Next week, the Wharton Center celebrates the Halloween season with the 49th Anniversary Tour of The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
One of the stars of the movie will host a screening of the cult classic.
WKAR’s Scott Pohl takes us Inside The Arts with Barry Bostwick.
Bostwick starred in the 1975 film version of The Rocky Horror Picture Show in the role of Brad Majors, alongside Susan Sarandon as Janet Weiss.
The movie has become a fan favorite for its music, wacky story line and gender-bending characters. Brad and Janet are wet and half naked in much of the movie, and Bostwick remembers being miserable much of the time. “It was a low budget film,” he explains. “There weren’t any toilets on the set. We were always cold, Susan and I, because we were always in our underwear for most of the thing! And then before each take, they would spray us down with freezing water! I have no sympathy for the British special effects guys at all!”
Rocky Horror had already been a smash hit on London stages. For the film version, Bostwick, Sarandon and Meatloaf, cast as Eddie, arrived in England and went straight into prerecording and rehearsals. Bostwick says he didn’t really get acquainted with other cast members like Tim Curry, who reprised his star turn on stage as Dr. Frank-n-Furter, until later.
Bostwick says the enduring popularity of the movie has been a surprise. “When it was made, it wasn’t very successful,” he continues, “and then it was discovered in New York and discovered in all these theatres, and shadow casts around the world, and then it became another kind of entertainment. That was never our intention. Our intention was to make a little musical, a Sound of Music for 1975 with a bunch of weird people.”
The theater version is still performed all over the world. After starring in the movie, Bostwick says he was never tempted to play Brad on stage, “particularly now, where the audience yells things and throws things at the real actors on stage, and the acting is more coming up with bon mots and things to yell back at them. I’m quite happy being in the movie, where they can throw stuff at me and yell at me and call me names, and I don’t have to hear it other than backstage.”
The program will include a shadow cast of live actors in costume lip-syncing along with scenes from the film. Bostwick will host next week’s screening with Larry Viezel, a legendary shadow cast performer who also runs a global fan club. Most of the crowd is likely to be people who’ve seen Rocky Horror many times. They’ll know when to shout things back at the screen. Of course, Bostwick says first-timers will not be left out of the fun. There will be virgin ceremonies for them, plus costume contests and a question and answer period. “We just have a ball!,” he concludes. “It’s like Brad Majors says in the beginning of the movie somewhere, ‘it’s just a party, Janet!’”
You won’t be allowed to throw rice or toast at the screening, but the Wharton Center will have prop bags for sale, complete with traditional Rocky Horror items like a newspaper, a glove, and playing cards.
The screening of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, with Barry Bostwick and a live shadow cast, hits the Wharton Center’s Cobb Great Hall Tuesday night at 7:30.
The Wharton Center is a financial supporter of WKAR.
