011, the price was, like Sidney E. said, $ 8 cash/​$ 9 credit. Since the last time I saw the show (about a year and a half roughly), the price has increased to $ 12. I didn’t see the option to pay in cash for a cheaper ticket. I’m guessing the increase in price had nothing to do with the cast and everything to do with the Plaza?
The process is generally the same as it’s been in the past. We got there around 11:30, the doors opened around 12 – 12:10 (midnight). Instead of paying at the ticket booth, you now pay at the concession stand. People come up to you and ask if you’ve ever seen the live show, or if you’ve ever seen the movie. If you haven’t, they mark you with a red lipstick V. You enter, and pick your own seat. In fact, they encourage people to come closer to the stage, but they let you sit further back, if you want. They then pick out of the audience two women and two men who have the red Vs. They go on stage, and they proceed to do a few acts, filled with sexual innuendo and sexual slurs and comments. Like many people before me said, this is not for the easily offended or shy.
While that’s happening on stage, it appears they still have the candy pushers coming around and trying to sell lollipops and sour straws (looks like that’s been going on since the mid-​2000s). They also try to sell raffle tickets. It’s very obvious the raffle prizes are thrift store finds that have been repurposed for the show each week. That’s got to be an interesting tax write off…
The movie finally starts around 1am. And then there’s the shouting. Interestingly enough, it was only from maybe 1 – 3 people in the audience. Either the regulars, or someone I think may have been planted by the cast to shout out obscenities and fill in the blanks on the screen. I’ve been there before when there was a barrage of people, all over the theater, actually yelling over each other. I really think the amount of noise varies from weekend to weekend, depending on the people there. And yes, at times it was hard to hear the movie. Every 2 – 3 minutes, someone is shouting up at the screen. Going to this performance is not about the movie, it’s about the cast performance and the audience participation. Not everything was witty and intelligent, but at least a few lines yelled out made me chuckle.
THE VERDICT:
I have fun here, but every time I come back, I feel a little bit too old to be here. It’s like a kid who learns a bad word and suddenly keeps repeating it, for the shock value and the horror on his parents’ faces, not because he cares about what he’s saying. The whole show before, during, and after is a lewd, raucous performance. And honestly, it’s more suited to the High Schooler’s tastes. They are pretty much the only people in the audience, with an occasional smattering of an older couple or group of drunk, hip 20 somethings. It’s a fun experience to take an out of town friend, if for no other reason than to embarrass the hell out of them by getting the mark of V-​dom.
I do think they should sell prop bags. What a great way for them to make money, while also giving the audience a more immersive experience. For the record, the props don’t have to dirty up the theater like throwing rice or toilet paper. Suggestions: newspapers (already provided/​could recycle so their cost would be 0), rubber gloves (1000 for $ 35), Noisemakers (40 for $ 16), party hats (50 for $ 50), water guns (240 for $ 108), glowsticks (100 for $ 6), and then things like How To Time Warp (how to guide, printed out). They could ALSO probably get some sponsors for a print out of their business or a coupon to a restaurant added. Junkman’s Daughter comes to mind. That would be a little less than $ 2000 per 1000 customers ($ 2 to make per person), so they could sell it for $ 5 and make a $ 3000 profit, but they could also cut the cost down by omitting a few of those more expensive props or offering them at an additional cost. (not including the cost of printing the how to guide, or the cost of the bags that the props would come in)

When I lived in Boston for 3 years, my Southern accent immediately gave me the nickname «Dixie» so when I saw the name of the place and laughed like a twelve year old for about an hour. I had to go in.
I’m no Rocky Horror «virgin» but there is something about a tranny begging me to put my hand down his/​her pants to see if their pre or post op, was entertaining. I was dry humped after I was caught with a flask and I was forced to sing «I will always love you» circa Whitney Houston as punishment, although I think it was more punishment for the crowd.
I was happy to be with a crowd of my drunk friends considering I don’t have the guts to go alone! I’ve been several times since and try to take friends just to see their reaction or scream out while pointing at them «VIRGIN!!!» Bring on the embarrassment!

Hmm clearly I was expecting something different when I went to the RHPS at the Plaza. I must say — I do like the theater itself and the main announcer was pretty hilarious. What I didn’t expect was that I wouldn’t be able to hear hardly any of the movie. And I happen to like the movie. Instead, you pay for kids to yell out jokes and obscenities (some of which you can hear and are clever — others which are just loud and unclear, interrupting the movie) THE ENTIRE TIME.

