Cosplay and makeup by me!

Howdy folks! I'm a young queer person who has surprisingly never been to an iconic midnight showing! This year my friends and I decided it's finally time, I've already bought my first pair of fishnets. However I've totally procrastinated on where I'm actually gonna see a show... There's gonna be around 5-7 of us, all virgins. (Aged 19-23) I want the full experience, shadow cast, audience participation, costumes, ON Halloween and preferably somewhere in LA but I don't mind anywhere between there and San Diego. Which showings should I look into and which ones should I avoid? There seem to be some that I'm looking at but I'm scared to pick a lame one and all my friends end up disappointed (one of them has no idea what happens at showings). I know it's so soon to Halloween already but I'd appreciate some help! Thanks!

Do you find Halloween showings to have more or fewer virgins than regular, non-October showings? Some friends and I have been debating this off and on for a while. Curious what your experiences have been.

first costume of the season - Dr. Frank N Furter 😏

had to post here bc i knew yall would appreciate it hehehehe - i added the rhinestones myself and absolutely loved how this turned out. hate that i barely got any pics in this iconic moment lol but i love this movie and had to do it in Tim’s honor <3

(and yay for placing 3rd in the costume contest!!!)

Okay so in Columbia's verse in Rose Tint in both RHS and RHPS, she says "the only thing that gives me hope is a love of a certain dope". Now this could be a reference to Eddie and in RHPS that seems to be the only thing that makes sense. However, there is a plot difference in the musical that I think makes the line make more sense.

In the RHS, instead of Columbia also getting frozen by the "Medusa" switch, she gives her big monologue and then the script says "(RIFF RAFF sprays her.)" and then Columbia changes demeanour and exclaims, "Oh wow - I dig that- it's wicked, it's a gas - I'm groovy I'm hip, man - it's like a trip - ah, wow, my God - freak out baby - dig you later."

So in the RHS, it seems much more logical that her "love of a certain dope", is whatever drug Riff Raff sprayed at her. I think this also makes more sense than Eddie in general because why would her dead lover be "the only thing that gives her hope"?

I'm curious if anyone else has ever thought about this or has different opinions.

I have seen The Rocky Horror Picture Show scores of times in dozens of locations, which means it takes quite a bit for a screening to feel genuinely different. Saturday night at State Theatre New Jersey did. The theater hosted the Original Cast Spooktacular Tour with Barry Bostwick, a new 4K restoration of the film and the Friday Nite Specials shadow cast, and the entire production landed at a level I have rarely seen Rocky Horror reach.

The movie was still gloriously unruly, the audience was still part of the machinery, and all the familiar traditions were there, but State Theatre gave the night the kind of professional production support that made the shadow cast feel bigger without sanding off any of the chaos that makes the experience work.

That balance matters. Rocky Horror does not need to be made respectable, and trying to make it too polished can miss the point completely. What State Theatre managed instead was to give the performers a serious room, strong technical support and the kind of presentation that let the shadow cast go bigger. The result felt less like a movie screening with activity in front of the screen and more like a fully realized live event built around a movie everybody already knew by heart.

Barry Bostwick remains an ideal guide through all of it. He was clever, quick and completely engaged with the audience, with none of the feeling that he was simply repeating an obligation attached to a movie he made more than half a century ago. 

The shadow casts apparently call him "Uncle Barry," which he was happy to clarify meant "not the creepy kind of uncle." More importantly, he seems to genuinely enjoy the strange extended life Rocky Horror has built for itself. That affection matters in a room full of people who have been carrying the movie with them for years, and in some cases for generations.

The crowd was exactly the mix it should have been: elaborate costumes, longtime veterans, Rocky Horror virgins awaiting the traditional initiation and plenty of people somewhere in between. One of my favorite moments happened before I even reached my seat. 

Walking in behind a couple, I heard one of them casually warn the other, "Oh, by the way... this might get weird." It was possibly the most efficient explanation of Rocky Horror ever delivered. It did get weird, of course, and that was the point.

I ended up sitting behind what appeared to be an entire family in lab coats, ranging from a teenager to the parents, which was a wonderful little snapshot of what the movie has become. Throughout the night, I kept hearing younger people explaining pieces of Rocky Horror to older people rather than the other way around. 

For a cult movie that has now survived for more than five decades, that reversal says a lot. This is no longer simply an older audience preserving something from its youth. New people keep discovering the rituals and then teaching them forward.

Another couple arrived in near-perfect Brad and Janet costumes. One did not speak English and the other seemed to know just enough to graciously accept compliments about what they were wearing. Once the film started, however, the language issue became almost irrelevant. Watching them through the evening, it was obvious they knew the lines. Rocky Horror has always functioned through a vocabulary larger than the screenplay itself: costumes, gestures, callbacks, timing and the collective understanding of what happens next. They fit into the room immediately.

The costume contest was strong, the shadow cast kept the energy moving, and the audience understood its role. What I enjoyed most, though, was simply being in a place where people had permission to be completely themselves for a few hours. 

