25 Oct Celebrate 40th Anniversary of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show”
Telluride Theatre invites you to party down, way way down, to celebrate the 40th anniversary of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.” Fundraiser with live theatrics at the Palm Theatre Friday, October 30, 9 p.m. $15 pre-sale tickets ($18 at the door), general admission. $150 VIP tables (seats 4) featuring cocktail service, rocky horror goodie bag and other surprises. Cash bar includes beer, wine and other awesome drinks. Costumes highly encouraged. Only ages 19+ admitted. Tickets here.
The book is ludicrous. A young couple stumbles into a castle inhabited by weirdos from the planet Transylvania including Dr. Frank N. Furter, a transvestite Frankenstein in rhinestone heels. The music of this sci-fi satire, unforgettable. Tunes such as “Time Warp,” “Dammit Janet,” “Toucha Toucha Touch Me,” “Over at Frankenstein’s Place,” “Sweet Transvestite” are addictive.
Beware.
Or be in tune.
When it was released in 1975, the film tanked, despite a star-studded cast including Tim Curry, Susan Sarandon, Barry Bostwick, Meatloaf and many more wild and crazy folks. One year later, however, “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” was playing to packed houses at midnight shows across the country.
Still is.
Audiences dressed up like the characters, acted out segments, yelled rude comments to the stage or screen, threw rice at the wedding, put newspapers over their heads against the rain.
Several incarnations (and decades later), folks, many much older now, still tramp back into theaters, wearing rain gear, armed with stale pieces of toast and water pistols.
Friday, October 30, 9 p.m., Telluride Theatre and The Palm Theatre present “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.”
“This is our 3rd year doing our thing with a shadow cast. We have so much fun putting on this show and we have a lot of new faces joining us on stage and some great crossed-dressing casting, said Sasha Sullivan, director of the show. “We really want to create a big party. Come, get dressed, have some drinks and be raucous. What could be more fun than singing along, dancing in the aisles and getting to participate in this wild, wonderful event?”
For “Horror” virgins, “The Rocky Horror Show” moves through celluloid darkly. The movie is an homage to cheesy 1950s B-flicks. Think Ed Wood on a bad hair day. Now set it to music. “Goodness Gracious Great Balls of Fire.” (And hit the anatomical reference hard.)
“Caveat emptor: during the film there are times when the audience will spray water, throw playing cards, throw rice… it is part of the interactive nature of the shadow cast,” continued Sasha.“If you are an experienced Rocky viewer come prepared… if you are a virgin, we got your covered. You can purchase everything you need, plus easy to follow instructions, for a small fee.”
And for you virgins, here are a few things that TRHPS’s Official Fan Site recommends you know before you go….
1. The only things you really need bring to the show are your sense of humor and some money for tickets. A group of friends is nice as the showings tend to be rowdy and rowdy is better with friends. (Don’t read too far into that.)
2. Props: Costumes always make the show better but wear whatever you’re comfortable in. Bring rice to throw for the wedding scene. (Telluride Theater will also have these for sale at the Palm.)
3. Whenever you hear the name “Brad Majors”, yell “ASSHOLE.”
4. Usually, theaters will have some sort of virgin ritual which almost always only includes 2 virgins. Since at any one time, an audience can consist of 25%-50% virgins, it is not likely that you will be chosen for this harmless ritual (well, usually harmless, it varies by theater!) But if you don’t want to be chosen, just point to your nearest neighbor. That usually takes care of it.
Like many cult classics, “Rocky Horror Show” is clearly anything but mainstream. In fact, it is the mother of twisted entertainment, a sexual anthology set to song and dance, written by stage actor-turned-first-time playwright Richard O’Brien. The musical, which opened in 1973, was hailed by prominent London critics as the Best Musical of 1973. No big surprise. Brits are notoriously kinky.
This marvelous musical spoof urges you to “Give yourself over to absolute pleasure.”
And why not?….
“Rocky Horror” is the ultimate warm up for Halloween.
If you want the full, unabridged history of “Rocky Horror,” read this article by Marc Spitz from the New York Times.
Tim Curry remembers the moment he realized that his performance as Dr. Frank-N-Furter in “The Rocky Horror Show,” the London stage precursor to the 1975 cult film, was no longer his alone.
David Bowie and his wife at the time, Angela, were in the audience that night in 1973. Onstage, Frank, the hypersexual alien mad scientist, was being held at ray-gunpoint by his former servants, Riff Raff (Richard O’Brien) and Magenta (Patricia Quinn). They were about to shoot when Ms. Bowie shouted, ‘‘No, don’t do it.” As Mr. Curry recalled by phone from Los Angeles, “That was the first time.”
First a British phenomenon, the sci-fi musical mash-up grew into a trans-Atlantic hit, and later the much better-known feature film with the slightly updated title, “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.” The lines written by Mr. O’Brien, a New Zealand transplant, and those made up on the spot by fans — in some cases, repeated until they became classics — would become inseparable. This symbiosis ensured that “Rocky Horror” has remained perpetually on screens (including a special Halloween outdoor screening at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Los Angeles) since it was first released to a nearly empty theater 40 years ago: It is self-updating, never the same sum of dialogue twice, and never, ever dated.
“People still come up with audience participation lines week by week,” said Larry Viezel, a fan who helped produce “Rocky Horror Saved My Life,” a new documentary. “There are lines that are going to be about Donald Trump and the other day there was a line about Cecil the Lion. Whatever is in the news can become an audience participation line…”
And to really put you in the mood for lewdilicious, watch this famous scene from “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.”
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