Rocky Horror Picture Show Preview

The Humanities East building on St. Louis Community College – Meramec’s campus is filled with the antici…pation of the theater department’s upcoming production of The Rocky Horror Show. The buzz surrounding the show is the planned midnight show on the 9th of October.

“I’m excited about it because, you know, it’s unique to this play itself. In a traditional way, most people know of it as the picture show, which means the midnight show that people go to in costume and we’re hoping to evoke part of that and that people are more interactive,” said Keith Oliver, the show’s director.

Former STLCC – Meramec student Stephen Henley plays the role of Brad, a fumbling and awkward character who’s actions are what some might call stupid. Henley says he has mixed thoughts on the midnight show.

“I don’t know how people will react to the actual performances, but with the midnight showing we’re hoping for people to come dressed and we’ll interact with guests and we hope they interact with us too,” Henley said.

Full-time STLCC-Meramec student, Derek Robertson, plays Dr. Frankenfurter, He says he hasn’t thought too much about the midnight show.

“I think it’s a midnight show. I expect it to be rowdy, I expect to see men dressed as women. I haven’t really thought about it, I’ve never done a midnight show of any sort before. I think we’ll see a lot of hilarious things and I hope the audience gets into it.” Robertson said.

There have been a few changes made to the stage show that hardcore fans of the movie should prepare themselves for.

“Because it’s a breathing work of art with theater and it’s live and music is involved, some of the music has been shortened or we’ve expanded to match some of the things going on stage; we’ve stayed very truthful to the script. I think people will be surprised by the things that are there and aren’t there,” said Oliver. “It’s still a little racy. It does have a little bit of an edge to it.”

Fans can look forward to still seeing as much raciness and edge that accompanies the Rocky Horror Picture Show to be in this stage production.

“Lots of fishnets, lots of heels, the corsets are still there,” Robertson said.

Robertson expressed apprehension to the changes being made before they began rehearsals.

“Tim Curry is iconic in this roll, it was hard for me to pull away from that. I wanted to sort of copycat a few things, but Keith was really strong about that just wasn’t the choice that he wanted. The more we worked with that, the more I was on board with it. At some point you have to realize that you just can’t outdo Tim Curry, and I think we’ve hit a happy medium,” Robertson said.