Halloween could go down this year like it does every year. You put your costume on, party with your friends ‘til dawn, get drunk, and dance the night away—basically your typical Saturday night minus the costume. It could also be a night where you just kick it at home, take a younger sibling trick or treating, or pop in a horror movie, and have a nice fire. Or you could always do something way different from your normal pattern and take a trip to Transsexual, Transylvania, while dancing the “Time Warp” and throwing rice and other food items around a theater.
The Rocky Horror Picture show is celebrating its 35th anniversary, as well as being the longest running theatrical film release in history.
For those of you who aren’t so familiar with the show, it is a 1975 film adaptation from a British musical theater that parodies a combination of a classic science fiction movie and low budget horror films. When director Jim Sharman got together with the play’s original creator Richard O’Brien, he never thought that the show would create such a cult following that would last 35 years.
The plot consists of a newlywed couple played by Susan Sarandon and Barry Bostwick, who stumble upon a creepy castle (while in search of help after they get a flat tire) one late November night. Upon arriving to the castle, they experience a series of crazy, musical acts that include the signature “Time Warp” dance, and an encounter with Dr. Frank N. Furter, played by Tim Curry a bizarre, self-proclaimed “sweet transvestite from Transsexual, Transylvania.”
Now, when you dress Tim Curry in drag, get a hot guy in gold spandex named Rocky to seduce a young, beautiful Susan Sarandon, then add a bunch of other outrageous antics with some singing and dancing, you are destined to have a hit that will attract a lot of attention for many, many years. Rocky Horror was even selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” in 2005.
The film is in limited release but, lucky for us Washingtonians, it is playing one night only on October 30th at the Theater at Meydenbauer Center (11100 NE 6th Street in Bellevue). Tickets are $8 for general admission and can be purchased on Brownpapertickets.com.
Props and costumes are encouraged, being that the screening is not just a movie but a performance in itself. This is not those typical movie nights where you are supposed to passively watch a film; instead, you are encouraged to get up and dance the “Time Warp”, sing along to all the songs, and throw rice, hot dogs, and toast.
So either stick with the same old same ol’ and go to another party Saturday night, or participate in an erotic nightmare, a sci-fi adventure, and a theatrical spectacle that is the Rocky Horror Picture Show.