Before being invited to watch Lips Down On Dixie perform live at the Plaza Theatre, I was a complete «Rocky Horror Picture Show» virgin. Prior to experiencing this spectacular musical, I never saw the film and was forewarned not to if easily offended by homosexual dry humping. After witnessing the unbridled glory that is Lips Down On Dixie’s version of «The Rocky Horror Picture Show,» I can tell you that it is one of the GAYEST things that I’ve ever seen, but it’s also FABULOUS! And though «The Rocky Horror Picture Show» is largely a celebration of gay culture, the Lips Down On Dixie production also features beautiful women juggling their boobs to balance out all the male transvestites. Seriously, every time that the RHPS film flashed a female nipple slip, I was hoping for a live portrayal of said phenomenon. :)
Every Friday night at midnight (actually Saturday morning), Lips Down On Dixie takes the stage at the Plaza Theatre to perform a live lip-​sync version of «The Rocky Horror Picture Show» while the film plays in the background. But their extravaganza is so much more than that. Much like the live improv comedy shows that I’m an ardent fan of, Lips Down On Dixie’s live version of RHPS is a fun and funny interactive show with an overwhelmingly energetic atmosphere in which the supplemental cast yell out wise cracks, encourage you to dance, and literally rain down upon you. Also like live improv comedy, the cast entertains you as a labor of love, as they earn next to nothing for doing so. Ergo, they shamelessly sell candy, shirts, DVDs, pins, and conduct raffle drawings for absurd prizes such as «Hannah Montana» crayons and a pocket-​sized Koran. Yes, really. But again, the atmosphere is so infectiously vibrant and fun that the audience would get excited for almost anything because Lips Down On Dixie really knows how to work a crowd!
Last night was my first Lips Down On Dixie RHPS outing, but it certainly will not be my last. If you’re a first-​timer, mention your «virgin» status, and an exuberant, voluptuous cast member will draw a «V» on your forehead and follow up with a kiss on your cheek. Buy a few raffle tickets, and another woman may ask you to stuff the money down her pants or in her cleavage. Given that the show is surprisingly affordable, $ 8 cash or $ 9 credit/​debit, it’s easy to fall in love with the cast and want to further support them, especially after you meet & greet them after the show. Lips Down On Dixie’s lascivious antics and crude jokes make them remarkably endearing, and though the big «V» and lipstick imprint on my face were wiped away hours after the show, the memories are indelible. Bravo!

I first ran into Lips Down On Dixie many years ago at Dragon*con in downtown Atlanta, before it was all yuppie kids who just came to laugh at the goobs in costumes. I was never really impressed with the costume attempts of the cast posted on their tacky do-​it-​yourself buttons, and figured if I was gonna blow ten bucks on a live casted movie, I didn’t feel like seeing the plaster lines in Riff’s hair piece, but that’s just my personal preference.
So Friday night I decided to suck it up and take my kid sister to the show, since she hasn’t been in a couple years, and I was up for bonding. We waited in the lobby for damn near 45 minutes waiting to be let in to sit, stuck in front of some acne-​faced kids who were marked with big red Lipstick «V“s and braging about how hardcore they were for what bands they’d played with. The crew were outside selling TOOTSIE POPS by the consession stand and trying to spot the other Virgins. Upon entry to the show we were all given a free page of creative loafing, and told where to sit, which was the first strike, don’t tell me where I’m to sit, I have two legs, I’m paying for your show, I’ll make that decision. We sat down, fairly pumped for the show to start, then were tortured for AN HOUR while the crew raffled off retro happy meal toys and board games, had their virgin initiation, and gave us the rules of the theatre. I had a migraine before the show even started, from the lead’s screechy echoing voice, blaring over any idle conversation for an hour.
The crew walked around harassing people to buy pixie sticks and tootsie pops, and the repetitive announcements, combined with the grade school «raise your hand» attempts at finding people who were willing to dish out the loot, got to be aggravating after half an hour.
The show FINALLY started at ten after One, and were were all but ready to leave straight off the bat. During the rain scene the cast walked out and squirted the audience with water, which would have been fun and silly, had one of the girls with her butt hanging out of her shorts not blasted my MOTHER square in the face with the stream of her wal-​mart squirt bottle.
The audience were all yelling different lines than the crew who were all yelling different lines than each other, and it was all just jumbled noise, blasting over the movie, rather than witty and entertaining put downs at the screen. During one scene I actually got hit in the face with a dirty sock that someone had thrown, which was beyond a doubt DISGUSTING. During one part of the show my sister was yanked from the audience and made to stand in the front of the room, despite NOT being marked with the treacherous «V», and later wound up having a panic attack when she found out that this horrible excuse for a show was being filmed to air on Comcast.
The only really GOOD parts of the show, from my crappy stand point, were the well assembled props for the lab scenes, and the dude that played Frank. He was gorgeous, and witty, and worked it well up on that stage. (lovely black man, looked killer in heels, I give you four stars separate from your co-​cast. You rocked.)
I might make a suggestion, that you guys put together prop bags to sell outside instead of Tootsie Pops. People would buy them, and you’d make a hell of a lot more money to maybe work on your act. Also, you might have a more enjoyable show if people didn’t have to wait for an hour and fifteen minutes to get the hell on with it.
Over all, I’d say that if you wanna see a good show, wait for your trip to New York City. Go to the ORIGINAL theatre, where you get to meet and chill with the cast, have a killer dance party, and even be able to buy reunion DVDs where the original cast came out for the anniversary and performed LIVE, all for less than ten bucks, prop bags included.
Sorry LDOD, everyone but Frank gets a thumbs down from this gang of locals.

