Broadway Olympia’s ‘Rocky Horror’ will once again help Olympia let its freak flag fly

“The Rocky Horror Show,” opening on Halloween in Olympia, is a not just another musical.

It’s a carnival of camp.

It’s a festival of freaks.

And since its 1973 premiere, “Rocky” and its cinematic sibling, “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” have been for many people a mind-opening and even life-changing event.

So it was for Broadway Olympia managing director Kyle Murphy. He was 16 when he saw Harlequin Productions’ 1995 take on the show, starring a corset-and-fishnets-clad Jeff Kingsbury as Frank N. Furter, the mad scientist who leads the show’s merry band of madcap misfits.

“I saw all of these local actors doing something that pushed boundaries, and they were doing it without any shame, without any discomfort,” Murphy told The Olympian. “It was unapologetic.

“That piece of art was different than anything I’d seen in my life.”

He also loved the subversive subject matter, rock-driven score and playful interaction with the audience. Two decades later, it was the one show he insisted that Broadway Olympia produce in its first season. 

“It was my dream,” he said.

It also was a dream for director Chris Serface of Tacoma, who played Furter follower Riff Raff in Capital Playhouse’s 2001 production and who, like Murphy, has seen both play and movie numerous times.

“This will be a ‘Rocky’ like Olympia has not seen before, and Olympia has a history with ‘The Rocky Horror Show,’ ” he told The Olympian.

Like the movie, the play follows the misadventures of wholesome twosome Brad (Guy Taylor Simpson III of Olympia) and Janet (Ashley Roy of Tacoma) when they wind up at the mansion occupied by Furter (Mauro Bozzo of Puyallup) and friends. (Theatrical Renaissance man Bruce Haasl of Olympia has a dual role, playing two other outsiders who fall into Furter’s hands.)

And like the movie, the show invites audiences to be part of the show. People talk back — saying lines known in “Rocky” parlance as “callbacks” — and even use props. (Prop kits will be available — outside props are not allowed, since such items as rice and water guns are risky for cast members and messy for theaters.)

So important are the callbacks that Serface and his cast will be practicing them at dress rehearsal with the help of “Rocky” regular Steven Smith of Seattle.

Smith, 73, won’t just be at the rehearsal, though: He has tickets to all six Broadway Olympia performances.

So he’s going to see the same production seven times? Really?

“It’s nothing unusual,” he told The Olympian, adding that he’s seen the play thousands of times and the film version even more often.

In fact, he was at multiple performances of the 1995 Harlequin production that captured Murphy’s imagination — and at every performance of Capital Playhouse’s 2001 production and most of the performances of Harlequin’s 2008 production.

“And that’s just in Olympia,” he said.

“When ‘Rocky’ came out, it was revolutionary,” he said. “It was a whole new world. It helped to change society in a lot of ways.

“It gave young people a place where they could go to be themselves and be accepted and have a fun time.”

That’s what the show did for him. 

“It let me know that I could be me and not worry about it,” he said. “I could be who I wanted to be.”

That, Murphy said, is the same story he heard from much of the Broadway Olympia cast.

“We went around the table at the first rehearsal and talked about ‘What was your first experience with “Rocky”?’ and ‘Why did you want to do this show?’ “ he said. “I was shocked by how many people said things like, ‘I was raised in a very conservative religious household, and this really resonated with me. This told me that it was OK to be different.’ ”

That, said Smith, is Rocky’s message: As one of the show’s songs says: “Don’t Dream It, Be It.”

‘The Rocky Horror Show’

• What: Broadway Olympia presents the campy sci-fi/horror musical that spawned “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.”
  
  
• When: 8 p.m. Oct. 31 and Nov. 1, 2 and 4; midnight Nov. 3; and 2 p.m. Nov. 4
  
  
• Where: Capitol Theater, 206 Fifth Ave. SE, Olympia
  
  
• Tickets: $25, $22 for Olympia Film Society members
  
  
• More information: 253-961-4161, broadwayolympia.com
  
  
• Also: Prop kits — including rubber gloves, confetti and more — will be available for $5. Outside props are not permitted.
  
  

This story was originally published October 24, 2018 at 5:38 PM.