'Rocky Horror' screenings, stage show set for Halloween

Are you in the mood to do "The Time Warp" again?

Well, you won't have to travel very far to brush off those crazy 1970s dance steps this Halloween season.

With four screenings of "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" planned in Stamford, Danbury, Norwalk and Uncasville, and a live production of the original stage show set for the Warner Theatre in Torrington, the show's many cultists should be on cloud nine this weekend.

For those who came in late, "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" is the 1975 movie version of a 1974 London stage hit that at first flopped in the United States -- in both versions -- but slowly built into one of the biggest cult attractions of all time.

Starting as a midnight movie in New York City in 1976, the film swept the nation -- city by city -- over the next few years, drawing fans who would come back again and again, dressed as their favorite characters in the sexy horror musical spoof.

The fans also like to anticipate -- and mock -- favorite lines in the movie by shouting them out before the characters on the screen do. Neither the arrival of VHS nor DVD has impacted "Rocky Horror" as a live movie or stage show phenomenon.

Locally, this year's wave of "Rocky Horror"-mania starts in Stamford Thursday, Oct. 25, with a 9 p.m. showing at the Avon Theatre as part of its monthly cult classics series. The Cabaret Theater at Mohegan Sun in Uncasville will screen the movie Friday, Oct. 26, at 11:45 p.m. The Palace in Danbury is showing "Rocky Horror" Saturday, Oct. 27, at 8 p.m. and the Maritime Aquaur-ium in Norwalk will screen it twice the same night at 8 and 11.

Each of the screenings offers a slightly different experience.

The Avon is running a costume contest for audience members, the Palace in Danbury is offering "prop packs" containing all of the items that die-hard fans have brandished at the movie for the past 35 years, and the Mohegan Sun screening is being offered as a free amenity at the casino.

Chris Loynd, marketing director of the Maritime Aquarium, has bragging rights when it comes to the size of the screen and the power of the sound system that will be blasting Meat Loaf's rendition of "Hot Patootie/Bless My Soul."

"You may be able to see (it) in other theaters, but no one else has Dr. Frank-N-Furter on a 60-foot screen (and no one else has) a 12,000 watt digital surround-sound system," he boasted.

Sharon Wilcox, the executive in charge of production at the Warner Theatre in Torrington, reminds "Rocky Horror" fans that the piece did begin life as a London stage musical (with most of the original cast repeating their roles in the film).

The Torrington production will be presented on Friday, Oct. 26, and Saturday, Oct. 27, at 9 and 11:59 p.m.

"We've been doing the show for the past four years and I think it's a lot more fun than the movie," she said.

"It kind of all started with the Broadway revival (in 2001)," she said of the Warner's production. "It breathed new life into the show and we jumped on the bandwagon."

Not only have some of the same audience members returned each October in Torrington, but many of the cast members this year are veterans of the earlier productions.

"They've all had such a blast doing it that they try to come back if they can," she said, adding that the live energy of the Warner Theatre "Rocky Horror" will once again be bolstered by the local rock band, Vinyl Vortex.

jmeyers@ctpost.com; 203-330-6332; http://twitter.com/joesview or http://blog.ctnews.com/meyers

For complete information on the various "Rocky Horror" productions, visit the following websites -- Avon Theatre, Stamford (www.avontheatre.org); Maritime Aquarium, Norwalk (www.maritimeaquarium.org); Palace, Danbury (www.thepalacedanbury.com); Mohegan Sun, Uncasville (www.mohegansun.com/entertainment); Warner Theatre, Torrington (www.warnertheatre.org)