Rocky Horror Show Live – Time Warp

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4fKG0fcogg

I ran across this live video of the Time Warp from a 1997 production of The Rocky Horror Show. This was one of the most fun musical theater projects I ever worked on. I wouldn’t mind going on a tour with this show for a few years because the interaction with the audience is intoxicating.

Working on my own project I always go back and forth between “high art” and the just plain fun of a Rocky type experience. When it comes to art what’s more important – having fun or giving people a more thoughtful experience? I guess we need it all for a colorful life…

Rocky Horror Show Photos

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Photos from the Rocky Horror Show at the Lincoln Theater, Mount Vernon, WA. Presented by the Theater Arts Guild in October and November 2007. I was music director and keyboardist.

This was one of the funnest shows and best crews I ever worked with. And everyone in the cast knows it. Long Live the Lips!

Click photos for full size view

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Columbia

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Eddie

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Frank ‘n Furter

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Magenta and Riff Raff

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Narrator

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Produer Roger Ragusa ala Morocco Mole

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RHS Marquee outside the theater

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Lincoln Theater front

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RHS sets – setting up the balcony

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RHS set during construction

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RHS set front view during set-up

Lily St. Cyr

In the Rocky Horror Show musical during the “Floor Show” segment there’s a line Janet sings: “God Bless Lily St. Cyr”. I was curious what the reference was about, so here’s info about Lily St. Cyr. (In the show it is spelled Lily St. Cyre, other incorrect spellings include Lilly Saint Sear, Lilly Saint Cear and Lily St. Seer). Cyr is pronounced like “seer”.

Lili St. Cyr (June 3, 1917 or 1918 – January 29, 1999), was a prominent American burlesque stripper.

Birth name Willis Marie Van Schaack
Born June 3, 1917
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Died January 29, 1999
Los Angeles, California
Spouse Ted Jordan

Early years

She was born as Willis Marie Van Schaack in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1917 or 1918. She had a sister, Rosemary Van Schaack Minsky. Her grandparents, the Klarquists, reared her and her two show business sisters, Dardy Orlando and Barbara Moffett.

Having taken ballet lessons throughout her youth, she began to dance professionally as a chorus line girl in Hollywood. Unlike other women who have stroke-of-luck stories about being plucked from the chorus line and selected for a feature role, St. Cyr had to beg her manager at the club to let her do a solo act. From her self-choreographed act she eventually landed a bit part at a club called the Music Box in San Francisco, with an act called the Duncan Sisters. It was here that she came to a revelation: A dancer’s salary was only a small fraction of what the featured star’s salary was. The difference? The featured star was nude.

From the 1940s and most of the 1950s, St. Cyr with Gypsy Rose Lee and Ann Corio were the recognized acts in striptease. St. Cyr’s stage name is a patronymic of the French aristocracy, which she first used when booked as a nude performer in Las Vegas. Though she is rather obscure today, her name popped up regularly in 1950s tabloids: stories of her many husbands, brawls over her, and her attempted suicides.

St. Cyr was married six times. Her best-known husbands were the musical-comedy actor Paul Valentine, restaurateur Armando Orsini, and actor Ted Jordan in 1955.

Career

St. Cyr’s professional career started as a chorus line dancer at the Florentine Gardens, in Hollywood. Over the ensuing years and in a variety of different venues, many of St. Cyr’s acts were memorable, with names like “The Wolf Woman”, “Afternoon of a Faun”, “The Ballet Dancer”, “In a Persian Harem”, “The Chinese Virgin”, However, Quebec’s Catholic clergy condemned her act, declaring that whenever she dances “the theater is made to stink with the foul odor of sexual frenzy.” The clergy’s outcry was echoed by the Public Morality Committee. St. Cyr was arrested and charged with behavior that was “immoral, obscene and indecent.” She was acquitted but the public authorities eventually closed down the Gayety Theatre where she performed. In the 1980s, St. Cyr wrote a French autobiography, “Ma Vie De Stripteaseuse.” In the book, she declared her appreciation for the Gayety Theatre and her love for the city of Montreal.

