Spotlight
THE ROCKY HORROR SHOW!
I have many fond memories of growing up in the late '60s and early '70s: platform shoes and bell-bottom pants, mood-rings and disco parties. One of my favorite memories is of the late-night, TV horror show, "Chilly Billy's Chiller Theater." Every Saturday night, Chilly Billy and his demonic denizens named Terminal Stare, Norman the Castle Keeper, Sister Susie, and Stephen the Castle Prankster would thrill his viewers with classic horror and sci-fi movies from the '30s, '40s, and '50s. In most of this low budget, B movies, the special effects were cheesy, the plots predictable, the writing stilted, and the acting horrendous--but it didn't matter to me. Week after week, I sat zombie-like, three feet away from our 27-inch color console as a myriad of monsters invaded my over active imagination.
Richard O'Brien's, Rocky Horror Show pays tribute to these wonderfully awful movies. The live, stage version premiered in London in 1973 and starred Tim Curry as Frank-n-Furter, a role he later revised in the film version, The Rocky Horror Picture Show. The stage version was an underground smash-hit in part because of its sheer raciness, the raucousness of the live audience, the irreverence of the material, and its pure shock value.
Over the past 33 years, going to The Rocky Horror Picture Show has been a rite of passage for each new generation. With our stage version we celebrated this unique, cross-generational phenomenon by making this our very own. Remember your first time when you dressed in your fishnets or dawned a Riff Raff hump. We had an unbelievable time bringing this show together. The audience was the final ingredient that brought our creation to LIFE!
Matthew Mazuroski, Director |