‘Rocky Horror’ stands test of time, finds ‘Home of Happiness’ on East Coast

Every Saturday night at midnight, Larry Viezel and his friends take to the stage of the Bellevue Theater in Montclair, N.J., to perform “Time Warp,” “Damn It, Janet” and “Science Fiction – Double Feature,” among other well-known tunes, from the mother of all cult films, The Rocky Horror Picture Show. The cinematic phenomenon, which has attracted repeat business for decades, continues to play across the world with “shadowcasts” reenacting the movie in front of the screen. Viezel’s troupe is called The Home of Happiness, and he seems quite happy with having his Saturdays indefinitely booked.

The movie from the 1970s is based on a successful musical by Richard O’Brien, who plays Riff Raff in the film. The Rocky Horror Picture Show tells a haunted-house tale of a young couple who seeks shelter during a rainstorm at a mysterious mansion. What they find in these palatial digs is a sexual reawakening courtesy of Dr. Frank-N-Furter, played by Tim Curry. The haunted-house tale quickly becomes a haunted-hosiery tale.

In New Jersey, The Home of Happiness celebrates The Rocky Horror Picture Show on a weekly basis, and they have found much success since their dancing began in 1998.

“It’s a party,” said Viezel, cast director of The Home of Happiness. “If they were showing Gone With the Wind or something, I don’t know if it would have been the same thing.”

Viezel, who plays the doomed rock ‘n’ roller Eddie in the cast, has been part of the Rocky Horror community for many years. “I started doing Rocky Horror in 1992 at Cinema 35 in Paramus, N.J., with a troop called the Seduction Production,” Viezel said. “And then Home of Happiness started in 1998 in Boonton, N.J.”

With few exceptions, Viezel has been on stage every Saturday night since those early days. As Eddie, he’s plays a character that Meatloaf popularized in the film. His time in the spotlight is fierce yet short: Viezel sings his rock solo every weekend, gets killed on stage and then gets to join the audience and enjoy the rollicking fun.

Viezel is smartly tight-lipped about exactly what occurs at Rocky Horror screenings, preferring to keep the secrets under wraps for newcomers. But he did let a few details loose.

“First you hang around the lobby and meet all sorts of interesting, fun people. We have prop bags for sale, posters, boas, buttons, things like that. So there’s a lot of socializing in the lobby. Then we go over the rules of what you are and aren’t allowed to do in the theater. Then we send people upstairs. Once they get upstairs, they have dance music playing. People get up on stage and dance. Then we start the announcements on stage. We tell everybody what’s going on in the next couple of weeks, if we have any special theme shows.”

An initiation ritual for newcomers commences, and then the screening begins. But again, this is no typical movie-going experience. This is when Viezel’s friends take over with their shadowcast responsibilities. “The way that a typical Rocky Horror screening works is you have the movie playing,” he said. “You have people in the audience participating in the film by yelling stuff and throwing stuff. You have performers acting scenes out in front of the film, and in the audience and sometimes on the audience’s laps. And then you also have people interacting with the screen via screen gags, stuff like that. That’s the typical showing. It’s generally a big fun party.”

The Home of Happiness continues its 15-year success, often selling out high-profile shows. This past Halloween season, they went off-site and played the House of Blues in Atlantic City. The screening had approximately 700 attendees. They packed the legendary Maxwell’s club in Hoboken and also sold out their hometown Halloween show in Montclair. They’re now gearing up for a Valentine’s theme show Saturday, Feb. 15. Every week, Viezel said, is a party.

“We sell the prop bags in the lobby, and rice, toast, toilet paper, newspaper, playing cards, confetti,” he added. “We also have people with water guns, and people can’t pull out lighters during ‘There’s a Light,’ which is the way it started in the ‘70s where people were pulling out lighters. But fire marshals seem to have a problem with people putting newspapers on their head and holding up lighters, so now people hold up either a flashlight, or a glow stick, or a cell phone or something like that.”

Audiences at The Home of Happiness, and likely around the nation, consist of two groups: younger folks experiencing Rocky Horror for the first time and older folks who remember the movie’s 1970s legacy. Viezel said his audiences are often high school or college-aged, although some parents bring younger children. Other audience members at The Home of Happiness are in their 60s and 70s.

“We have some that show up every week, but we have a lot of regulars that show up once or twice a month. We have big audiences especially on theme shows. So whenever we deviate from the regular standard Rocky Horror, we’ll get like a huge audience coming for like the Christmas show, or a comic book night or something like that. But we do all right with audiences on a week-to-week basis. Not every audience is a Halloween audience, but every show is like Halloween.”

Having multiple generations in the crowd also gives perspective to how long this cult classic has been playing in movie theaters.  The screenings, for example, are no longer broadcast in 35mm. Even Dr. Frank-N-Furter has gone digital.

For Viezel, the weekly ritual has changed his life. Not only are his plans set every Saturday night, but now he can connect Rocky Horror with his family. “A lot of us are getting married these days. We all attended each other’s weddings. I hang out with mostly the people in my cast outside of Rocky Horror. Socially I met my wife through Rocky Horror. My daughter wouldn’t be around if it weren’t for Rocky Horror.”

Viezel said the attraction to the movie is largely because of its “great story,” an archetypal tale of Adam, Eve and the forbidden fruit of sexual desire. Plus, there’s that catchy rock music.

“When I first heard the songs in Rocky Horror, I was just blown away,” he said. “It wasn’t like anything I had heard before. So when I first heard it, I was like, wow, this is fantastic. The songs get stuck in your head, and you keep singing ‘Time Warp’ all day long. … You’re guaranteed a party every Saturday night. I can’t imagine I’d rather be anywhere else.”

Even history is prologue, then 10 years from now, The Home of Happiness has a good chance of still performing week to week in New Jersey, joining their comrades throughout the world who love being time warped. “I think Rocky Horror is going to be around until as long as movie theaters will be around because there will always be people like me who want to see Rocky Horror in movie theaters,” Viezel said. “As I get older, I’m going to have start playing Dr. Scott because I’m going to be in a wheelchair doing Rocky Horror. I don’t know if I’m going to make this an every-Saturday-night-of-my-life-for-the-rest-of-my-life thing, but I will say that Rocky Horror will always be a part of my life.”

By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com

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• Did you know? — Larry Viezel has built a sizable Rocky Horror memorabilia collection. One of his possessions: Columbia’s corset from the film. He also said almost every actor from the film (except Rocky himself) has signed his Japanese press book.

• On the horizon — The Home of Happiness hopes to hold a Rocky Horror convention in 2015 to coincide with the film’s 40th anniversary.