The recipe for a perfect Halloween Night: Live Music, Speciality Drinks, Costumes, Cult Classics, Brad, Janet and Dr. Frank-N-Furter!
Rocky Horror Picture Show is back at Walton Arts Center and this year we are tightening our garter belts and bringing a party to the slab! Before the beloved sci-fi and horror film, time warp dance the night away in our atrium with other Rocky Horror fans. When the Baum Walker Hall doors open, go back to 1975 film and sing along with your favorite songs!
DON”T FORGET THE PROPS! Get ready to following along with the movie with a Rocky Horror prop bag, being sold at concessions the night of the showing. The prop bag includes: Newspaper, Flashlight, Rubber Gloves, Noisemakers (Kazoos), Toilet Paper, Toast, Party Hats, Cowbell and Cards
If this is your first or twenty-first time seeing this film, we've revealed some Rocky Horror secrets and surprises below. Test your trivia knowledge and keep a keen-eye out in the movie that will make for a sinfully twisted Halloween night.
The Rocky Horror Picture Show holds the record for the longest theatrical film release
'The Rocky Horror Picture Show' may have been an infamous bomb when it hit theaters in 1975, but it more than made up for its initial losses by becoming a midnight movie standard. Lou Adler, the film's executive producer, noticed that several small but dedicated groups of fans had been attending some late night shows on a regular basis. So he organized a screening in New York City with virtually no advertising. The word of mouth turned the screenings into sold out shows and it wasn't long before the film became a cult classic. Audiences have danced along to 'The Time Warp' in theaters across the country for the last 37 years with no signs of stopping.
And one iconic song was a late addition to the original stage play.
Richard Hartley, who composed the songs alongside O’Brien, told The Guardian that the original script only made for a 40-minute long performance. “Time Warp” was initially added to stretch the play out longer, but it would go on to become one of Rocky Horror‘s most beloved songs.
Susan Sarandon was performing in a musical for the first time – with pneumonia.
Sarandon had a few acting credits under her belt when she took the role of prim, innocent Janet, but Rocky Horror was her first gig in a musical. To complicate matters, filming in the rain gave her pneumonia. As O’Brien explained to The Guardian, “When [Sarandon] sings ‘Wild and Untamed Thing’ in the pool, she should have been under medical supervision. She’d had a shocking cold and was shaking with fever, but still she went on.”
Tim Curry has a story about unsuccessfully trying to attend a midnight screening of Rocky Horror.
As Curry recalled on NPR’s Fresh Air in 2005, he once tried to call a New York theater that was holding one of the “audience participation” screenings of Rocky Horror, only to be told by the ticket agent “You’re the third Tim Curry to call this week.” When he simply went in person to get a ticket, he was thrown out for being an imposter. When Curry produced his passport, the usherette apologized, but he ultimately told her, “I wouldn’t dream of going back in.”
Rocky Horror was deemed to be "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress.
In 2005, Rocky Horror was added to the Library of Congress’ National Film Registry, along with The Sting, Toy Story and A Raisin in the Sun. And that’s remarkable, considering how it made it in before movies like Sophie’s Choice, Coal Miner’s Daughter and a long list of other films that you might expect would have been deemed worthy by now.
The movie features literal Easter eggs.
Many movies have “easter eggs” – little hidden things waiting to be noticed by sharp-eyed fans – but Rocky Horror has actual colored eggs hidden around the set. The crew allegedly had staged a literal Easter egg hunt on the set, and some of them proved so well-hidden that they ended up in the movie – like this one you see beneath Frank-N-Furter’s throne.
And there was a genuine reaction of horror in one key scene.
As O’Brien recalled to The Guardian: “Jim [Sharman], directing, played pranks on us throughout filming. When Eddie’s corpse was revealed under the dining table, it came as a real shock: None of us had been aware that it was there apart from Tim Curry because he was the one who had to whip the tablecloth off. Jim wanted a natural reaction.”
The Rocky Horror Picture Show
A Halloween Party
Wednesday, Oct. 31
Join us in your best Rocky Horror themed costume, and sing along with this screamingly funny, sinfully twisted salute to sci-fi, horror, B-movies and rock music - the most popular cult classic of all time. BYOP* (Bring Your Own Props) for this interactive, unforgettable Halloween night out!