Masquers to Present 'Rocky Horror Show'

Richard O'Brien's cult favorite, "The Rocky Horror Show," opens Thursday, March 3, on Fairmont State's Wallman Hall stage.

Performances will be held at 7:30 p.m. March 3, 4, 5, 10 and 11; at midnight March 5; and at 2 p.m. March 6 in the Wallman Hall Theatre. For tickets, call the Box Office at (304) 367-4240.

This homage to the horror film opened in London at the Royal Court's experimental Theatre Upstairs as a six-week workshop project in June 1973. The show received such acclaim at this 60-seat venue that it was quickly moved to larger quarters in a converted cinema in Chelsea. Following the movie theatre's demolition, the show found a permanent home at the 500-seat King's Road Theatre. The play was named the best musical of 1973 in the London Evening Standard's annual poll of drama critics. The show's international cult following began almost immediately after its London debut, with the book, music and lyrics by Richard O'Brien.

In the story, two clean-cut students, Brad Majors and his fiancée Janet Weiss, run into tire trouble on the way to visit an old college professor and seek help at a house down the road. It is the old Frankenstein place, where Dr. Frank N Furter, a transvestite from the planet Transexual in the galaxy of Transylvania, is in the midst of one of his maniacal experiments. He has created the perfectly sculpted man he calls Rocky Horror. The doctor intends to put him to good use in his kinky household retinue, presided over by a hunchback henchman named Riff Raff and his sister, Magenta, and assisted by a tap-dancing groupie-in-residence, Columbia.

Fairmont State's production is directed by Temporary Assistant Professor Randy Rittenhouse and will feature Patrick Sibbett as Brad; Brandy DeVault as Janet; Gene Hicks as Dr. Frank N Furter; Steve McElroy as Riff Raff; Christie Brooks as Magenta; Josh Brooks as Rocky; Kelsey Thompson as Columbia; Jason Young as Dr. Scott/Eddie; Rusty Thompson as the Phantom; Tiffani Davis as Usherette/Chorus; and Aaron Prenatt as Chorus. The Narrator will be played by Lauren Zirk, and additional phantoms will be Sarah Grumblatt, Jacquelyn Antulov, Jack Jackson, Amanda Wiley, Amanda Paul and Becca Muter. Valarie Huffman is the musical director, and Stephanie Adlington is the vocal director for the production.