As Frank-N-Furter, Joey Bostic leads ‘Rocky Horror’ audiences into catacomb of chaos

For the third time since 2019, Joey Bostic will tackle the role of Frank-N-Furter in “The Rocky Horror Show.” This time it’s for Fort Myers Theatre. You can listen to this story on WGCU here or just continue reading.

“If you want to have fun, this is the show for you,” Bostic promises.

“As soon as we step out onto the stage for “Science Fiction Double Feature” and you hear those first notes belted out by Emma Luke-Said, who beautifully does it,” he said. “All the way up to when you start hearing your favorites, like “Sweet Transvestite” and “The Time Warp,” it’s just evolved so much into a catacomb of chaos and fun that I think you just can’t help but enjoy yourself.”

Science fiction (ooh-ooh-ooh) double feature
Doctor X (ooh-ooh-ooh) will build a creature
See androids fighting (ooh-ooh-ooh) Brad and Janet
Anne Francis stars in (ooh-ooh-ooh) Forbidden Planet
Wo-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh
At the late night, double feature, picture show

I wanna go, oh-oh-oh-oh
To the late night, double feature, picture show
By R.K.O., wo-oh-oh-oh
To the late night, double feature, picture show
In the back row, oh-oh-oh-oh
To the late night, double feature, picture show

In the past, Bostic has strived to make his character likable – sympathetic, if you will ….

“Just a sweet transvestite that’s not gonna bother you,” Bostic smiles somewhat malevolently. “That’s just who I am,” he adds feigning innocence.

This year, though, Bostic has fully embraced his character’s wonton narcissism. The people in Frank’s world are there for one thing and one thing only – to provide him with amusement, adoration and adulation. Their thoughts, their hopes and dreams, their feelings are completely irrelevant.

Frank-N-Furter’s interactions with Riff Raff are a perfect illustration.

“With Riff Raff, when it comes to who made Rocky, there’s a lot more taunting,” Bostic explains. “Like, I’m getting the credit whether it was actually me or not.”

In the cult classic, Columbia is presented as an adoring groupie who hangs on Frank’s every word and settles for the emotional crumbs he callously tosses her way. As Bostic plays the part this year, it’s not just that Frank doesn’t appreciate her unconditional love and self-sacrifice. In his view, Columbia is a total loser or “little stupid bitch,” comments Bostic.

With no moral compass, the Frank-N-Furter that audiences see during this year’s production of Rocky Horror is more mercurial, more villainous and completely consumed with satisfying his own perverse desires. While Frank may market himself to others as a sweet transvestite, he’s really a mean self-absorbed, egocentric manipulator.

Why don’t you
Stay for the night? (Night)
Or maybe a bite (bite)

I can show you my favourite
Obsession
I’ve been making a man
With blond hair and a tan
And he’s good for relieving my
Tension

I’m just a sweet transvestite
From Transsexual, Transylvania

Hey, hey
I’m just a sweet transvestite
(Sweet Transvestite)
From Transsexual, Transylvania
(Transylvania)

In real life, Bostic is his character’s polar opposite.

To make the mental and emotional transformation required to play this version of Frank-N-Furter, Bostic has been compelled to conjure a dark, unconscionable psychopath – not unlike Heath Ledger’s Joker or David Carradine’s Bill.

“I think he’s just really come to think of Frank-N-Furter as a part of himself,” observes Emma Luke-Said, who plays Magenta. “So this year, he’s more acting on an extension of himself rather than as a separate character.”

While Frank-N-Furter may be the headliner, there’s a whole more to Rocky Horror. Allison Lund plays Riff Raff. She reminds everyone that the music in Rocky Horror is something special, this cast provides some pretty amazing vocals.

“The music’s perfect. It’s ROCKY HORROR! Everything about Rocky’s wonderful. The vocal talent this year’s amazing. Obviously a lot of the cast is existing, but like Brad and Janet are amazing and that’s a different dynamic than last year, so the vocals are really good this year I think.”

Emma Luke-Said appreciates the show’s historical context, which for people in the LGBTQ+ community provided a place where they could be themselves and find people who were their family. Released just six years after the Stonewall uprising, Rocky Horror blatantly and unapologetically started a conversation about sexual liberation, gender roles and the myriad of other issues the LGBTQ+ community had to face on a daily basis.

