The Tucson Rocky Horror Picture show subculture lures virgins to healthy Heavy Petting fun

Step into platform shoes, slip into fishnet stockings and clip on your garter belt! That's what one local Tucson man's been doing every week for nearly 20 years. He's not the only one, though. For members of the Heavy Petting cast of "The Rocky Horror Picture Show," every week is Halloween.

In 1975 when "Rocky Horror" was released, the film bombed in most cities. Attendance was low · but something strange was happening. A small, dedicated audience kept returning to see the show night after night. Popularity grew when the film played as the midnight movie throughout many major cities. Before too long, audiences began talking to the screens and the screens talked back. Singing and dancing ensued.

The film is about an all-American couple who find themselves one dark, rainy night inside a big castle where they encounter a mad transsexual scientist on the evening of the presentation of his greatest creation ÷ a blond, muscular man/thing by the name of Rocky.

And then in 1977 Los Angeles, the first official group crawled out from behind the screen, in full costume, lip-syncing and performing the show on stage in tandem with the film.

"Don't dream it, be it" was the film's central message, a message that spread wildly, taking its audiences hostage in dark theaters where craziness is born and virginity lost.

Not too long after, in the late '70s, the film came here to Tucson's Loft Cinema, where it has been ever since.

Charlie Brown joined "Rocky Horror" in 1979, not too long after it first came to Tucson. He plays Dr. Frankenfurter, the main character of the film. Brown is a tall, slender man with dark wild curls, eerily similar to Tim Curry, the original Dr. Frankenfurter. He embodies his character in a way that seems to imply that maybe he is his character. Is this normal Tucson man really Dr. Frankenfurter in disguise?

Yes. Well, kind of. Brown has spent nearly every Saturday night for the past 23 years acting out his alter-ego, Dr. Frankenfurter, the mad scientist from Transsexual, Transylvania, who rules the show.

What has kept Brown around through all these years is the unique atmosphere that is created when the lights go down and the big red lips emerge.

"The atmosphere is not like your typical high school party. It's not so tense; everybody is being themselves. They can talk and be whoever they want." Brown said. "Whether they're gay or straight or loud and obnoxious or quiet and sultry in the corner, whatever, they can be themselves. That's the neat thing."

Rocky, played by Jeremy Lasher, has been with the Heavy Petting cast for five years now. For him, it is the non-judgmental atmosphere that makes the show so appealing.

"It's a place where a bunch of people who don't have anything else in common find other people like them, (and) let them know they're not so far out there."

Verity Witzeman, who plays Janet Blyth, the all-American girl next door, agreed that "Rocky Horror" is a very open-minded environment.

"Rocky Horror" gives you a place to be whatever you want to be. And you can be yourself or you can be somebody else, but it's all OK because you have friends there."

Photo courtesy of RockyHorrorTucson.com Verity Witzeman, who plays Janet, acts at one of the weekly performances of the Rocky Horror Picture Show. The first time she saw the show, she knew it was unconventional.

In fact, the first time Witzeman saw the show, she knew there was something really odd about this not-so-conventional movie screening.

"The first time I saw it, I loved it. And I couldn't quite put my finger on it, but I think it had a lot to do with the bright colors, the bright personalities, and sort of that feeling like you're on the edge ÷ like maybe you're doing something bad but really you're not; really it's just fun."

While many were bothered by the risque nature of the show, others appreciated its bold step toward furthering sexual liberation. "Rocky Horror" came along and showed people that they shouldn't feel guilty about playing with gender. Watching men dress up like women and women dress up like men and then watching them all pet each other is not going to kill you.

"It became acceptable for men to walk around in fishnets all of a sudden. I don't know how that happened, but it actually became kind of cool," Brown said.

"Sure, you probably don't want to take your 10-year-old kid because you'd have a lot of explaining to do," admits Witzeman.

Yet, it's this shocking nature of "Rocky Horror" that makes it so fun and progressive. Often it's hard to open your eyes without being shocked first, or at least probed in some way. People need to be shocked. Outrageous and strange, the show will make you question what is normal.

"It can be enlightening for each individual person that goes in. It changes their lives essentially," Brown said. "Just because you never knew that there were that kind of people that think alternatively, that they don't necessarily hunt and go to football games and don't beat up fags."

Sarah Lohmon, who plays Magenta, the maid, saw "Rocky Horror" for the first time with her mother, whose response was, "Oh, that was nice."

OK, so to some the show is just too wild to understand; but there must be a reason why people like Charlie Brown would dedicate part of their life to some movie.

"I am the longest living existing cast member in the Tucson cast, the Tucson scene," Brown said. "There's no one else who's stuck around. It's sort of like being a vampire ÷ my picture with the different casts throughout the ages; it's like having different families and different photo albums."

Throughout the years, cast members come and go, and audiences come and go. It seems to be a constantly moving scene that changes from one decade to the next, but the basic idea of the show stays the same. The idea is that through ritual, something wonderful evolves ÷ in this case, a cult phenomena called "Rocky Horror"

It seems to be one of those things that can't be explained, but only experienced. Beware, though. If you've never seen the movie performed with a live cast in a theater with a live audience, you are considered a virgin · and they will defile you.

Yes, we've all heard that the first time is the worst. But Lasher promises it's not that bad.

"Don't be scared, they won't force you to do it ·"

Brown didn't exactly show the same hesitation.

"We do something that's sort of like a fraternity thing ÷ hazing of some sort, I guess. We do the virgin sacrifice before the show."

Witzeman, in her sweet Janet voice, admits that she was scared of the sacrifice at first, but understands now that it's just a rite of passage.

For someone who's never seen the show, it promises to be the ultimate Halloween experience. Heavy Petting will go all out tonight.

"There's going to be a lot of games and prizes and candy and eye candy," Witzeman said.

Even if you don't make it on Halloween, you can catch the Heavy Petting cast every other Saturday at the Loft.

With a show like this one, there's a reason it's been alive and rockin' for so many years.

"It was a revelation ÷ to actually go somewhere where people would talk to you and not just look at their shoes or turn away or think you were not cool enough to talk to," Brown said. "People interact without having a reason. You don't have to have an excuse to go up and say hello to someone or slap them on the ass, to be honest, and they would probably want more, in a nice healthy way."