Brad and Janet - Coming of Age During the Rocky Horror Era of Sexual Ambiguity
Reading the New Yorker this morning - Goings on About Town - and a snippet about the actress playing Janet in the Broadway revival of the Rocky Horror Picture Show (RHPS), a sudden wave of nostalgia rushed over me like an unexpected ocean swell. My friend Hugh Cole introduced me to Brad and Janet (the New Yorker incorrectly called him "Sam") and the RHPS when I hitch-hiked to his house in Short Hills, NJ, from Maine that day, when he told me about the evening plans. "We're going to this midnight show where people dress up and act out the parts." Okay. Didn't tell me about the whole cross-dressing thing. It made an impression. It was 1978, and we stood in a line under the dim streetlights outside a suburban village movie theatre, among other young people, some goth and lingerie-clad, slightly buzzed and ready for excitement. It lived up to the billing. People threw water and hot dogs at various times. Suddenly, there was a new, cooler version of "freak,...