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Laurie Brett - Georgie Hayes, Ross O'Hennessy & Dave Webb
Magenta, Riff Raff, Rocky and the Sexy Sax player! The Rocky Horror Show
We started the day with a showing of the TimeWarp 1998 Tour remix video, used as a promotional video for the tour album and kindly donated to the raffle for the day by Rocky Horror Company.
After the video had finished we welcomed onto the stage Laurie Brett who had played Magenta in the tour and was also Magenta in the video. She was joined by Georgie Hayes who played Riff Raff and Ross O'Hennessy who played Rocky.
With the addition of the amazing Dave Webb, sax player and god, we started our day with a quartet of Stage Show performers much to the delight of the assembled fans. As always we invited questions from the fans...........
(Martin from Glasgow asked) "Was the background on the timewarp video a stage set?"
(Laurie Brett) "No, it was all done with blue screen. We sort of made it up as we went along, we got quite drunk and then sort of did it."
(Taz asks) "Is the video going to be released?"
(Laurie) "No, it was just a promotional video for the stage show album"
(Rachel asks) "Do you find it hard to adapt to each new Frank that comes into the tour?"
(Laurie) "A little bit, yeah. Funny enough most Franks tend to be quite high energy and similar sort of people. Jason (Donovan) would do something different every night so we had to keep an eye on him."
(Audience) "Which is your (Laurie) favourite role out of Magenta and the Usherette?"
(Laurie) "Magenta has more to do, but I can't really say between the two."
<<< Laurie and Ross get to answer some questions.
(Audience) "How do you rehearse for the audience reactions and talkback?"
(Laurie) "Chris Malcolm says a few of the lines, but nothing prepares you for the first night! You just think I have to stay focused, which lately I've not been very good at, laughing more than the audience."
(Audience) "Laurie, you previously played a phantom, did this help you prepare for the role of Magenta?"
(Laurie) "Yes, but as a phantom the audience weren't shouting so much at you."
(Audience to Georgie) "How did it feel to perform in your own town (Milton Keynes)?"
(Georgie Hayes) "Absolutely fantastic, to be part of the second major tour to play at the new theatre was great."
(Audience) "Can you tell us about the time in Belfast where Dr. Scotts wig fell off and the whole cast corpsed?"
(Georgie) "You tend to inherit wigs in this show, the wig Mike had didn't seem to fit him at all."
(Saffron to Georgie and Laurie) "How do you feel your relationship as brother and sister has developed over the tour?"
(Georgie) "The amount of time Riff Raff and Magenta stand about not speaking is quite long and you can't just develop a relationship on day one, over the course of the tour I think we work very well together."
(Laurie) "I can't imagine playing the part with another Riff Raff."
(Audience) "Georgie, tell us about the horseplay with Laurie and the bum slapping!"
(Georgie) "It's not actually bum slapping! When Laurie is frozen after I zap her with the spray can, all I do is this...(Georgie demonstrates a slap just above Laurie's knee on the back of her leg)..it's nothing rude, most of it is in your imagination!"
(Joe from London) "Do you find the script is hard to read, to act out?"
(Georgie) "It's only hard when you are recovering form a hard night before! It's no the script it's the vocals"
Dave Webb and Georgie Hayes
answer a few questions from the audience. >>>
(Audience to Georgie) "Has Rocky ever dropped you?"
(Georgie) "No he's very strong"
(Audience to Ross) "What's the teddy bear about Ross?"
(Ross O'Hennessy) "One night, this teddy bear popped up from the front row, and I thought I'll have that. The teddy then joined me on the top of the tower and started being very naughty with himself!"
(Audience) "Ross, have you ever been worried that during toucha-toucha-touch me, you might get a little shall we say excited?"
(Ross) "If you stick your head between a girls legs and she's been dancing for two hours.........the answer is of course no."
(Audience) "Has anyone ever come out with a line that you have been offended by?"
(Ross) "Not reallyLaurie: I think 'Get your tits out' is the most offensive I've heard, but I wasn't really offended by it.Georgie: On occasions things get a little out of hand and un-necessarily crude and not relevant to the show."
