It’s a Saturday night in October and hundreds of people are buzzing with excitement waiting for the feature presentation at Edmond Town Hall in Newtown, Connecticut. Trailed by a spotlight, Matthew Jarrett, the production’s emcee, walked onto the large stage in a bright red corset, a glittering skirt and heels at least 5 inches tall.
“THIS is the Rocky Horror Picture Show!” Jarrett cried to the cheering crowd in his opening remarks listing off the expectations and rules of what’s in store for the next hour and forty minutes.
It’s familiar to those who have caught a showing of the cult classic 1975 film “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” over the last 50 years. Groups around the country put on "shadow cast" productions of the show, where generations of fans dress up like the characters, act out iconic scenes and bond over the film’s unique brand of camp.
This particular performance is by the “Come Again Players” of which Jarrett is also the technical director. The group is based in Western Massachusetts and for years, have performed in Newtown.
The thrill and chill of Rocky Horror isn’t just limited to the Halloween season. Troupes like “RKO Army” showcase the film year-round, in their case, at venues in Eastern Connecticut and Rhode Island.
Each shadow cast has its own traditions which have expanded and morphed. But half a century later, Rocky Horror has remained a bastion for self-expression.
“My favorite moments are when I can go to a theater to put on a show where a person more than four decades my senior and I can excitedly compliment each other's fishnets and take a photo together,” Jarrett said.
A changing culture
Back in 1975, “Rocky Horror” was released in theaters. Initially, it was a flop. But midnight showings in New York soon drummed up popularity, as audience participation including (often) witty lines known as "call-backs" along with props, became custom.
The participation made seeing these showings an “event” as Barry Bostwick, who portrayed Brad Majors, told Connecticut Public’s “Where We Live” last month.
Roy Rossi, one of the founders of the RKO Players, still remembers the first time he saw Rocky Horror Picture Show at age 21 in Providence, Rhode Island, in the early 1980s.
“I remember walking in, and it was … madness,” Rossi recalled. “I wasn't surprised by anything, but it was raw back then, and just people screaming at the screen and lines that they don't use today.”
In Rossi’s view, today’s screenings are “nowhere as nuts” as they were then. (For one, throwing hot dogs during the song “Planet Hotdog” and rice during the opening wedding scene attracted rats, Bostwick said.)
When it comes to traditions, each shadow cast does it differently. However much of the participation culture has shifted to address some of the callbacks that are insensitive toward marginalized groups, Jarrett said.
One of the guidelines the Come Again Players tell audiences is to “encourage folks not to punch down at marginalized groups, but instead to punch up at those in power,” as Jarrett put it. He said it’s actually helped them to formulate more entertaining callback lines than before.
Rossi is 67, and said he has seen the movie around 3,000 times - give or take. He said when they began in the 80s it wasn’t words they weren’t worried about, it was people who weren’t afraid to show they didn’t approve of the content, which includes cross-dressing and homosexuality.
“I got into fist fights with people coming to the show to do a number on us. That's how the world was, then,” Rossi said. “Why did we even tolerate it? Because we loved it so much. And I'm glad we pushed our way through it.”
Rocky Horror’s lasting legacy
Fans and cast members alike didn’t list off Rocky Horror’s disjointed plot as the reason it still resonates – it was something else entirely.
“We get to be the weirdest parts of ourselves,” cast member Alex Crowthers said. “It addresses a lot of really strange and uncomfortable topics as well.”
Many said they felt a connection to themes like freedom of expression. Cast member Kit Lindgren said the film allows them to explore, “without all of these societal pressures telling us who we're supposed to be, what we're supposed to look like, who we're supposed to love, and just celebrate who we are individually with such fervor.”
Erin Cohen, who played Frank-N-Furter, the film’s antagonist during the Newtown, Connecticut, shadow cast production, said the film challenges her usual way of going about the world.
“Rocky has brought down a lot of barriers and doors that I never knew I could open,” Cohen said.
For Rossi, a founder of the RKO Players, it’s less about performing in the shows compared to the first couple decades. Now it’s about working with the casts.
He said if his 21-year-old self could see him now, he’d be amazed like that Rocky Horror was still going strong, “and I think I'd be thinking, I'm so glad you're still able to do this at this age.”
“I can take satisfaction in looking at my friends on stage and making that happen for them,” noting that working with various people through the decades, “I've watched a lot of these people grow up.”
Note: A transcript of this story's audio is available here.