“It was really a significant work, not just because of its cult following, but because it’s also about the cultural shift of the old-school rock n’ roll and the sexual conservatism of the ‘50s that gave way into the glam rock n’ roll and sexual freedom of the 1970s, which is what I really think Richard O’Brien was trying to accomplish when he wrote the play. But on top of that, there’s a lot of really fun tracks, a lot of fun dancing. Kookie characters that are really memorable, and then also the tradition of the callbacks and throwing things at the actors, which is always fun.”

And then there are the four midnight performances.

While Fort Myers Theatre encourages callbacks at all of its Rocky Horror shows, goodie bags filled with props will be provided to those who attend its four midnight happenings.

“There’s just something a lot more satisfying about doing it at midnight,” Bostic grins playfully. “I mean Rocky Horror originated in the midnight aspect. You know, it’s the witching hour. It’s the time where everything spooky comes to life. And its Halloween.”

Not to mention, the October 27 and 28 midnight shows take place during October’s Hunter Full Moon.

Rocky Horror runs at Fort Myers Theatre from October 20 through the 28, with 11:59 p.m. shows on 20th, 21st, 27th and 28th.

It’s astounding
Time is fleeting
Madness takes its toll
But listen closely
Not for very much longer
I’ve got to keep control

I remember doing the Time Warp
Drinking those moments when
The blackness would hit me
And the void would be calling

Let’s do the Time Warp again
Let’s do the Time Warp again

MORE INFORMATION:

• Go here for play dates, times and a full cast list.
• Go here for preview of the show and more information on Fort Myers Theatre’s four midnight shows.
• Robin Dawn Ryan (Robin Dawn Dance Academy) is in her element when it comes to musicals. There’s the ever-present danger of rendering a show that’s been produced and screened as much as this one in a trite, stale manner. No worries here. Ryan’s staging, direction and choreography infuse the entire show and particularly the song-and-dance numbers with a fresh, Billie Eilish “Tough Guy” vibe that resonates, with a boost by Vocal Director Lisa Clark, across the generational divide.
• The Rocky Horror Show operates as a satire on many different levels. It’s a parody of B horror movies – complete with an unsuspecting naïve young couple, a creepy old gothic mansion and a host of maniacal otherworldly denizen. But it also skewers self-involved and self-indulgent personalities, from politicians to television evangelists, who operate without concern for the detrimental effect their actions may have on their unquestioning followers.
• “We’re leaning into the satirical aspects of the show,” remarks Joey Bostic, who finds the tenor of the show and numbers like “Sweet Transvestite” to be particularly sanguine given the times in which we find ourselves particularly in Florida. “Songs like ‘Sweet Transvestite’ openly mock bills like the Don’t Say Gay Bill and the anti-trans laws that have been put into place.”
• But Director Robin Dawn Ryan and the cast are just as cognizant about making the show fun for themselves and the audiences who come to enjoy Rocky Horror. “We took [the show] so seriously last year,” Bostic concedes. “We put a lot of pressure on ourselves last year to put on the most amazing show we possibly could.” This year that’s a given, which frees them up to create an atmosphere of irreverent fun “that I think will be very infectious for everyone who comes to see this year’s show.”
• “A lot of people who come to Rocky Horror for the first time are really taken aback by the tradition of callbacks and the audience throwing things at the actors,” says Emma Luke-Said, who greets the audience in the opening scene as the Popcorn Girl or Usherette before morphing into Riff Raff’s sibling, Magenta. “I think the callbacks [and props] are a huge reason so many people come back year after year. From the actors’ perspective, it’s unlike any other performance you will ever endure in your career as an actor. But I look forward to [the midnight shows} most because they give me the chance to interact with the audience in a way you can’t really do with any other show, even those in which you break the fourth wall.”
• The rest of the cast clearly feels as Luke-Said does. They’re unabashedly delighted to be performing in the live version of Rocky Horror, and their all-in, energetic performances are sure to ensnare and infect the audience.

October 20, 2023.