New York – Bring toilet paper. Bring a flashlight. Don’t forget your newspaper – or your fishing nets.
An interactive roaming version of “Rocky Horror Show Pictures” It hits the road to celebrate the cult film’s birthday with screenings, live-action casting, and a call to be indecent and one of its original stars – Barry Bostwick.
“It’s an excuse for the madness, the rudeness, the throwing of things, the screaming and the absurdity — who wouldn’t want that?,” Bostwick asks. “Everyone out there is having fun, and a shared experience. Especially now after the pandemic, we need to gather and blow off some steam.”
Released in 1975, the sci-fi rock-musical hit became a cult favorite and entered the pop culture lexicon for its many memorable scenes, including the song “The Time Warp” covered by a handful of artists and the often-quoted phrase, “Damn it, Janet!” Other things that screamed less than the PG-13.
It has turned into an interactive event where people throw rice during a wedding scene, put newspapers on their heads and spray water during a rainstorm scene, and throw dried toast during a dinner toast scene. People often come dressed in corsets, fishnets, maid costumes, butler costumes, and heavy splatters of eye shadow.
“I bore it because it was always organic,” Bostwick said. “The call back and throwing things were not introduced by the filmmakers or the studio. It was by the fans, who added layer by layer and then all of that was standardized.”
The story revolves around Janet and Brad, a young couple with a car problem who finds an ancient castle filled with eccentric characters: including cross-dressers, scientists, and a maid. This leads to some interesting pairings and experiments. The film made household names for Bostwick, who played Brad and Susan Sarandon as Janet and Tim Curry, Doctor Frank N Furter in the castle.
The tour will be shown in theaters across the country, which will show a huge screen and show the movie while the actors get dressed while the characters perform in front of the screen and the audience becomes very freaked out. Before the show, there are costume contests and fans can view a small mobile museum of memorabilia from the movie, including a feathered boa that Carrie wears and a sequined T-shirt worn by the character Columbia.
The tour kicks off Saturday in Pompano Beach, Florida before hitting California, Idaho, Ohio, Michigan, Arizona, New York, Connecticut, New Jersey, Virginia, Vermont and North Carolina. Some traditional practices—like spray guns and cedar throwing—were lost along the way, but if you forget to bring other items, prop bags are available for sale.
Scott Stander, who produces the show as part of his repertoire of concerts, variety shows and celebrity evenings, said part of the appeal of “Rocky Horror” was his call for fans to let go of them.
“I think part of it is they become what they want to be. You can be red or blue and that doesn’t matter. It’s going to align – one of the few things that you can bring the audience together and nobody talks about anything but having a good time.”
“Where can you dress up in a fishnet or be square and act like Brad and hear shouts from the audience and fly a toast or toilet paper and just share? It’s quite different. There is nothing like it.”
Bostwick will be at each stop, meeting guests and presenting the film. He’s had a very diverse career since the Rocky Horror movie, including roles in Scrubs, Cougar Town and Spin City, as well as winning a Tony – but few projects have sparked as much sustained enthusiasm as playing Brad.
“I was at a conference last month and saw 2,000 people and most of them were under the age of 25. It’s passed down from one generation and I think it’s become a rite of passage into adulthood,” he said.
The pandemic forced the annual drive-in tour, but the new edition is back in in-person gatherings, something Stander feels we’ve been missing out on.
“I guess now we’re looking for anything fun and different to go out and have a good time and forget your problems, don’t you think?”
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Mark Kennedy in http://twitter.com/KennedyTwits
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