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The last thing you feel like doing 24 hours after running a marathon is anything active; which is why an evening at the theatre (preferably in one of the seats with extra leg room) should be the ideal night out. Unless of course, as soon as you sit down you’re up on your feet again doing a jump to the left, and then a step to the ri iiii ght! I put my hands on my hips and god my thighs were tight!!

Yep, dancing in the aisles to the Time Warp is the only way to do it if you’re in the audience of The Rocky Horror Show- you’re definitely the odd one out if you’re not in drag and on your feet dancing.

At any production of The Rocky Horror Show anything goes- including wine in plastic beakers at the Empire apparently which I wasn’t a fan of. I’m a girl that likes a stem on a glass and a pleasing clink when you cheers and, although the audience were brilliantly raucous, I think they could have coped with ‘real’ receptacles for pre-show drinks. A small point and, if you book into the fab Ambassador Lounge you get table service and real glasses which makes more of an occasion but, on the downside, you might miss out on some of the buzz- especially with a show like this.

Prior to last night the only thing I knew about the cult musical written by Richard O’Brien was the Time Warp. By the time we left we had danced in the aisles with drag queens and I had seen things that can never be unseen!

The premis of the show is, by O’Briens own admission is a bit weird and left field. A newly engaged couple break down and look for help at a near by castle which turns out to be the home of a mad transvestite scientist, Dr Frank N Furter… obviously!

Duncan James dons the stockings and suspenders for the lead role and is clearly loving it but for me the stars of the show, after Callum Evans as Rocky, is the audience. I knew it was a cult classic but the effort that the audience go to is amazing- at least 50% were dressed up to the nines- stillettos, stockings, suspenders, corsets… There were Doctors, Drag Queens, Popcorn sellers and it was fabulous. They knew every word of the script, they heckled the cast who sucked it up, played with them and carried on. It was like a long standing game of tennis.

On reflection, we might have enjoyed the show more if we had seen the film- we would have been able to join in more but even as a spectator it was just brilliant fun. If you are looking for a raucous night out where dressing down is frowned upon and heckling only makes the whole show better, you can’t go wrong with Rocky Horror…. Prudes and pre-teens, stay away!