The Rocky Horror Show, There are extraterrestrials in New Hope this weekend, but you need not be alarmed. They’re in the cast of “The Rocky Horror Show,” now in its second and final weekend at New Hope’s Bucks County Playhouse for the second year in a row since the playhouse’s extensive renovations in 2012.
Returning from last October’s sell-out production are its director and about half its cast of misfit Earthlings and both wise and rebel aliens. Director Hunter Foster, who also directed “Ain’t Misbehavin’” earlier this season at BCP, and Nick Cearley, who plays Brad, have happy memories of last season’s success, but they agreed that a few of the non-scripted innovations they tried last time could be changed or improved.
The show originated in London in 1973 after an unemployed actor named Richard O’Brien combined his love of stage musicals with his earlier affection for films including low-budget horror flicks spotlighting the poor decisions of stranded teenagers, Steve Reeve muscle epics, and the wild speculations of extraterrestrial invasion tales into a script that would give himself and some of his fellow actors employment.
The show opened at the 63-seat, upstairs, adaptable space of the Royal Court Theatre, and, when it proved popular, it transferred to several cinemas on the nearby Kings Road where it played after that venue’s films were finished for the evening. It won the prestigious award as best musical of 1973 from The Evening Standard, a popular London newspaper, and ran for almost 3,000 performances, closing in 1980 after a stint at the Comedy Theatre in London’s more respectable theatrical district.
“The show was an international success long before its film version, retitled ‘The Rocky Horror Picture Show,’ gave it a cult following in later years. Although audience participation involving shouted out lines and responses to script lines and activities like audience members dressing in costumes gave the show added dimension, we tell a clever and satiric story here. I don’t want us to lose sight of that narrative,” says Foster.
Foster reported that the show wasn’t a hit on Broadway when it opened in 1975 after a successful nine-month run in Los Angeles. It played a mere 48 performances at New York’s Belasco Theatre, but it did earn a Tony Award nomination as best musical.
It has played on six of seven continents, and original cast recordings of productions around the world are available in languages including German, Japanese, Danish, Spanish, Norwegian, Portuguese, Finnish, Korean, Polish, and Icelandic as well as cast recordings from three different London versions.
Kevin Cahoon, returning as Dr. Frank-n-Furter, a renegade scientist who creates the title character in his laboratory, recalled last year’s madcap experiences happily.
“In 2013, I danced in my underwear and made out with numerous audience members,” said Cahoon, anticipating the anything-can-happen atmosphere that makes each performance at least slightly different from any other.
A character named The Narrator (played by John Bolton who also plays several other roles) introduces Janet Weiss (Alyse Alan Louis) and Brad Majors (Nick Cearley), a young engaged couple whose car has a flat tire on a stormy night. Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending upon one’s point of view, they’re near an old castle where they trudge to use the telephone. There, they meet not only the pansexual, cross-dressing scientist who conducts experiments he believes can create life, but also a unique assortment of colorful characters like Magenta (Ryah Nixon) and Riff Raff (Jeremy Kushnier) who more than live up to their descriptions in “Science Fiction Double Feature,” one of the scores delightfully varied songs.
Nick Cearley, totally new to “the Rocky experience” last year, discovered some of the challenges from the traditions that have grown up around the show.
“I had no idea that the audience was also just like a character in the show. Every time my character’s name was mentioned, people yelled out something rude, and that was a bit shocking, but I got over that. People shouted out lines before characters said them, but those of us onstage said them anyway, and people responded to our scripted lines with comments of their own. Some of those comments were wildly funny, and many were socially relevant to the current political or social scene. We really had to stay on our toes.
“Now that I’m used to those things, I can concentrate on my character more. Brad is very naïve and tentative, ignorant and closeted about any sort of sexuality just as his girlfriend Janet is, and, since Brad is one of those who survive what turns out to be a deadly night at the castle, he learns some things about himself which will help him grow as a person,” says Cearley.
“Not only does Brad get to do that wonderful dance called ‘The Time Warp’ with everyone else, but he also gets a solo which was cut from the film, and so many people don’t know it. I even get to accompany myself on the ukulele during that number, a talent I haven’t had a chance to use too much.”