This would be the local Rocky Horror Picture Show cast. I took my 16 year old niece to catch these guys at the Plaza Theater this past weekend. The whole Rocky Horror experience is pretty much exactly the same as it was when I was in college — some scared suburbanites who apparently expect a combination of an Alice Cooper concert and Swinging Richards, some high school kids who expect to see live nude humping on stage, and a cast of way-​too-​enthusiastic devotees who spend every single weekend in women’s underpants acting out a particularly mediocre cult classic.
Of course, there’s nothing particularly dangerous or edgy about it anymore. In an era of Slipknot, «purple drank,» and Grand Theft Auto, Tim Curry cavorting about in a bustier is almost quaint. The call-​and-​response «audience participation» is pretty much the same as it was ten years ago, although now there are more jokes about the internet, Britney Spears, etc. It’s a very polished and organized chaos — if you try and shout at the wrong point, you’re stepping on the pre-​established shouting, and then you look like a jerk. A suitably «edgy» and «offensive» hostess leads the crowd through their paces, but again, it’s nothing you wouldn’t hear on South Park, Mind of Mencia, or any given episode of Def Comedy Jam. Probably the most outrageous thing I noticed was the tee-​hee-​look-​at-​me glee with which the female cast members started making out without provocation. Again, nothing you wouldn’t see in a Girls Gone Wild infomercial, but hey, girls making out for attention. Really, the name itself sums things up. «Lips Down on Dixie.» See, it’s funny, because there are lips on the movie poster and we’re in the south and also it implies oral sex. LIPS DOWN ON DICKS, SEE? Oh man, that’s clever.
The cast themselves are pretty impressive however — they actually had a guy in decent shape in the title role, whereas in most of my experience casts seemed to go the «ironic» route and get a really fat guy or a really skinny guy (of course, really fat guys and really skinny guys are more par-​for-​the-​course in your average Rocky Horror cast than someone in actual physical shape). Everyone seems to know their roles fairly well, and I’m pretty sure their Dr. Frankenfurter has been doing this for going on ten years now.
For what it is, it’s pretty damned good, all things considered. I guess I’m just too old and jaded to be anything more than «mildly bemused» by the whole Rocky Horror thing. There’s no real bite to any of it, nor has there been for the past 15 years or so. It’s a bit like wiggling a sore tooth to see if you can make it hurt — after a while you just get inured to it, and after seeing it once or twice, the joke gets old fast. Everyone should catch Rocky Horror once, just for the experience, but I don’t advise making a hobby out of it. If you do want to make a hobby out of Rocky Horror, you’d be well advised to follow the example of this particular cast.
Long story short — if you’re too young (or too scared) to go to the Clermont, but want a dose of vintage urban irony-​sleaze, Lips Down on Dixie might just be the thing for you.