A raucous hen party at The Rocky Horror Show ruffles a few feathers

Monday 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.

- Emma Brockes

Into the seats in front, reports my traumatised friend, stagger five women, tanked out of their minds, shrieking and swaying and hellbent 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 first 20 minutes, the women stood up, waved their arms, screamed, bounced around and generally carried on until, eventually - high fives all round - they were asked to leave. As one of the women lurched out, she threw up a middle finger at my pal, a mild-mannered New Yorker in ordinary circumstances, but he’d been pushed beyond the very limits of his tolerance and invited her nastily to “go back to Long Island”. Happy start of Pride!

Tuesday

Speaking of trauma, we probably need to talk about Anne Hathaway. The 43-year-old actor - who, in her defence, is probably still recovering from the embarrassment of The Devil Wears Prada 2 - has managed to insert herself into Arsenal’s victory this week with a video that is almost a work of art in its ability to trigger strong feelings in the viewer.