Okay, my suggestion:

Jones Cafe @ Santa Monica and Formosa (7205 Santa Monica Blvd). It's around the corner, it's a good little dive bar with basic Italian fare, and it happens to be where we had post show drinks with Terrance, one of the Repo cowriters, when we saw one of the stage productions.

Oh dear.

Umm, congratulations to Terrance for getting his movie made.

I'll leave it at that.

Seeing our old friend Terrance on the big screen in the role he's been working on for well over a decade was pretty cool. There was some great costuming, and the gory bits were nicely done. Paris Hilton was a natural in a role that was basically her already.

Sadly, the rest was crap. The story was choked to death by repeated tellings, and reliance on singing everything just hurt the characters. There were some bad, miscast actors, including the lead girl, which ruined the whole film. Some of the good music from the old show still shone through here and there but was mostly covered with the new stuff, which was not good at all.

If those that saw it are interested, here's a link to the old New York show page, and here's a trailer of sorts of the 2002 show in LA, starring GD's cousin as Shilo. Ah, what might have been.

Being a shotwtune queen, perhaps I have a different perspective on this issue. To me, when a show tells me it's an opera, I expect it to be sung-through. I expect there to be both arias and recitative. Repo is definitely an opera in that sense. I remember hearing a complaint years ago when the movie of Evita came out. This guy on the radio actually said, "I like the story, but they kept singing!"

Repo certainly has its flaws. First and foremost is the story. Too many unanswered questions and too many convoluted plot complications. The acting was hot and cold. Paul Sorvino and Anthony Head were very good. Sarah Brightman and (yes, it pains me to say this) Paris Hilton were also very effective in their roles. I would have liked to see more (both literally and figuratively) of Terrance Zdunich as the Graverobber.

I didn't hate the film. There were many things I actually liked about it. But overall it left me very confused and unsatisfied.

I was surprised to hear it originated in the 90's. It reeked of 70's concept to me. Purposefully, it seemed, trying to be the new Rocky Horror Show of its age (and not just because S. Maniac complained of a too-late previous night at the Gay Themed Rocky Homo Horror Show version of his regular RHPS excursions). That the denoument finale happened in a small theater that was reminiscent of the similarly situated one in Rocky did not help.


I wanted more more more of the Graverobber. And I had no idea at the time that he was played by GD's friend Terrance, the co-writer.

I'm assured the stage version was much better. And when I found myself actually liking two or three of the the songs, it turns out those were likely the few kept from the stage show.


Other than Terrance ... the best thing about the movie was, believe it or not, Paris Hilton (runners up being her character's buff, half-naked honor guards).


The comic book sections were good, too. I was surprised to learn the project was never a comic book, but originated as a bar performance and went straight to the stage from there. Maybe there will be a revival somewhere.



Overall, though, I think I enjoyed the previews more than the movie. I'm looking forward to Special, and especially to, er, oh hell ... SM: what's the name of that film that's going to the Mormon Church's Worst Nightmare???

Which just reminds me...I hate opera.

But yeah, more problematic than the chosen format was the content. What was particularly weird was that the first act of the movie felt, to me, rushed and muddled as they tried to cram way too much exposition into a very short stretch of movie...but then the second and third acts dragged as nothing new was imparted to the story. It really suffered immensely from lack of good pacing and story telling, and no amount of visual artistry (and I really did like the look of the movie) or bad acting could make up for.

And they absolutely ruined the characters of Luci, Pavi, and Rotti in the rewrite. Bleh.

Well, the 90s is when they started performing the first couple of songs in bars. I don't know how long they'd been working on it before that. But Terrance isn't all that much older than me, so I imagine it wasn't born before the 80s.

Were the World Mine
Trailer in glorious QuickTime
I completely agree with you.

OMG, I could tell instantly that GD's cousin was a much more awesome Shilo. And that I would likely have enjoyed the play a thousand times more than the movie (though, um, that's faint praise, sorry).


But now i really DO want to see the Stage Version. Fine.

Just fire up the time machine.

DUDE! Found clips! Though they are both of Nathan solo songs, and there aren't any others. :(

Night Surgeon

Let the Monster Rise

History of the show

Here's a trivia tidbit - the best LA version that we saw was financed by Billy West, voice talent who is best known as Fry from Futurama.

Oh, SM, I figured out the answer to your question as to why Heather Sweet would visit the Graverobber for her fix. Her dad wasn't letting her have any more free stuff - remember the bit where she begs him?