Special One Night Engagement
19 July 2025 11PM Performance
Music Mountain Theatre, Lambertville, NJ
One of my favourite things about Music Mountain Theatre is how good this theatre is at nailing any and all things camp. The Rocky Horror Show was no exception.
The Rocky Horror Show is an unapologetic show in many ways — the use of call back lines, the audience dressing up in character, prop bags being sold with the full knowledge that the theatre will be completely trashed by the shows end… I would even go so far as to say it is the closest thing we have in America to a pantomime (at least that is widely available for audiences). And Music Mountain Theatre keeps this show unapologetic, which is done through the highly sexualised staging (I’m looking at you, giant human penis complete with ejaculation), the use of humans being props (some notable instances being an Usher running across the stage yelling, “I’m an [expletive deleted] motorcycle!” and two ushers acting as the cars windshield wipers, while constantly giving the middle finger to the audience, and of course, sweeping all of the rice that was on stage back into the audience with a push broom), and improvisation from the cast and the audience (some examples being the actor playing Brad who has an obvious tattoo on his leg remarking “it’s a birth mark” when asked “do you have any tattoos, Brad?” and Rocky and Janet making the visual gag of the CEO who was caught having an affair while at a Coldplay concert when found by Dr. Frank-n-Furter).
Being that this show is done as a special one night engagement (it is a rather special night, after all, one of the master’s affairs, so to be a one night engagement makes sense), the theatre itself is still set for the current main stage production (which happens to be The SpongeBob Musical currently). This was not an issue however and instead lead to some great improvised lines including Brad commenting on the castle seeming to be in “some weird underwater aquarium”.
As stated above, the sets were minimal, with humans taking the place of many set pieces. This only made the show funnier because the sets that they did have included a giant (hairy) penis for things like the Sonic Transducer — complete with a smaller (again hairy) penis to act as the switch itself.
Ultimately I think this production of The Rocky Horror Show does what The Rocky Horror Show does best — brings people together. Despite this being a highly sexualised show, with lewd and crude comedy, and audience participation that is as equally crass; Rocky Horror is a safe place for people of all backgrounds and even of all ages (for the record, I am not advocating for bringing young children to see this show, I am referring to a young teenagers age range).
One thing I love about seeing productions of Rocky Horror whether it’s the staged show or the movie, is the diversity of the audience it attracts. Even at this performance, I saw kids (young teenagers) who were experiencing the show for the first time sitting next to people well into their 80’s who have been seeing the show since they themselves were young teenagers. And they were learning call back lines from each other and congratulating each other when one of them yelled a particularly funny one.
Rocky Horror is a show with no real hard message or meaning behind it. At its bare bones, it’s the story of Frankenstein, but really it’s about having a good time. It’s about meeting new people and laughing. It’s about accepting everyone for who they are, regardless of age, or social status, or gender, or gender expression (in fact, it’s a really safe place for a person to explore their own gender expression without judgement), or anything really. Because for a show without any real meaning the message that the audience takes away is “that was a really fun time” and sometimes that’s all you need from a show.
Well done.
*Note: if I am able to get a cast list from the theatre, I will update this review to include more details on the performances of each of the specific actors.
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