When I ask people if they’ve heard of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, more often than not they respond with “the movie right?” and I say, “no, not the movie, the show”
I’ve been going to the show in Chelsea since I was 14. In fact, I went just last weekend. I’ve seen it over 30 times. What happens is, the movie starts at midnight while a perfectly duplicate and synchronized shadow cast performs the movie on the floor in front of the screen. They interact with audience members and there is a ton of audience participation. The audience yells funny things out in response to the movie and they throw props such as rice during the wedding scene and Scott toilet paper when Brad shouts “Great Scott!”
The show is so much fun that it’s been performed all over the world every Friday and Saturday for the past 35 years. Tim Curry himself once said that he recognized Rocky Horror as being a right of passage and a coming-of-age story for so many teens. This is definitely something I consider art and it’s one of the reasons I love this city. To captivate an audience for 35 years, a show has to have something special, right? In fact, its different every single time.
A friend of mine’s son, plays Cosmo in the Rocky Horror Picture Show in Pittsburgh. Let me know if you want to make a road trip to see the show in Pittsburgh and I’ can give you his contact information.