Baltimore's Iron Crow Theatre to host Rocky Horror Picture Show as celebratory Pride event

BALTIMORE -- The Rocky Horror Show returns to Baltimore's Iron Crow Theatre this month in a new, celebratory Pride event.

Audience members can expect a live band and an interactive experience with the cast where audience members are given prop bags and callouts.

The performance even includes some Pride month easter eggs.

Since its debut in the '70s, Rocky Horror has embraced sexual liberation and defied gender norms.

And its impact on the LGBTQ+ community is still being celebrated.

Actor Nicholas Miles said he grew up in a small town in Tennessee where being different wasn't always accepted.

But when he puts on the boots, his authentic self gets to take center stage.

"I step into a role of a person who can withstand anything and has an ideology that is about love," Miles told WJZ.

Miles plays transexual Dr. Frank N. Furter in the Iron Crow Theatre's production of the Rocky Horror Show, a role made famous by Tim Curry in the 1970s cult classic film.

"Frank N Furter himself is a being that literally exists with 100 percent confidence in himself and exists without any self-doubt," Miles said.

Rocky Horror Picture Show tells the story of a naive couple who, after getting a flat tire, seek shelter in a mysterious castle inhabited by aliens.

"Through meeting these other characters, these wild songs, these crazy dance numbers," said Sean Elias, artistic director at Iron Crown Theatre. "They're able to shed the confines that they first entered the castle with and then choose to be with each other in the end."

It's a wild, campy show with fun and familiar songs like the time warp.

While the show itself is more than 40 years old, Elias, director of the Queer Theatre Company, said it has a new significance in 2023.

"We're seeing multi-statewide bans on gender-based performance and drag performance," Elias said.

Proceeds from the show help fund future seasons of the Iron Crow Theatre.

Their goal is to grow as a place for early professionals to build their performing arts careers.

"Anyone that comes here would be welcomed to find a sensation of a positive community," Miles said. "You'll walk out of here and be humming the songs, you'll want to dance down the street. It's one of those shows that will last with you."

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