Tony and Golden Globe-winning actor Barry Bostwick — the original Brad Majors from the 1975 cult-classic film “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” — is getting ready to do the time warp again.
This time it’ll be at the Wharton Center, which will host a screening of the film on Oct. 15. The Michigan Rocky Horror Preservation Society will perform alongside the film as a live shadow cast, and guests can also enjoy a memorabilia display and a costume contest.
This marks Bostwick’s first time in East Lansing. Not only will he speak about “Rocky Horror,” but he’ll be available for a VIP meet-and-greet experience. No outside props will be permitted, but there will be prop bags on sale for $10, complete with glowsticks, newspapers, noisemakers, playing cards, toilet paper and more.
“The crux of the evening is we’re throwing a big party for those who want to come and witness what they remember from back in high school or college,” Bostwick said. “It’s an experience, a happening. Every night we do it is different. We’re on our third generation of partygoers now — that’s a lot of beer in the bellies!”
“Rocky Horror” blends numerous genres — musical, comedy, parody, horror, science-fiction — paying homage to low-budget sci-fi and horror movies of the 1950s and ‘60s.
“I’ve been a fan of this movie ever since we made it way back when,” Bostwick said. “It’s a one-off, a phenomenon. It’ll never be recreated in the way the fans created this entertainment. They’re really the ones who made ‘Rocky Horror’ into what it is. We just made a little movie in five weeks in 1974.”
In addition to Bostwick, who played Danny Zuko in 1972’s original Broadway production of “Grease,” George Washington in two mid-1980s miniseries and Mayor Randall Winston on the ABC sitcom “Spin City,” the movie most notably stars Susan Sarandon as Janet Weiss, Tim Curry as Dr. Frank-N-Furter and singer/actor Meat Loaf as Eddie.
The movie opens with newly engaged couple Brad and Janet’s car breaking down. They walk to a nearby castle, which is occupied by misfits. There, they meet Frank-N-Furter, a mad scientist who creates his own version of Frankenstein’s monster, the musclebound Rocky (former model Peter Hinwood). Frank subsequently seduces the couple. In the end, it’s revealed he’s actually an alien transvestite from the planet Transsexual in the Transylvania galaxy.
Upon release, “Rocky Horror” received negative reviews. However, it became a hit on the midnight movie circuit. The screening of non-mainstream movies at midnight was aimed at building esoteric audiences, encouraging repeat viewing and social interaction. Fans began dressing up as the characters and performing alongside the film, spawning similar performance groups across the nation.
Bostwick attributes the success of “Rocky Horror” to its legions of fans.
“I don’t think a lot of people were into it until it took off on the midnight circuit. It happened simply because of the audience, who wanted to act up, act out, have an evening in the theater that they controlled with their enthusiasm and drunkenness,” he said. “I think it’s a rock concert with a few lines in between that ended up being a social phenomenon. It didn’t start as that. It started out as a collection of good rock ‘n’ roll with this storyline slapped on top of it.”
According to Bostwick, when they were filming in England, the cast didn’t get much time to know each other. From the moment they arrived, they spent a week in rehearsals, then began filming at a site an hour and a half from London, where they were staying.
“We were up early in the morning, going to the studio and going back to London at the end of the day,” Bostwick said. “You barely had time to eat your dinner before you went to sleep. The little we knew each other, the more I wanted to get to know them, but it was so short.
“Consequently, I’ve gotten to know them much better since,” he continued. “We’ll do the occasional convention. We all get together and celebrate what we were able to accomplish back then.”
Bostwick is looking forward to his visit to Wharton, but he offered a word of warning.
“If you see it in front of a shadow cast and it’s your first time seeing it, you probably won’t hear much of the movie. What you’ll hear is the guy next to you and the people all around you who are entertaining themselves as they’re being entertained by the movie,” he explained.
Bostwick doesn’t mind being remembered for “Rocky Horror.”
“The words (fans) use to describe me are totally apropos for my character, and anything yelled at this movie is always yelled with love and affection,” he said. “It’s the longest continuously running movie in film history. It’s always on the big screen somewhere. It’s in the Library of Congress. Back then, this kind of entertainment didn’t exist, where the audience came in and threw stuff and yelled and acted out the characters. They still do!”
“Thirst”
Through Oct. 20
7:30 p.m. Friday-Saturday
2 p.m. Thursday, Saturday-Sunday
Williamston Theatre
122 S. Putnam St., Williamston
“Pickleball”
Oct. 3-6 (SOLD OUT)
7 p.m. Thursday
8 p.m. Friday-Saturday
2 p.m. Sunday
Riverwalk Theatre
228 Museum Drive, Lansing
“Inherit the Wind”
MSU Department of Theatre
Oct. 4-6 and 9-13
7:30 p.m. Wednesday-Thursday
8 p.m. Friday-Saturday
2 p.m. Sunday; Oct. 12
Arena Theatre
542 Auditorium Road, East Lansing
“Les Misérables”
Oct. 8-13
7:30 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday
2 p.m. Saturday
1 and 6:30 p.m. Sunday
Wharton Center Cobb Great Hall
750 E. Shaw Lane, East Lansing
“Snow White and the Seven Dudes”
LCC Performing Arts
7 p.m. Oct. 11-12
LCC Black Box Theatre
411 N. Grand Ave., Lansing
“Turn, Turn, Turn”
Ixion Ensemble Theatre
Oct. 11-13 and 18-20
7 p.m. Friday-Saturday
3 p.m. Sunday
Stage One at Sycamore Creek Eastwood
2200 Lake Lansing Road, Lansing
www.facebook.com/IxionEnsemble
“101 Dalmatians KIDS”
All-of-Us Express Children’s Theatre
3 p.m. Oct. 12-13
Hannah Community Center
819 Abbot Road, East Lansing
“The Rocky Horror Picture Show” screening
Featuring a live shadow cast
7:30 p.m. Oct. 15
Wharton Center Cobb Great Hall
750 E. Shaw Lane, East Lansing
“The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical”
LCC Performing Arts
Oct. 18-20 and 25-27
7 p.m. Friday-Saturday
2 p.m. Sunday
Dart Auditorium
500 N. Capitol Ave., Lansing
“The Haunting of Hill House”
Audio Air Force
7 p.m. Oct. 25-26
Hannah Community Center
819 Abbot Road, East Lansing
www.facebook.com/audioairforce
“Puffs, or Seven Increasingly Eventful Years at a Certain School of Magic and Magic”
All-of-Us Express Children’s Theatre
Nov. 1-3 and 8-10
7 p.m. Friday
3 p.m. Saturday-Sunday
Hannah Community Center
819 Abbot Road, East Lansing
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