Orlando's Little Radical Theatrics takes on the modern question of 'Rocky Horror'

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image via Little Radical Theatrics

Little Radical Theatrics' production of 'The Rocky Horror Show' opens Friday, Nov. 10, and runs through Nov. 19 at the Lowndes Shakespeare Center.

It's been 50 years since Richard O'Brien's gender-bending B-movie parody The Rocky Horror Show debuted in a tiny London theater, and 30 since I joined the worldwide cult surrounding its cinematic spinoff.

And even though it's been half a decade since the Rich Weirdoes — the live Rocky Horror Picture Show shadowcast I produced — lost their longtime home at Universal CityWalk, the troupe continues to perform sold-out seasonal shows across Central Florida.

But does this once-shocking artifact of 1970s glam-rock, which utterly bewildered my teenage niece during her recent inaugural viewing, still speak to a younger generation unfazed by sexual fluidity?

That's one of the key questions I posed to director Travis Eaton and producer Fatima Viegas of Little Radical Theatrics (littleradicaltheatricsinc.com), whose production of The Rocky Horror Show takes over the Lowndes Shakespeare Center's intimate Mandell Theater Nov. 10 through the 19th. The last time I talked to the pair, they were preparing for last summer's production of The Addams Family, which they've followed with successful runs of Jesus Christ Superstar, Hunchback of Notre Dame and Matilda.

"We've been doing everything a little radical and not exactly the way you'd expect it to be done. And we've only seen our pool of talent and audiences continue to grow," says Eaton, adding, "The last year and a half has been a period of some really great growth, both artistically as far as what we're trying to bring to the community, and the community response in showing up and becoming our patrons."

Little Radical has particularly noticed growth among the 35-to-55-year-old demographic, which Eaton calls "the heart of our audience right now." Eaton attributes that growth to the messaging of their selected shows, which "always is about acceptance; taking people as they are for who they are, and accepting them, [which resonates with] late Gen X/early millennial and down."

That mission of promoting acceptance and tolerance made Rocky Horror a perfect fit for Little Radical's repertoire. Eaton recalls discovering the movie at high-school theater parties, and Viegas calls the show "something that I wanted to do for a long time." Eaton credits both the film and play for helping "mainstream audiences of the '70s begin to accept [different sexual expressions and lifestyles] because they were wrapped in this weird alien sci-fi." He plans to honor the film's fandom with an emcee-hosted preshow and audience participation prop bags, while using scripted cue cards to (hopefully) control the callback chaos.

"We want you to have fun, we want you to have the experience, but let's not overpower the fact that it's a live human and you're not just yelling over a TV screen that can't hear you," Eaton explains.

Some of the retorts and rituals I learned at Rocky Horror Picture Show screenings a quarter-century ago would get you canceled today, and some of the key lyrics of its iconic anthem (particularly "transvestite" and "transsexual") are anathema to today's LGBTQIA+ community.

But "we have to perform the script as it is written, verbatim, word for word. The words will never change; how we use those words is the important factor," says Eaton.

In Little Radical's vision of the show, "Some of the language that's outdated, we can use it as a reclamation of that word, or redefining of that word. ... It's about celebrating the communities represented there, and not using the words as outsiders."

In many other ways, Little Radical Theatrics is taking a fresh approach to the show, updating its aesthetics with references to 1980s slasher films and upending the text's traditional gender balance through nontraditional casting, starting with nonbinary performer Marlo Coffin in the titular role.

"The idea of casting Rocky in a body-positive way is something we often don't get," says Eaton. "The idea of the chiseled muscle man is another concept that I wanted to push back against. Then there was also the idea that they are completely gender non-conforming, and the idea that they've been created that way on purpose was prescient to me [as] a commentary [saying] we all exist in all of these forms, and Rocky can be just as much of a man as Brad."

Jennifer Rae Paxton, who stars as Frank N. Furter, also helps Little Radical's production flip the standard script in more ways than one.

Onstage, Eaton says Paxton's interpretation of the homicidal antihero "presents differently about what the concepts of the gender binary are, as far as now I'm looking at a woman assigned at birth and their understanding of traditional masculinity." And behind the scenes, Paxton has served as the production's intimacy coordinator, a role Eaton advocates for.

"If we take the discussions around intimacy coordination and intimacy blocking out of the director's realm, all of a sudden actors feel more free to be a part of the discussion and to collaborate in that space, [and] we gather true consent far easier when there's someone who's an intermediary for that discussion," Eaton says. "I don't think we could have done this show without having that."

Perhaps the most daunting adversary Little Radical faces isn't rival scientists or disloyal henchmen, but the venue crunch faced by all of Orlando's nomadic theater companies.

"I am trying to find my own home at some point, but it's difficult," says Viegas. "I'm having difficulty finding a venue, but the prices [and] fees that they charge are just really beyond my budget. ... It's hard to find a venue that I would like to call my own."

I'm hoping they find an affordable place where they can not only dream it, but be it.