PORT ANGELES — The looming question about “The Rocky Horror Show,” said Richard Stephens, “was not ‘Should we do it?’ but ‘Why haven’t we done it yet?'”
So, a cast of young and nubile to slightly older, agile performers are just about to do it: the “Time Warp” dance, the “Sweet Transvestite” serenade and ditties like “Hot Patootie” and “Toucha Toucha Me!” in this, the outrageous rock musical.
Generations have been jumping into the Time Warp, tossing toast and singing along with “I Do the Rock” ever since the first “Rocky Horror” spilled across the London stage in 1973. And that, of course, was followed by “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” the movie version, whose midnight showings made it a cult classic from 1975 onward.
Tweaked for 21st century
But beware. Stephens and company have switched up this creature to highlight what they call “the hot buttons” circa 2010.
Back in the ’70s, those hot buttons were the bawdy getups barely covering the bodies of characters such as Dr. Frank N. Furter, his handyman Riff Raff and the alien Transylvanians.
But transvestism just isn’t so shocking anymore. Little Port Angeles hosts the Esprit conference for cross-dressing men every spring, after all.
So Stephens, “Horror’s” production designer and maker of its 30 costumes, went a little bit further. Let’s just say there’s a lot of leather and chains in this version.
The show also has a cast that’s been having a Rocky good time.
There’s the bunch of dancing phantoms and Transylvanians, festooned with riotous wigs, shimmering bodysuits and LED lights; the beautiful blond creature played by Blake McCabe; and our engaged couple Brad and Janet, played by Steven Canepa, 20, and Nikki Adams, 21. They — and everybody else on stage — are breathlessly awaiting opening night this coming Thursday.
Sean Peck-Collier, 23, slithers in one of the more voluptuous outfits as Dr. Frank N. Furter. His bustier has conical protrusions from the chest, parts of his legs are decorated with fishnet stockings, a fluffy feather boa encircles his neck and beneath it all are shiny red platform shoes the actor says he got for his birthday.
“Wear it enough, and it becomes like a second skin,” he said, straight-faced, at a dress rehearsal this week.
What drew Peck-Collier to “Rocky Horror” was the show’s “absolute wackiness,” he added. But wait. “Wacky” doesn’t do it justice.
“It is so campy, so out there, so different from everything else,” he said, shaking his tall-wigged head.
“Rocky Horror” is a sendup of 1960s horror movies, Stephens says, with a sexy 1970s sheen laid over that. His production is to be an audience-participation extravaganza, with performers Time-Warping among the patrons, who are urged to come dressed in their most flamboyant ensembles.
But again, this stage production is no imitation of the film.
“Not all of the props that people expect to bring to use in the movie theater will be needed,” said director and Peninsula College drama professor Lara Starcevich. She and the college crew, frankly, would rather people didn’t bring the traditional toast or other foods that would litter the Little Theater.
“But you’ll still need your newspaper to protect yourself from the rain,” she said, “and we invite people to hold up their cell phones” when the cast sings “There’s a light on over at the Frankenstein place.”
Special guest appearance
The college is tossing something else into the mix: On opening night Thursday, Peninsula College President Tom Keegan will make a one-time appearance in “Rocky Horror,” as the criminologist who narrates the show.
Set in the 1950s, our “Horror” tale opens with Brad and his sweetheart Janet in normal clothes. Brad proposes marriage, and after Janet accepts, they go off to see an old professor of Brad’s. A fierce storm hits, they get lost in the woods, and then they find a castle and decide to venture forth to use its phone.
Riff Raff, played by Andrew Shanks, brings them inside and, via the Time Warp, introduces them to festivities the likes of which they’ve never dreamt. The couple’s outlook is changed forever as they meet Frank N. Furter, who’s built a beautiful creature — and is poised to bring it to life.
What ensues is “mature content,” as the show poster says. Frank N. Furter, see, is a bisexual alien whose voracious appetites lead him to go after anyone he encounters, including Brad and Janet. The big “Horror” dance numbers are punctuated by a lot of pelvic action, and the songs are not your usual wholesome Americana.
All of this is a collaboration by Peninsula College and the Port Angeles Light Opera Association, with the intent of giving students and other amateur actors the opportunity to perform in a lavish, high-caliber musical, said Stephens.
And it has been a blast, said his 20-year-old daughter, actress Tia Stephens, who plays a dancing phantom. She said she’s lost 20 pounds while preparing for the show, via much onstage gyration and by working out more often to look good in her costume.
The show is just an hour and 40 minutes — “really short,” she added.
“But a lot happens,” said Canepa. Both he and Adams, as Brad and Janet, said the highlight for them is “Dammit, Janet!” the song around the marriage proposal.
Theater newbies
The production, with its infectious, irreverent rock music, has attracted people who’ve never been on a theater stage before. Lisa Welch and her daughter Sarah McFadden, a couple of phantoms, are two such performers.
Like the rest of the cast, they’re fully made over by their wild wigs and costumes. During the day, the “Rocky Horror” players can be found in Peninsula College classrooms and working in coffee shops, mortgage companies, Westport shipyard, Bella Italia and in the case of Peck-Collier, Sequim’s Domaine Madeleine bed and breakfast inn.
Richard Stephens, who sewed every last “Rocky” outfit, is a Peninsula Daily News advertising executive — and the director of another production just down the street. “Meet Me in St. Louis,” about as far from “Rocky Horror” as you can get, opens at the Port Angeles Community Playhouse on Friday, Nov. 19. The “mental gymnastics” as he prepares both shows are quite contorting, he said.
The “Rocky” production crew, meantime, includes stage manager Illa-Marie Bjelland, production manager Jon Kacirk, technical designer Jim Doell, special effects orchestrator Russell May, sound man Tim Brye, lighting designer Bob Lumens and wig master James Rose. Together, they have assembled one dazzling spectacle, Stephens said.
He then offers a moral for this gleefully immoral story.
“Don’t dream it, be it!” Frank N. Furter urges toward the end of “Rocky Horror.” To Stephens’ mind, that means be your biggest, most outrageous self and embrace life.
“The Rocky Horror Show” takes the stage at 7:30 p.m. next Thursday and Friday, Nov. 12, and at 2 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 13, and the short run ends with an 11 p.m. performance Nov. 13. Tickets are $15 at the Bookaneer bookstore at Peninsula College, online at www.paloa.org, at Sequim Gym, 145 E. Washington St. in downtown Sequim, and at Northwest Fudge and Confections, 108 W. First St. in downtown Port Angeles.
