The Rocky Horror Show – Libidinous Revelry on a Cosmic Scale

          I vaguely remember the first time I saw the “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” at a midnight screening in a theater in West LA. However, I don’t remember hearing the audience callbacks commenting, often obscenely, on the characters and certain select lines or seeing the toast tossing or water spraying that took place in sync with events in the narrative the film has become so well known for.

Perhaps it was an early run of the film and things really hadn’t yet progressed to that point. But I do recall the same mood and feeling of the film’s weird and energized rock decadence that’s emitted in the live CLO musical currently running at the Greer Cabaret Theatre in Downtown Pittsburgh. Mood wise, they’re two peas in a pod. Production wise, they’re nearly equally as good.

The film is celebrating its 50^th anniversary this year, and the fact that Richard O’Brien’s “The Rocky Horror Show” is running in this year’s eerie Halloween season are two more good reasons to give it a look.

How a show with a plot as nonsensical and thin as Rocky can be so entertaining, at least for a certain audience niche, is amazing. The narrative centers around a young couple, Brad (Spencer Millay) and Janet (Kat Harkins) who, while driving through a heavy rainstorm on a lonely country road, are stalled by a flat tire.

Looking for a place to phone for help (these were the days before cell phones and, maybe, AAA), they come across an ominous castle. Knocking on the door, they’re greeted by Riff Raff (Connor McCanlus), an image merge of Uncle Fester from the Addams Family and a portly Vincent Price whose antics are some of the evening’s most amusing.

In quick succession, they’re introduced to Magenta (Marissa Buchheit, dressed in a flowing garment of black and, what else, magenta), and Columbia (Sam Carter, dressed in a skimpy version of American 4^th of July bunting that accentuates her inherent pizzazz).

Next come the formidable Dr. Frank N. Furter (Alexander E. Podolinski) and his creation, the titular Rocky (Michael Greer, dressed shiny gold, dare I say, lame shorts that allow the rest of his naked body to exhibit his toned musculature).

It’s not long before Frank N. Furter’s libidinous ways kick in and he furtively seduces first Janet, then Brad, in an astonishingly convincing manner via shadow box wizardry that suggests everything from cunnilingus and fellatio to anal intercourse. Note: This is one show definitely meant for an adult audience.

Adding to the show’s LGBTQ sensibility is drag artist, Dixie Surewood as a most entertaining Narrator, who handled the fervent and sometimes raucous audience with the aplomb of a James Bond.

The evening of my performance included members of the audience, apparently Rocky devotees, who shot back witty, sometimes explicitly lascivious callbacks and shoutouts. They may or may not be present at every performance, but they did add considerable contrapuntal fun to the proceedings.

The musical begins and ends on sure-footed terrain with a self-assured, near anthem “Science Fiction Double Feature” sung by Buchheit and company. It establishes the self-assured landscape of the rest of the production under the music direction of conductor, Robert Neumeyer.

Dressed in full nerd garb, a suit and bow tie accessorized by a pair of large eyeglasses, Millay’s “Once in a While” showcases his vocal skills, while Harkins got her vocal moment to shine in “Touch-A Touch-A Touch Me.”

The cast’s rendering, and choreographer Mara Newbery Greer’s take, of “The Time Warp” certainly left nothing to be desired.

As Dr. Frank N. Furter, Podolinski, whose impressive role of Mordred in the CLO’s earlier production of "Camelot” continues to reverberate in my memory, is convincing as a brawny, pansexual, cross-dressing mad scientist. His net stocking, black leather garb, later adopted by most of the cast, was enough to put a dent in Frederick’s of Hollywood inventory.

Providing an air of normalcy to boisterous camp and highly charged revelry is Matthew Hydzik as the wheelchair bound, Dr. Scott.

Hoping for a happy ending? Some live, some die and some, now revealed as interstellar aliens, blast off into space in the castle/starship to return to their native planet aptly named Transylvania.

Director Mark Fleischer, creatively assisted by set designer Noah Glaister and Natalie Rose Mabry’s video effects, supercharges the show with campy energy, decadent comedy and a sparkling joie de vivre that’s part drag show, part spoof of B films of the sci-fi and horror mold and part rock musical with a nostalgic bent.

“The Rocky Horror Show,” a Pittsburgh CLO production, is at the Greer Cabaret Theater in Downtown Pittsburgh now through Nov. 8. For tickets and more information, visit www.pittsburghclo.org.