Digested week: hen party at the Rocky Horror Show ruffles a few feathers | Emma Brockes

Plus, Anne Hathaway shoots from the hip for Arsenal and Rosamund Pike calls out theatregoer for texting during show The first day of Pride month and friends in New York report a textbook encounter between one of the straightest forces in this world – hen night energy – and one of the gayest, the Rocky Horror Show, currently in revival on Broadway, where for the past three months, Tony-nominated Luke Evans has been knocking it out of the park as Frank-N-Furter. Into the seats in front, reports my traumatised friend, stagger five women, tanked out of their minds, shrieking and swaying and hell-bent on destruction. Had they stumbled into a performance of Mamma Mia, they might have found themselves among like-minded souls. As it was – and I almost pity them for this – they washed up in a sea of increasingly thin-lipped gays. There has always been tension between the deep, emotional resonance that pieces like Rocky Horror, or more recently Oh, Mary, have with gay people and the theme-park appeal they exert on elements of the straight community. This is why hen parties get banned from gay clubs, but in a theatre, you can’t kick people out until they’ve actually done something. In the fir

Jun 5, 2026 → Jun 16, 2026