On Halloween, I got a last-minute ticket to the Rocky Horror Picture Show. I’ve been a fan of the movie for years but never got the chance to go to one of the shadow cast shows, so I took the opportunity once I found out some of the original actors were doing a panel beforehand.
Once we arrived, we got our show bags, and since I had a pit seat, I was escorted up to it. Once I got to my seat, I was able to read the prop card to prepare for the show later and also learned that the panel would include Barry Bostwick (Barry), Patricia Quinn (Magenta), and Nell Campbell (Columbia).
Before the panel started, they were in the spirit of Rocky and Halloween and held a costume contest composed of people selected by staff who marked them as they came into the venue.
Campbell had other plans, though, and saw a few people dressed as her character, so she called them onstage. Then she started looking at the crowd and proceeded to call others, including me, saying, “These sluts need to be shown off”
Once the contest was over, the panel started, where they told us
about the chaos caused during filming the movie and the accidents and injuries, they had to hide to keep production as close to on time as possible, while trying their hardest to keep the budget low.
At different points, they broke into songs, joking around with each other, and Bostwick joking that his solo song was the only one cut from the final take, while the other Quinn said, “it was probably a blessing because his singing couldn’t compare to the rest of them.”
They had us laughing throughout the interview, and they all find it crazy how young some of the fans are, since they figured it would have died out by now. But to this day, it continues to reach younger audiences who keep finding ways to relate to it.
At one point, they had us, the younger audience, stand up, and it was more than half of the crowd. This was an age restricted show of 18+,
so they had anyone under the age of 30 to stand for the younger audience. This shocked the panel as we were not alive when the movie came out but were all fans and still sold out the show.
For the performance, the actors were spot-on and had us laughing with their choices that added extra humor to the show. I was also aware that a glowstick is used and is supposed to be waved around, so I wrapped glowsticks around my crutch ahead of time, and during that part, I raised them during the prop scene.
Even if you have only ever seen the movie once, I feel like it would be a fun event to go to whenever the group Transvestite Soup does a Rocky show, usually at The Parkway Theater.
This event was hosted at the Orpheum Theater, and their ADA is very accommodating. Always check the site for specific requests, but it was very easy for anyone on any floor to access their seats with elevator access to all floors and ADA seating on all of them as well. The line for merch is always long unless you are there right when the doors open.