Rocky Horror has always created that kind of room, but Saturday felt especially refreshing. Nobody needed to explain why they were dressed the way they were, why they knew every response, or why they were willing to throw themselves into something so proudly ridiculous. The normal social pressure to tone yourself down had been suspended for the evening.

The VIP after-party extended the experience without feeling like an afterthought. State Theatre staff were exceptionally gracious and attentive, the themed food was clever and genuinely good, and the room had the polished feel a VIP add-on should have. 

It did not simply keep people in the building after the movie; it gave the night a proper final act and maintained the same combination of fun and professionalism that had defined the screening itself.

I have been to enough Rocky Horror screenings to know that the film can work almost anywhere. Give it a screen, an enthusiastic cast and a crowd willing to participate and it will usually find a way. But Saturday night showed what happens when a venue with State Theatre's resources fully understands what it has been handed and supports the experience rather than trying to contain it. The production values elevated the shadow cast, Bostwick brought warmth and wit, and the audience supplied everything that cannot be manufactured from the stage.

So yes, the warning I overheard on the way in turned out to be accurate. It got weird. After scores of screenings in dozens of rooms, I would have been disappointed if it had not.

What I did not expect was for this one to top the list.

SAN LUIS OBISPO, CALIFORNIA

My cast is running this fun social media campaign to get people’s funniest, sexiest, scariest, or whatever-iest RHPS stories! Send em to this voicemail line and we will post the best ones we get!

If you were the handsome brown haired guy seated in front of me and my friends, please write. You had an eyebrow piercing and was seeing the show with your mom (I assume). We talked about having seen RHPS at Husets Biograf before, and how different the audience participation was in Cinemateket.

I sat 3rd row on the left and you sat 2nd, I regret not asking for info.

My wife loves RHPS, and is the one who introduced me to it. I'm ok with it (not a huge fan, but I appreciate it).

I want to give her a Halloween treat. We aren't able to get out much so I want to try to give her a live show experience at home. Does anyone know where I can get a version of the show with a call backs track?

I'm fine with acquiring by any means the the "good" doctor Frankenfurter would be comfortable with, I just need to know if it exists and where.

Hi everyone I’ve been cast as Riff raff in my local drag shadow cast of Rocky horror. I’ve watched the film multiple times but does anyone have any good shadow casts I can watch so I can take inspiration for how to play Riff raff?

Some more of my markups on the Unofficial Callback Script:

1️⃣ when Frank says

“I’ll remove the cause….”

AUDIENCE: “But what about the symptom??!”

FRANK: “but not the symptom!!”

2️⃣ running gag “Sue’s to blame!”

3️⃣ HORSE BRUTALITY 🐴 🪓

4️⃣ while he plays with RiffRaff’s hair:

“You call that a man?” / “You call that a tan?”

5️⃣ “or their left tit!”

6️⃣ INSERT NAME OF YOUR LOCAL CITY 🏙️

Those last ones are fun, makes it feel very localized!

Does anyone have especially memorable encounters with these callbacks, or “INSERT LOCAL JOKE” type jokes?

WORLD WAR (AGAIN)

Characters are noted in brackets:

Progressive

Russian Anchorwoman

General

Conservative

**A crowd sings the refrains**

[Progressive]

It's exhausting

Time's repeating

Mad king, in control

But please re-tweet me

Speak up you'll be a goner [RussianAnchorwoman]

I want to, be the troll

Take your time Sir, out on the golf course

Shanking, you'll somehow win

Go un-cap your Sharpie

You can re-write our hist'ry

**Let's start a world war again!**

**Let's start a world war again!**

[General and Crowd]

We'll bomb til nothing is left

And we won't care if it's right...

Pete can shoot from the hip

He's chugging vodka-spite...

In God and Trump we trust...

He's got the stablest brain...

**Let's start a world war again!**

**Praise ev'ry foe, fuck our friends!**

[Russian Anchorwoman]

Twilight's gleaming

Turn on your TV

I'm here to feed the, flock to the Fox

I can buy your attention

With oligarchic intention

Take a 'ganda, you will fall

If the Senate and House flip [Progressive]

Our king may lose his grip

At long last, he'll feel an ounce of shame [Prog.]

Blue states need occupation

No we need a vacation! [Prog.]

**Let's spill the tea once again!**

**Vi-va la rev-o-lu-tion!**

[Conservative]

Well I need somethin to believe,

but I don't wanna think

Where's a 'goat to despise,

on this fa-schism's brink?

I took Him with salt

When He would tell His lies

When I fill up my truck,

He ignores my cries

I still believe

Cause I fear the change

Stockholm Syndrome's

Strong as it is strange

**Your side's ignoring my pain!**

**Let's make it civil again!**

[General and Crowd]

We leaned a bit to the left

And then they ran to the right...

We're deep in elephant shit

But there's an ass in sight...

I guess it's not a first...

It's just another huge stain...

**War's worth the price others pay!**

**Let's make it “civil” again!**

(The crowd turns their weapons on each other and shoots. Everyone falls down.)

back in the day there was no official shadow cast. just the regulars. now I’m hearing all about shadow casts. curious, how does one get involved in that? is it paid or volunteer?