Shadow cast celebrates 45th anniversary of ‘Rocky Horror’ at Circle Drive-In in Dickson City on Sept. 25
On Sept. 26, 1975, “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” premiered in Los Angeles, and while it wasn’t initially a hit, it slowly developed a cult following until it became a midnight movie phenomenon.
This quirky classic will celebrate its 45th anniversary with a new special edition Blu-ray and screenings in drive-in theaters and pop-up venues across the country, including the Circle Drive-In Theatre in Dickson City on Friday, Sept. 25 with the live shadow cast Sweet Translucent Dreams.
This cast continues to sell out drive-ins this season, so expect this event to be as popular as the “Time Warp.” The following night, the group will perform at Fair Oaks Drive-in Theatre in Middletown, New York alongside special guest Barry Bostwick, who will have a socially distanced meet and greet with fans of Brad Majors.
Gates at the Circle Drive-In (1911 Scranton/Carbondale Hwy., Dickson City) open at 6:30 p.m., and the show starts at 9:30 p.m. Tickets, which are $25 per carload (up to six passengers per vehicle), are on sale now via Ticketleap. A list of props and what attendees should do with them can be found here.
Costumes are optional, but masks are required. The cast, who will perform while the movie is projected on the big screen, will be selling prop bags for $2 and T-shirts for $10-$25.
The plot summary reads:
On a wild and rain-swept late-November evening, somewhere at an empty stretch of road outside Ohio’s merry Denton, blissfully-affianced, prudish, boringly-innocent young pair Brad Majors (Barry Bostwick) and Janet Weiss (Susan Sarandon) find themselves stranded on their way to visit an ex-tutor. Instead, the couple will inadvertently unearth the cross-dressing Dr. Frank-N-Furter’s (Tim Curry’s) spooky lair of inexhaustible oddities, just in time to partake in the out-of-this-world mad scientist’s proud unveiling of his latest, delightfully extravagant, most daring creation – the ultimate male and the perfect sex symbol – the flaxen-haired Rocky Horror (Peter Hinwood). But, little by little, as the effervescent transgressive force gobbles up whole the unsuspecting visitors of the night, Brad and Janet slowly begin to embrace the potent fascinations of seduction, while an idolized Rocky roams free in the mansion. Who can interrupt man’s union with the absolute pleasure?
Rotten Tomatoes says, “‘Rocky Horror Picture Show’ brings its quirky characters in tight, but it’s the narrative thrust that really drives audiences insane and keeps ’em doing the time warp again.”
Formed in late 2002 in Pottsville, Sweet Translucent Dreams began as a melting pot of several “Rocky Horror Picture Show” shadow casts – Transylvanian Nipple Productions from Philadelphia, Sins of the Flesh from Allentown, and The Transsexual Misfits from Maryland – and eventually became Northeastern Pennsylvania and the Lehigh Valley’s own premier shadow cast, performing in theaters, fire halls, bowling alleys, bars, colleges, churches, drive-ins, and outdoors across Pennsylvania, New York, and New Jersey.
While going through various iterations over the years, adding members from other shadow casts while recruiting new actors, the group is still going strong as they play to hundreds and even thousands of midnight movie fans every year. Sweet Translucent Dreams regularly performs at the ArtsQuest Center at the SteelStacks in Bethlehem and the Emmaus Theatre and continues to travel to wherever fans of the film will gather.
