Nearly 50 years after it bombed in movie theaters, only to be reinvented as a midnight movie cult favorite, 'The Rocky Horror Picture Show' still has fans doing the 'Time Warp' all over the world. Barry Bostwick, who played Bard Majors. talks about that enduring appeal before he hosts a special screening at the Stocker Arts Center in Elyria.
Barry Bostwick hosts "The Rocky Horror Picture Show 49th Anniversary Spectacular" at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2024, at the Stocker Arts Center, 1005 Abbe Road N., Elyria. CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Barry Bostwick’s been called “a******” for the better part of nearly 40 years now -- long enough that he’s more than OK with it.
“I think I have embraced it,” the veteran actor says, quipping that, “I think it has become part of my personality. I think it’s so much a part of me I can now go run for governor of Florida...” Bostwick is not, of course, an a****** -- at least to us. But thanks to playing Brad Majors in the 1975 film “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” it’s a sobriquet he’s carried with him due to audience participation rituals shouted nearly every time the character appears on the screen. It’s those very rituals that have made “Rocky Horror” -- an adaptation of a stage musical by British actor and playwright Richard O’Brien -- a cult classic after being a box office flop when it was released, and has allowed Bostwick to feature at comic cons and at special showings of the film like the one he’ll host on Wednesday, Oct. 16, at the “It’s like a big family,” says Bostwick, still tanned and trim at 79. “We’re on a third generation . I don’t know about you, but when I was growing up we would never think of falling in love with something our parents enjoyed, let alone our grandparents. I’m sure some of the younger members out there are a little dismayed, thinking that your grandfather has a pair of fishnet stockings with high heels in the back of his closet and that your cookie-baking grandma used to come to theaters dressed in her underwear at night, singing ‘Touch-a, Touch-a, Touch-a, Touch Me.’the fans. And as long as they’re willing to throw stuff at us and yell dirty things in a theater, we’ll be there for them.” All that said, Bostwick notes that it was not unusual for him to like the same things his own parents did when he was growing up as the youngest of two sons in San Mateo, Calif. “They liked the weird and things that were different,” Bostwick says. “My mother did some amateur theater, and so did my father, way back. I did a lot of off Off Broadway and they would come to New York from California and they would always enjoy the oddball stuff. They always encouraged me, forever and ever and ever.” Bostwick majored in acting at United States International University in San Diego and received a Master of Fine Arts from New York University in 1968. He was part of “a rock-theater commune” called the First National Nothing, which released an album in 1970, and of a band called the Klowns that was part of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus and had a hit single called “Lady Love.” His big breakthrough was scoring a Tony Nomination for originating the role of Danny Zuko in “Grease” on Broadway; he subsequently won a Tony in the 1977 musical “The Robber Bridegroom” -- after “Rocky Horror” was already out. Like many in the cast, Bostwick did not expect much out of a film, inspired by B-grade horror movies and filled with all manners of homoerotic imagery and a Bingo card’s worth of pop culture references. And all with its tongue firmly planted in the cheek behind star Tim Curry’s red-painted lips. “Richard O’Brien thought he was just writing a fairy tale,” explains Bostwick, whose other credits include the films “Swing,” “Hannah Montana: The Movie” and “Moby Dick” and the TV series “War and Remembrance” and “Spin City” “Richard O’Brien thought he was creating a fairy tale, a Hansel and Gretel meet the Big Bad Wolf. It’s a movie he said any 12-year-old could enjoy, good, clean family fun -- well, maybe except for the murder. And the S&M, the cannibalism, the incest and all that queer .a Disney movie; they bought it from Fox a couple years ago. I’m sure Walt is rolling over in his incubator, but I think it goes right along with the whole canon of Disney movies about evil queens.” Nevertheless, Bostwick argues that there is a more serious and inspirational message contained in “all the mayhem” of O’Brien’s story. “Y’know, the gospel of ‘Rocky Horror’ is ‘don’t dream it, be it’ -- be it, be anything you want,” Bostwick says. “Susan and I sing ‘There’s a light/Over at the Frankenstein place’ at the beginning of this film; I think that light has become something very important. “I think it has illuminated the way for a lot of people to act up, act out. I think it has allowed an awful lot of people to maybe examine and explore their authentic selves, and I think we’ve encouraged people to really be tolerant and embrace the differences amongst all of us.” The various “Rocky Horror” events have allowed Bostwick and his castmates to continue to spread that message. Bostwick, Patricia Quinn and Laura “Little Nell” Campbell have been regulars on the circuit, as was Meat Loaf prior to his death in 2022. More recently Sarandon -- who’d long expressed ambivalence about being in “Rocky Horror” -- and Peter Hinwood have begun making appearances, too. Dust Bowl horror with Sarah Paulson, a new adaption of ‘Salem’s Lot’ & more: Week’s best streaming TV and mov“I feel like the luckiest man in the world, are you kidding me?!” he says. “To actually do something I think had some sort of social implications and entertained an awful lot of drunk and stoned people for 49 years...How many times to you get to do something likeBarry Bostwick hosts The Rocky Horror Picture Show 49th Anniversary Spectacular at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 16, at the Stocker Arts Center, 1005 Abbe Road N., Elyria. 440-366-4040 or. Laura Campbell will host a similar event at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 15, in E.J. Thomas Hall on the University of Akron campus, 198 Hill St. Akron. 330-972-7570 or If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation.and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our
Barry-Bostwick Tim-Curry Susan-Sarandon Stocker-Art-Center University-Of-Arkron Cult-Films Midnight-Movies @Lll
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Denver's Oldest Rocky Horror Show Shadow Cast Returns With Award-Winning LGBTQ+ TheaterGive yourself over to absolute pleasure, as Dr. Frank-N-Furter would say, and catch Two Cent Lion Theatre's largest production to date.
Read more »
Theater review: Cygnet’s return to ‘Rocky Horror’ a campy and exuberant celebrationThe show’s leading man, Nathan Madden, steals the show in remimagining of the theater company’s 2016 production
Read more »
The ‘Rocky’ movies ranked, from best to ‘Rocky V’At its heart, 'Rocky' is a romance that happens to be a boxing movie. It's a quintessential Philadelphia film.
Read more »
This Dizzying Body Horror Movie Captures the True Essence of Lovecraftian HorrorHeather Graham as Dr. Elizabeth Derby holding a gun and smiling in Suitable Flesh
Read more »
San Antonio's San Pedro Playhouse presenting Rocky Horror Show this monthThe Rocky Horror Show is time-warping back to the San Antonio stage starting this Thursday.
Read more »
San Pedro Playhouse staging 'Rocky Horror' for the first timeSan Antonio actor Lee Marshall talks about what it takes to fill Frank 'N' Furter's red and silver platform heels.
Read more »