(Audience to Ross) "Who was heavier Jason Donovan or Darren Day?"
(Ross) "Ross King........he's fat! That lift is a combined effort between me and the person jumping. Jason Donovan sometimes jumped, Darren Day is good at it and Ross King just seemed to sit down."
(Audience to Ross) "What do you think of your costume?"
(Ross) "What costume? It's all about packing actually, like going on holiday, you've got a small amount of space and a lot to get in."
(Leo from Israel) "Sometimes people throw rice at you, are you offended?"
(Laurie) "There was one time when we walked off the stage, people had supersoakers and hit us in the face, we thought F.U. and walked of. That kind of thing is just disrespect, it wasn't funny, it was dangerous."
(Audience) "Ross, you played Rocky in Germany is it different to the UK?"
(Ross) "In Germany we did one nighters and travelled a lot, it was no where near as much fun to do."
(Audience) "Were any of you fans of the show or had seen it before you started your roles?"
(Georgie) "No"
(Laurie) "I saw the RHPS in 1994, I didn't know there was a stage show then."
(Georgie) "I saw the film and thought, oh no, but the show is great."
(Audience) "What fan call back did you really like?
Laurie: There is a bit where Magenta makes a 'throaty' sound and someone shouted 'Furball', that really made me laugh."
(Georgie)"'Hey Janet are you a slut' makes me laugh."
(Ross) "I've only got six lines so I don't get any."
(Audience) "Ross, I wear glitter and can't get it all off, do you have the same problem?"
(Ross) "We had twelve weeks off (summer tour break), and the morning we started again I found glitter in my bath, so it gets everywhere. It just becomes a part of your life I guess."
(Audience) "How do you keep in shape Ross?"
(Ross) "I have to find a new gym for each week of the tour, it's the first thing I do in a new town."
(Audience to Dave Webb) "Dave, you play sax in the show, have you ever thought of playing another part?"
(Dave Webb) "The nearest I ever got was at Cath and Mikes wedding, they forced me to dress as the usherette, somewhere there are some pictures that I am trying to find and destroy."
(Audience) "Ross, how do you cope with removing your body hair?"
(Ross) "I had a go at waxing my shoulders, but it is too much of a chore!"
(Audience) "Hey Ross, what is your hobby?"
(Ross) "I do medieval re-enactments, storming castles, rescuing maidens, that kind of thing."
(Audience) "What do you all do during the day, before a show?"
(Georgie) "I tend to write songs, I also play squash.Ross: I tend to spend time in the gym."
(Audience) "Ross, you seem to have a rather deeper version of Rocky than some, what do you draw on for that?"
(Ross) "You really have so few lines as Rocky, that you have to fill the character, so I tend to physically act more with Rocky and not just stand there like some pop star."
(Audience) "Dave, you come out at the start of the second act and play the sax to get people going, is that part of the show, how did it start?"
(Dave) "I did the Euro tour in 1996 for two and a half years, a lot of one nighters and venues varied from large halls to more or less a small room. One day the venue was so small the band ended up in the corner of the stage, it was so small we didn't even have the set on the stage. They found me a radio mic and taped it with gaffer tape to the sax so I could move around a bit. The company manager liked the idea and it developed from there. Now I have a special sax mic and it is part of the show, I really enjoy it."
(Audience) "Dave what about the night people started dressing as you?"
(Dave) "Yeah, they all changed into me at the half way break, complete with blow up sax's. I looked out to the front row and saw a dozen people as me. I could hardly play!"
(Audience) "Georgie, has anyone done something similar for you?"
(Georgie) "Funny enough, this week I looked out at a whole front row of people wearing Georgie Hayes t-shirts."
(Audience) "Laurie, what is the weirdest thing you have ever signed?"
(Laurie) "A mans hairy arse!"
After the questions and answers session. The cast kindly stayed with us to sign a few hundered autographs each and chat some more with the fans. In fact Ross looks worn out in this picture, well his teddy does at least.
We'd like to thank them all once more for being at the convention and helping to make the day special for us all.
All text and images © TimeWarp/Transylvania 1999 onwards. Transylvania name and Griffin Logo © TimeWarp 1999 onwards.