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'Rocky' does Halloween
A new look and attitude transform the traditional play for one night
"I think we touched on it last year, but I think it's more evolved this year. Little by little his folly is his downfall. He has a god-like complex. If you think about it, he made a man," says Chad Oliverson of his character, Dr. Frank-N-Furter.
JEREMY CHARLES
By KAREN SHADE World Scene Writer
Published: 10/31/2009 2:19 AM
Last Modified: 10/31/2009 4:18 AM
When Chad Oliverson takes the stage as Dr. Frank-N-Furter for the fifth time Saturday night, audiences who have followed the show through the years will notice something different — that marvelous red faux-hawk will have vanished.
There are two simple reasons.
"One very functional reason — outside and wind. I am like a parasail I will blow over on stage," Oliverson said frankly. "The other is that he (the doctor) is sleek, sophisticated and cultured in his look."
In other words, the madness of King Frank-N-Furter is being kept under graceful wrappings — but for how long?
The red patent leather collar and boots that were part of his debut look have made way for Victorian corsets, and vivid colors have been toned down. If Tulsa's incarnation of the "Rocky Horror Show" broke all the rules when American Theatre Company produced it (2005-2008), this year's "A Rocky Halloween" is rewriting the book in a single night.
"A Rocky Halloween" is, in fact, an event: a production plus street party minus no-props-guidelines with a splash of decadence that says the show will go on outdoors whether it rains or not.
Call it an evolution.
"Who knows what it can open up, but the idea is it can't just be a show," Oliverson said. "We make this an event, from the beginning of the day to the beginning of the next day."
Frank's Place
When ATC decided not to present "Rocky" for a sixth time so that the company could focus on new works in honor of its
40th celebration, producer Todd Cunningham picked it up.
For first-time director Kara Staiger, the production is a "dream come true." She is looking forward to getting the crowd involved in the pre-show and the production.
"I'm so excited to get this vision up on stage," Staiger said. "It seems such a shame to do it just one night, but that's the nature of it."
In that vision, things are a little darker than they have been played in the past. When innocent sweethearts Brad and Janet leave a wedding and end up on a dark road at night in a thunder storm, they scurry to the Frankenstein place, which has been reinvented several times since Oliverson first strapped on his platform boots.
Always playful, the production always punched up the comedy and lighter side of the mad scientist, who brings Brad and Janet into his lair of debauchery.
"I think we touched on it last year, but I think it's more evolved this year. Little by little his folly is his downfall," Oliverson said. "He has a god-like complex. If you think about it, he made a man."
There's much to think about in a character like Frank-N-Furter, and Oliverson has considered it heavily. He insists, however, that this year's "Rocky Horror" will pack on the fun that everyone expects.
"This isn't deep theater," Oliverson said. "We're not going to discuss the beginnings of Brechtian movement or those things. It's still every bit as much fun. I just think it's more fun for the actors because we know the journey that we're on."
Come, throw stuff
And the audience will have a chance to participate in a way it hasn't been allowed to before. When ATC produced the show in the Tulsa Performing Arts Center, rules wouldn't allow audience members to throw toast or other props in the grand tradition of "Rocky" film showings. Since it has moved outdoors, the rules have gone.
Excepting Oliverson, Carmen Garrison is the only cast member to have been involved in "Rocky Horror" since 2005. She plays Janet, who undergoes a transformation of her own.
"I can just remember the first time I played Janet," she said, "and how distracting it was to pay attention and listen to what the audience is saying while you're trying to say your lines and take the right beats They (the audience) are either going to be much louder or there are going to be so many people, it's going to be inaudible or they're going to be throwing stuff.
It's going to be interesting. It's certainly going to be an animal we haven't attacked yet."
Oliverson, however, does have some requests.
"If you're going to bring some props from home, don't bring rice for the birds, please. Please, bring bird seed. I don't want to see birds bloated and dying. And please don't throw it at the stage. Pelt each other all you want, but we're in heels on that stage."
Water guns, he added, are good too, "as long as they shoot each other and not me I will melt. I'm wearing Dupioni silk and about five pounds of make-up and hairspray. I will melt."
A Rocky Halloween
Pre-show activities, music, street
party and live production of “Rocky
Horror Show”
When: 8 p.m. Saturday (Crossland
opens the show; musical
starts at 10 p.m.)
Where: Brady outdoor stage, 300
N. Main St.
Tickets are $25 in advance,
$30 at the door. VIP packages
are $100. Tickets are available
at tulsaworld.com/protix and by
phone at (866) 977-6849.
Karen Shade 581-8334
karen.shade@tulsaworld.com
By KAREN SHADE World Scene Writer
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