The traveling ‘Rocky Horror Picture Show’ coming to Ohio

With Halloween looming, there’s no better time to satisfy your “Rocky Horror Picture Show” craving and Barry Bostwick will be on hand in Akron on Wednesday, Oct. 12, to assist. Crisscrossing the country with stops in more than 20 cities during the month, Bostwick will join local amateur shadow cast performers during interactive screenings of the 1975 cult musical comedy horror film.

Bostwick, who starred as clean-cut Brad Majors in the original movie, has attended dozens of screenings over the years but still looks forward to most.

“The shadow casts act out the scenes with the film playing in the background,” said Bostwick from his Florida home north of Orlando. “I'm entertained like hell each time because the performances are just so wonderful. Many have been doing it for years and know every detail about every scene from the movie.”

Bostwick does a meet-and-greet before the show and introduces the movie prior to screening but does not perform with the shadow cast.

“A couple of years ago they got me up on stage to play the Ralph Hapschatt part, the character who gets married at the beginning of the film,” recalled Bostwick. “There were only a few lines, but I just sucked at it because I couldn't keep up with the performers on stage. I swore I’d never get talked into that again. So, I just go out and screw around with the audience for a while to get them pumped up. I make fun of them as much as they have made fun of me for the last 47 years!”

But occasionally, says 77-year-old Bostwick, he’ll take to the stage floor lifting his leg up high like his character in the “Rose Tint My World” number, “just to prove to the audience I can still do it!”

To embrace the whole “Rocky Horror Picture Show” experience, fans dress as their favorite characters while yelling at the screen and tossing objects around the theater, behavior that would normally lead to ejection by management. Such conduct is not only tolerated but expected during the movie as fans mimic iconic moments from the beloved film.

Originally a critical and commercial flop when first released in 1975, midnight screenings in the late '70s soon began attracting young audiences drawn to the film’s outrageous characters featured in exotic and erotic scenes.

By contrast, Bostwick’s character is initially rather staid, peering through nerdy, black-rimmed glasses alongside girl-next-door fiancée Janet (Susan Sarandon). The pair stumble upon a country mansion occupied by Dr. Frank-N-Furter (Tim Curry), an eccentric transvestite scientist (who’s actually an alien) preparing to unveil his latest humanoid creation, Rocky.

“I never get bored because the music (e.g. ‘The Time Warp’) is so superb and watching Tim eat up the screen is a delightfully enriching experience,” notes Bostwick.

When filming the original, Bostwick says the heroic character of Brad fit right into his professional wheelhouse at the time, but were there moments when playing the more shocking Frank-N-Furter character might have been more appealing?

“Sure, but then Tim would walk on the set to begin a scene and I realized I couldn't do it,” he said. “He just had that spark that others have tried to imitate in later stage productions, but no one ever has. He helped make it the greatest cult movie of all time.”

In addition to the film screening and shadow cast, fans can participate in a costume contest and view a memorabilia display with artifacts and costumes from the movie.

“We try to create an atmosphere of partying and mayhem,” said Bostwick. “This year, I think people will be very enthusiastic to dress up and throw stuff at us and yell insanely dirty things. It's time for them to get their freak on, if only for one night, because life has been so difficult during the pandemic. I'm there to sort of party with the rest of them.”

The Rocky Horror Picture Show, the longest-running theatrical release in film history, celebrates its 47th-anniversary national tour with a stop at the E.J. Thomas Hall, at the University of Akron, on Oct. 12 at 7:30 p.m. It will also be at the Canton Palace Theatre on Oct. 31.

Nick Thomas teaches at Auburn University at Montgomery, Ala, and has written features, columns, and interviews for numerous magazines and newspapers. See getnickt.org.

This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: Special screening of 'Rocky Horror Picture Show' coming to Ohio