It’s going to be a real horror show at Hart House for the next few weeks. Not to be confused with the 1975 film adaptation The Rocky Horror Picture Show, the classic rock musical The Rocky Horror Show checks into Hart House Theatre for a three-week run that promises to up the ante and break every campus theatre taboo-the show features an “audience advisory” for adult content and a rare midnight performance (Jan. 28) for all the hardcore Transylvanian time-warp junkies out there.
Presented by UC Follies in partnership with Hart House and directed by U of T musical theatre veteran Elenna Mosoff, the convention-bending show has stayed true to its flamboyant form, already generating a mean amount of buzz around town. So far the production has garnered coverage from several local TV stations, including a cast appearance on CityTV’s Breakfast Television.
In the years since its 1973 debut in London, The Rocky Horror Show has developed a reputation for pushing the boundaries of what is acceptable on stage.
“Oh, God, it’s definitely R-rated,” says Mosoff while taking a break from a recent dress rehearsal. “Everything from the costumes to the dance moves to the blatant comfort with sex, drugs, and rock and roll… It’s all there.”
Whips, chains, and motorcycles aside, the show’s plot follows the horror-genre standard: Brad and Janet, a newly engaged straitlaced couple, become stranded in the woods on a dark and stormy night. Then it gets weirder: desperate for a telephone, they stumble upon a remote castle hidden in the forest, only to find that it’s the erotic laboratory of gender-bending extraterrestrial scientist Dr. Frank N. Furter (played in the Hart House show by Andrew Moyes), and to top it all off, he’s throwing a crazy sex party which they must now bear witness to. Things really heat up when Dr. Furter takes more than a liking to both Brad and Janet, challenging their views towards sex and their commitment to each other.
For Mosoff, getting a reaction out of her audience is everything.
“Every reaction is a good reaction,” the director declares. “Whether you feel uncomfortable, or liberated by it, or it makes you want to go home and get laid, it’s going to make you feel something.”
History would seem to validate her point-in both its movie and musical form, the Rocky Horror story has won over a dedicated and creative cult following. In Toronto, screenings of the film at the Bloor Cinema have become must-see-events complete with elaborate and hilarious audience participation elements, including scripted call-outs yelled in unison in response to certain characters’ lines, or the en masse firing of squirt guns to recreate a rainstorm. The show is famous for inducing a rowdy, free-spirited atmosphere amongst its audience.
Paying homage to the famous Bloor Cinema screenings, Mosoff has cast Nancy Hitzig, who often appears at the Bloor showings as a member of the ‘shadow cast’ that mimics what’s happening on screen, to play the role of the emcee in the Hart House production. Though that bit of casting may seem like a neat fit, casting for the project was generally anything but smooth.
“With 11 rounds of auditions, casting the show was a bit of a nightmare,” Mosoff explains. “We had to cast each part at least twice.” A self-described perfectionist, Mosoff is thrilled with the final ensemble, describing them lovingly as “a twisted unit of people.”
“The level of professionalism in this cast is better than any I’ve ever worked with,” she boasts, which means a lot considering she’s previously been at the helm of two hit musicals at Hart House, 2004’s A Chorus Line, and last season’s Godspell.
As is the norm for most Hart House shows, the cast comprises both dedicated students and theatre professionals. Playing the flamboyant Dr. Frank N. Furter is Australian-born actor Andrew Moyes, who Mosoff claims has never seen the film version, and is in real life “a very conservative person.” Moyes, who moved to Canada last April after an acting stint in Dubai (that’s in the United Arab Emirates, kids) was initially reluctant to take the part. It took some convincing by Mosoff to get him to play the sweet transvestite, but after deciding to take a risk, “he was really able to take the part and turn it into something that is completely amazing and new,” she notes.
The show’s three-week run is longer than any Hart House production in recent memory, and Mosoff expects that over the course of its 13 performances, The Rocky Horror Show will continue to evolve: “If you come in the first week, and then again in the last week, it’s going to be a totally different show.”
The Rocky Horror Show runs Jan. 18 to Feb. 4 at Hart House Theatre. Tickets ($12 for students) are available at uofttix.ca.
