The Rocky Horror Show experience
The musical’s fans have turned performances into an interactive adventure
You could call actor Robert Markus the Pied Piper of the Stratford Festival’s gloriously outrageous production of The Rocky Horror Show. As hunchback “handyman” Riff Raff, Markus encourages audiences to their feet to sing and dance along as he leads “The Time Warp” in the Avon Theatre.
The energetic number, says Markus, is “an invitation to dance.”
Now the invitation is being offered even longer, with Rocky
Horror Show performances extended to Nov. 11 due to box office demand fuelled in part by people seeking repeated Rocky
Horror fixes. Stratford audiences are enthusiastically going full Rocky, dressing up like favourite characters and hollering cheeky call-out lines to the cast.
Among them is Lauren Gienow, 31, a Stratford occupational therapist who has seen the camp rock musical 17 times — and counting.
“It’s not like any experience I’ve had in an audience before,” says Gienow, a Stratford Festival regular who usually sees each season’s entire playbill.
Watching fellow theatregoers singing, dancing and gleefully yelling quips got her hooked. “I wanted to be part of that. It lit that fire under me,” she says.
She went to more performances and was soon adding her own call-outs, inspired by online research and her own creativity.
“I feel like I might have a degree in Rocky Horror,” says Gienow with a laugh.
She likes to bring friends along and enjoys seeing their reaction to the theatrical mayhem.
“It’s so much fun. There are so few shows that have such a crazy cult following,” says Markus of the audience engagement, especially the call-outs.
Audiences are so good at it, Markus says it takes a lot of focus to stay in character when a fresh zinger lands.
Based on the original London stage show and cult movie that followed, The Rocky Horror Show stars Dan Chameroy as the corset-and-fishnets-wearing, sexually liberated mad scientist Frank N. Furter. Donna Feore is director and choreographer.
Markus is a musical theatre veteran who made his Stratford debut in the title role in the rock musical Tommy. He also appears at Stratford this season in beloved Broadway musical The Music Man as Jacey Squires, also directed and choreographed by Feore.
He says he’s never seen a crowd react to a musical like Rocky Horror audiences have.
“Stratford is ready to party,” he says.
The show underscores the rich variety on Stratford’s slate this year, he says. “You can go see The Tempest and then go see Rocky Horrorand it’s a totally different experience.”
He says he’s been impressed by the elaborate costumes on people of all ages.
He’s sure the Halloween night performance is going to be a true experience, with the audience dressed to thrill and out to party.
Think Rocky Horror on steroids, plus an extra hit of crazy fun.
Of course, Gienow will be there, although she’s not sure which character she’ll be dressing up as for the big night.
And she’s already purchased tickets for the extended run, hoping Rocky Horror will play even longer to give her a monster present on her birthday, Nov. 17.