Rocky Horror returns to Vassar

Andy Berger Staff Writer

Sometime in your life, you’ve been witness to a cult phenomenon. Perhaps it was Lord of the Rings, Homestar Runner, or The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Why do these groups emerge? Why do they linger? Only a sociology professor could give you a complete answer. For Rocky Horror Picture Show, however, the answer is undoubtedly “the experience.”

Every year the Nonhuman Students Organization single-handedly puts together a production of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, a musical that inspired the famous movie, which debuted in 1974. The movie is certainly well-constructed and even innovative. What keeps a new viewer interested, however, is how the self-consciously cliché dialogue fits snugly over a plot filled with bizarre twists and turns.

Barry Bostwick and Susan Sarandon star in the film as the innocent young couple Brad and Janet, who while traveling get stranded at the castle of the mad scientist Dr. Frank-N-Furter, played by a sexy and inspired Tim Curry. The bisexual and alluringly androgynous doctor forces the couple to examine their own sexualities, compelling them to embrace their deepest desires. The movie is at times an obvious response to the asexual culture of the ’50s and ’60s, and a voice for the sexual liberation of a new generation.

Though such examinations make the movie seem high-minded, Rocky Horror as a practice is anything but. Since the early ’80s, when the Rocky Horror cult phenomenon first began to take off, fans have been honing the craft of “callbacks”—a practice seen in the onetime parody show “Mystery Science Theater 3000.” The cheesy dialogue and melodramatic timing of Rocky Horror leave ample time for the insertion of one’s own off-color humor. Consider the scene in which Brad and Janet climb out of their broken-down car. Janet: “No, I’m coming with you!” Audience: “Well, that’s a first.” Such risqué humor enlivens a campy movie and makes it interactive.

Vassar’s version of the Rocky Horror Picture Show, besides offering the chance to experience something like it from the inside, features a side-by-side live reenactment of the movie. Beneath the screen version of the show there will be actors portraying the characters, mimicking the songs and dialogue word for word and commanding attention with more than just their sequined lingerie.
Vassar’s first production of Rocky Horror went up in fall of 1995 as a fundraiser for the then-junior Class of 1997. For the first few years, there was significant overlap in leadership between class and NSO members, until two years ago, when it became a full-scale production accredited completely to the NSO.

Assistant Director Erica Kudisch ’06 calls the audience’s experience one of “breaking down the media” and “getting out of everyday character.” Rocky Horror is a movie that prides itself on encouraging “whatever makes you feel sexy” and ,in an atmosphere of unrestrained sexuality, people knowingly begin to express themselves in new ways. The movie is only a fraction of the atmosphere, and as the night begins, you might find yourself happily saying, “I’m having trouble hearing the movie.”

Welcome to Rocky Horror Picture Show.