'Audience Best Part of Show'

Note: This review of the "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" (1975), which was then playing in its 13th week as a midnight show at Richmond's Biograph Theatre, appeared in the Oct. 5, 1978 issue of the University of Richmond's newspaper -- The Collegian.  

Audience Best Part of Show by Jada Pardew, News Editor

Toast, crackers, rice and water were in the air, on the floor and stuck to clothing they wore. It was not the result of a recent food fight at the University of Richmond. It was, however, part of the aftermath of a midnight movie showing.

The movie is the "The Rocky Horror Picture Show," and the audience's reaction does not stop at throwing food. The air is also filled with playing cards, toilet paper and confetti. Moviegoers dance in the aisles, dress like characters from the film, chant lines and cue actors. With them they bring props: boxes of rice, plant misters, teddy bears, umbrellas and toast. 

The movie begins with a wedding, and the audience begins its act by throwing rice at one another. Later in the movie the actors are lost in a rain storm. The audience also experiences the storm from plant misters and squirt guns that are pulled out. Simultaneously, some members of the audience pulled out umbrellas and newspapers to cover their heads. 

There is little, if any, plot to the movie. Without the bizarre reaction of the audience, the movie would be nothing more than a second rate film about transvestites. 

In its 13th week, the show is usually sold out, according to Terry Rea, the theater's manager. Although nothing has been destroyed during the showings, The cost of a ticket has increased from $2.50 to $2.75 to offset the cost of cleaning, which takes two people three or four hours. 

Rea commented that there was little audience participation during the first two or three weeks that the movie was shown. However, after members of the audience returned again and again, the amount of spontaneous participation skyrocketed to its present level. 

"The Rocky Horror Picture Show" is playing at midnight on Fridays and Saturdays at the Biograph Theatre, 814 W. Grace St.

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