Through October 20-23, the University of Georgia’s University Union hosted a live performance of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. For those that know the show and the terminology, I was a total virgin on opening night (meaning that I had never seen the show before). I’d always wanted to see the show, but since one of my best friends happened to be the female lead, I decided the best time to lose my virginity was to see it performed at my college.
The show involves shadow-casting the original movie from 1975. The new cast acts out the movie as it plays directly behind them. While they do this, the audience is meant to call out crude and funny comments. Since the movie itself is arguably not great, the purpose of the show today is to make fun of it.
Seeing Rocky Horror live for the first time requires intense preparation. Not only should you watch the original film, but you must also have an experienced Rocky-goer tell you what all the best “callouts” are. What makes seeing the show so special is the importance of audience participation. Typically, in theater, the audience must remain quiet during a performance—but that rule does not apply in Rocky. Without members of the audience screaming out comments and jokes about the show, it wouldn’t be the cult-classic it is today. Plus, what isn’t great about a dance number in the near beginning of the show that requires the entire audience to stand up and dance along with the cast?
Before I went to see the show on opening night, my friends and I went on a shopping trip to Plato’s Closet to find outrageous outfits. The audience is meant to dress “slutty” or just crazy; however, students at UGA must not have known this detail, since the majority of the people who attended the show, across all four nights, did not dress up any differently than they would have for school. Despite this fact, my friends and I dressed up the best we could for each night, and some of my friends even won the costume contest three-out-of-four nights.
The first night I walked into Tate Theater wearing my revealing outfit, I felt judged and like I shouldn’t be wearing what I was wearing. This was mostly due to the fact that most of the students attending were virgins to the show—since one of my best friends was the lead, I had more knowledge and understanding on what was to be expected out of the cast and the audience. Thankfully, I was not alone, and there were a handful of hard-core Rocky Horror fans who were dressed up crazier than I was. One man, in particular, was dressed in a corset and panties two nights in a row; he was also the main member of the audience participating in the callouts. Many of the callouts are uniform across performances, but new and original callouts are always encouraged. By the third and fourth showing, my friend and I became the members of the audience responsible for making the crowd laugh from the callouts.
Hearing people around the theater laugh because of what I yelled out was a thrill. I felt like I was making my friend on stage proud, and I felt like a true fan of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. There was one callout in particular that many virgins of the show did not enjoy. An experienced Rocky-goer learns to never be surprised by what is said in the crowd, but since most of the theater was full of virgins, the more sensitive callouts were not in favor. My good friend, who played Janet, encouraged us prior to the show to say the sensitive callouts—so we did each night. I learned not to be afraid of saying what I thought was funny, because the purpose of Rocky is to feel like you’re in a safe space, and I did.
The cast of the show were mostly freshmen at UGA, which is a big deal considering the competition for the roles. Since seeing the show live at my college was the first time I ever saw it performed, I can’t say for sure how the cast did in regards to a professional performance. However, I do know that they did an excellent job of making me feel like the movie was happening right in front of me, and they all looked excellent in a corset and fishnets. Seeing my friend perform the lead female role, the same role her mother did early in life as well, made me feel blessed to be surrounded by such talented people in my life. Seeing this show gave me a new love for The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and I will certainly see it performed the next chance I get.
Cover Photo by Adrianna Calvo from Pexels