Twenty years ago, when I was in high school in Milwaukee, the Oriental Theatre showed the RHPS every weekend. I went a few times – I was never really sucked into the cult, but I had friends who enjoyed it, and it was kind of fun.
When I was back in town recently, I was revisiting some familiar places. I noticed that the Oriental only shows RHPS once a month. It’s been playing for 30 years, it’s peak popularity has passed.
Is this true everywhere? I really haven’t thought much about RHPS since high school – if it screens at all in Seattle, it’s not a big deal, and it’s certainly not a regular thing. Does it play many places anymore? Have people stopped doing the Time Warp again?
Like you, I was never a die-hard fanatic, but I did go at least a dozen times over the course of several years. And I have noticed that screenings of it has scaled back, even in downtown Manhattan, which used to be the epicenter of the “Rocky” worshipping world. I only know of two theaters still showing it, but neither does it every Saturday.
Sadly, it is kind of a faded cultural dinosaur, much like the whole goth/punk crowd that was the film’s target audience. Being gay or lesbian (or otherwise alt-sexual) just doesn’t equate with being a ‘creature of the night’ anymore.
While it’s been 15 years since I’ve seen it, I imagine it still gets the usual crowd of curious freshmen college students, but very few ardent fans.
I haven’t seen it since 1982. It used to play every Saturday night at the Tiffany on Sunset in Hollywood. The Tiffany is long gone. Does it even still play in Hollywood?
My high-school aged daughters both like RHPS, have exposed friends to it, and know as many (if different) shout-outs as I did in the early 80s.
However, neither of them have ever gone to a theatre to see the film. They have watched and shown it in home party situations. Their connection to other fans is mostly on-line and not in person.
It’s a different world now than when we were young…
Interesting to hear the cult has mutated but survived in the DVD era. The AV Club mentioned today that “the only point of watching it at home alone—or even with a couple of game friends—is to become familiar enough with the songs and dialogue that you can follow along at the public screenings.” But if people are actually bringing the performances home …
L.A. still does it every Saturday. I haven’t been since highschool- at which point I lived in Philadelphia- so I don’t know anything about the L.A. screenings, but just based on the fact that the screenings are still supported on a weekly basis must mean that the L.A. chapter of the cult is undead and healthy.
Count me in as another who always thought the midnight screenings to be fun, but never became a fanatic.
I think it was Roger Ebert who commented about the neutering effect of watching “Rocky Horror” on DVD at your own home (sorry, no cite). What you do in your own home behind closed doors isn’t all that special. It’s having the nerve to get decked up like a goth-style drag queen and parading about in a public space was something unique.
Also, as time goes by, it becomes less and less a rebellious act. Doing it in 1978 must have seem weird, and shocking and novel. Nowadays, it’s just par the course.
Twenty years ago I was a high school student in Milwaukee. Never got to see it at the Oriental but did get dragged to it a few times at the old Southridge mall theatres.
In somewhat-stodgy Tulsa, Oklahoma the Rocky Horror cult is still alive and kicking (in platform shoes, yet). Our “art cinema” theater has midnight showings, and a fullblown stage production is presented nearly every year, with a very talented amateur cast. The local Mensa chapter had a well-attended Rocky Horror party not long ago (in the back row-ho-ho).
Maybe Tulsa isn’t so stodgy after all. Let it not be forgot that “TULSA” spelled backwards is “A SLUT.”
The Chelsea cinema on 23rd St in Manhattan still shows it, with live accompanying cast, every Saturday night at Midnight. I’ve gone with friends several times. It’s amusing, but can get kinda stale after awhile.
I’m not really old enough to know, but I think midnight movies are on the comeback. I’d never heard of midnight movies when I was younger, but now you see midnight releases for a lot of major movies and they’re crazy fun. I saw Attack of the Clones (even though it sucked), one of the Harry Potter movies, Snakes on a Plane and The Simpsons Movie, among others, in opening night midnight screenings. Chilling at home with a movie is fun. Going out with your friends and being part of the crowd, or just watching the lunatics, is a great time.
Aside from the cast there’s at least one guy who is at the Clearview every weekend, if not every show. I don’t know what to make of it. I’ve seen the show and the movie about 15 times over the last decade, starting with watching the movie on VHS with friends back in high school, and including both movie viewings and onstage in Chicago and New York. I saw it on Broadway as a curiosity, but I think most people will tell you there is no point in seeing it as a stage show. On the other hand, only the Clearview on a good night is as much fun as seeing it in the basement.
The cult’s alive to some degree, for sure, and it’s become an institution. Outside the hardcore fans, there’s a small but steady influx of high school kids. I have to admit I’ve probably seen it too many times and need to take a break. If you see it repeatedly at the same theater you find that people say the same things over and over and there isn’t much variety. The ‘every weekend’ guy comes up with a few new lines every time, but it gets a little stifling when the audience is reciting rather than participating.
It used to be about audience participation. The idea of watching other people play along with the movie on screen behind them sounds odd, and somewhat annoying, but I haven’t seen it myself.* I would love to see a good production of “The Rocky Horror Show,” though.
Here’s a list of theaters where RHPS is playing these days. It’s nothing like it used to be, but better than most 30±year-old movies.
I do think the cult has dwindled less because of DVDs than (a) time - 30+ years is a long time in pop culture terms and (b) as others have said, guys in lingerie aren’t as shocking as they used to be.
ETA: *I haven’t seen a live cast. I’ve seen the movie and done the Time Warp a few times.
I would suggest that there is much that would have been considered “just par the course” in 1978 that today would seem “weird, and shocking and novel”. In many ways, we’re reverting back to Squaresville.
The guy in the office next to me is a long standing cast member in Cambridge MA. They get a pretty good crowd most Saturdays, but I haven’t gone in years.
