Plugging into Phoenix: Rocky Horror at the Firehouse

Before "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" you only had ersatz rock musicals like "Bye Bye Birdie," which featured rock-and-roll parodies written by mainstream Broadway composers. You could almost say the same thing about "Hair," which broke with Broadway tradition by having a rock band playing in the orchestra pit but didn't rock out very much. Yet actual rock musicians like John Fogerty panned the musical saying, "'Hair' is such a watered down version of what is really going on that I can't get behind it at all" and John Lennon reportedly found it "dull."

Ouch!

Rock really got its foothold on the Great White Way with the rock opera, which in truth was really just a concept album with a libretto, a suite of songs performed by a rock band but not acted out. That would come later. Insert your groans here.

In its original stage-show incarnation as "The Rocky Horror Show," you at last had the best-case scenario for a rock musical, one that embodied all the sex, drugs and rock and roll of the early '70s, anticipating punk rock while simultaneously capturing the death throes of glam-rock decadence, itself more of a reaction to the dirty, smelly hippie world-view of "Hair" than anything else. As recruiting posters go, "Don't dream it, be it" is a helluva lot more compelling than "Let's go to the Be-in (Hare Krishna)."

Once the film version of "Rocky Horror" became a midnight movie sensation 40 years ago, "Rocky Horror" remained unchallenged as the ultimate rock musical.

Which is why mounting a live production of the show and not a shadowcast is such a daunting task. Co-directors Sheri Amourr and Ting Ting made the wise decision early to present "Rocky Horror" as nature intended, as a live rock musical with its book following the film version and staging it at the Firehouse for a unique experience could only be called "Rocky Horror at the Firehouse" for two performances, Friday, May 29 and Saturday, May 30.

Besides casting Firehouse and Stage 55 stalwarts like Ashley Naftule, Lauren Michelle, Marcella Grassa, Joe Sawinski, standup comic Chris Gillespie as Brad and Amourr herself as Janet, the directors filled some key roles with musicians not known as actors. There's the casting of hip-hop and electronic dance artist Joobs as Rocky, choosing yours truly to play Eddie (more on that later) and letting downtown troubadour Andy Warpigs run amuck as Dr. Frank N. Furter. To anyone who has witnessed Warpigs warbling "Sweet Transvestite," this casting choice seems much like Rocky himself, a no-brainer.

"I enjoy getting dirty and having fun with these songs; it's so much more personal than just watching the movie," says Warpigs, who was the first person to be cast in the show. "I also enjoy being in a big group of people who appreciate this kind of weirdo outsider art as much as I do."

As to whether there is an overlap of his original material and the Rocky score, Warpigs maintains. "My stuff is heavily based on stuff like the Ramones, Iggy and the Stooges and T. Rex, which all kind of coincided with 'Rocky Horror' culturally. Also, I snagged bits of lyrics and riffs from 'I Can Make You a Man' on my songs 'Ego Death' and 'Chili Pepper.' It wasn't intentional but once I started memorizing the songs it became obvious to me where those ideas came from. I've been wanting to make music that sounds more like that, and finding myself in the middle of this project has inspired me in a lot of different ways."

Warpigs agrees that Rocky Horror and punk rock go hand in hand.

"Punk music is one of the coolest genres of rock music, and a large part of that is the cartoony camp appeal," he says. "And its willingness to challenge conventions and put people outside of their comfort zone."

Most of the punk rock I like nowadays like Colleen Green and Nobunny and Hunx and His Punks has this kind of tongue-in-cheek washed-out stoner-punk sound that would only be possible because of 'Rocky Horror.'"

"I've been playing more shows with garage punk bands like Red Tank! and TK and the Irresistible that don't take themselves too seriously and know how to have fun. Since I've been seeing more bands on the scene like Dwarf and Molly and the Mollusks, I'm guessing that this weird, smart, post-modern geek-punk is probably the new direction music in the valley is going to go."

From our "In the Interest of Full Disclosure" Department: As part of my quest to be misidentified as the hardest-working man in show business, I will be playing the role of Eddie popularized by Meat Loaf in the 1975 film version of "The Rocky Horror Picture Show." Despite all the effort that is going into this role, it only lasts for three minutes, after which I am killed and have no chance of being revived. (Uhh, spoiler alert: Eddie is killed, quite brutally by Dr. Frank if the horrified shrieks of Columbia are any indicator). I somehow feel like the Olympic gymnast who pours seven years of training into one-and-a-half minutes of synchronized figure skating. But to crash and burn before I can wear out my welcome is a pursuit I could not pass up.

What makes me qualified to snag this plum role besides hyperventilation and a heft that was the perfect size for Eddie's t-shirt? I am probably the only cast member to have actually spoken with his real-life screen counterpart. Yes, I interviewed Meat Loaf way back in 1994 when "Bat Out of Hell 2" became a surprise hit and Mr. Loaf was suddenly not so keen on doing phone interviews with some Podunk writer out of Phoenix who'd barely had a half a dozen articles to his credit. It didn't help that my first question was the stupidest one I'd ever ask and this was suggested to me by my experienced editor:

"Neil Diamond once said 'The stage, she is the goddamnedest woman.' Do you feel that the stage is the goddamndest woman?"

Needless to say, there was uncomfortable silence at the other end of the phone. Like the silence you are making now reading this.

But stupidity served me well and with a quiver of hot-button questions like "Do you consider yourself a mouthpiece for Jim Steinman?" he revved up in anger at me in short order and allowed an alloted 10-minute interview to extend an extra 30 minutes.

At one point he even broke down his unique method of singing, which he said owed to his placing emphasis on what he called "the wrong syllable." When I suggested that sounded a lot like how William Shatner emotes, Meat (as his publicist liked to call him) was again not amused.

"Shatner? I'm not going near that! If you want to talk De Niro, all right. But I'm not going to compare myself to Shatner."

He did in fact give me an acting tip that I will take with me on the stage during the Rocky Horror at the Firehouse show:

"It's all in the eyes."

After completing the 1980 film "Roadie," Meat could see in one scene that it was Marvin Lee Aday's eyes he was seeing in his screen eyes and not those of Travis W. Redfish, the beer-guzzling dude he was portraying. So even though it's only a three-minute stint, I implore you to watch my eyes! I'll be channelling Eddie, Marvin Lee Aday and maybe toss in some Bette Davis eyes for good measure.