While performing at Ciro’s in Hollywood, (billed as the “Anatomic Bomb”), St. Cyr was taken to court by a customer who considered her act lewd and lascivious. In court, St. Cyr insisted to the jury that her act was refined and elegant. As St. Cyr pointed out, what she did was slip off her dress, try on a hat, slip off her brassiere (there was another underneath), slip into a negligee. Then, undressing discreetly behind her maid, she stepped into a bubble bath, splashed around, and emerged, more or less dressed. After her appearance as a witness, as a newspaper account of the time put it, “The defense rested, as did everyone else.” St. Cyr was acquitted.

While St. Cyr starred in several movies, an acting career never really materialized. In 1955, with the help of Howard Hughes, St. Cyr landed her first acting job in a major motion picture in the Son of Sinbad. The film, described by one critic as “a voyeur’s delight”, has St. Cyr as a principal member of a Baghdad harem populated with dozens of nubile starlets. The film was condemned by the Catholic Legion of Decency. St. Cyr also had a role in the movie version of Norman Mailer’s The Naked and the Dead in 1958. In this film, St. Cyr plays ‘Jersey Lili’, a stripper in a Honolulu night-club and girlfriend of a soldier who boasts to his pals that he has her picture painted inside his groundsheet. Regrettably, heavy edits of St. Cyr’s night-club routine by censors result in some choppy editing in an otherwise finely crafted film. But St. Cyr’s movie career was short lived, and typically she settled for playing a secondary role as a stripper, or playing herself. Her dancing is featured prominently in two Irving Klaw films, “Varietease” and “Teaserama.”

St. Cyr was also known for her pin-up photography, especially for photos taken by Bruno Bernard, known professionally as ‘Bernard of Hollywood’, a premier glamor photographer of Hollywood’s Golden Era. Bernard said that Cyr was his favorite model and referred to her as his muse.

Retirement

When St. Cyr retired from the stage she began a lingerie business in which she would retain an interest until her death. Similar to Frederick’s of Hollywood, the “Undie World of Lili St. Cyr” designs offered costuming for strippers, and excitement for ordinary women. Her catalogs featured photos or drawings of her modeling each article, lavishly detailed descriptions, and hand-selected fabrics. Her marketing for “Scanti-Panties” advertised them as “perfect for street wear, stage or photography.” St. Cyr spent her final years in obscurity and in seclusion, tending to her cats.

Death

She died in 1999 under her maiden name “Willis Marie VanSchaack” in Los Angeles.

Legacy

After St. Cyr’s death, with a renewed interest in burlesque, and especially in Bettie Page, legions of new fans began rediscovering some of the dancers in Irving Klaw’s photos and movies. During this time A&E devoted a special to burlesque in 2001 which included a piece on St. Cyr.

Influences and cultural references

In 1989, one of St. Cyr’s husbands, Ted Jordan, wrote a biography of Marilyn Monroe entitled “Norma Jean: My Secret Life With Marilyn Monroe”, in which Jordan claims that St. Cyr and Monroe had a lesbian affair. The claim is widely disparaged by Monroe biographers. The publisher of Jordan’s book, Liza Dawson, editor for William Morrow and Company, makes a more credible claim in an interview with Newsday in 1989, stating that “Marilyn very much patterned herself on Lili St. Cyr – her way of dressing, of talking, her whole persona. Norma Jean was a mousy, brown-haired girl with a high squeaky voice, and it was from Lili St. Cyr that she learned how to become a sex goddess.” Lili St. Cyr is mentioned in the musical “The Rocky Horror Show”. The final line of the song “Don’t Dream It”, (sung by the character Janet Weiss, as played in the film version by Susan Sarandon) is “God bless Lili St. Cyr!”

Filmography

* Love Moods (1952)
* Bedroom Fantasy (1953)
* Striporama (1953)
* Varietease (1954)
* Teaserama (1955)
* Son of Sinbad (1955)
* Buxom Beautease (1956)
* The Naked and the Dead (1958)
* I, Mobster (1958)
* Runaway Girl (1962)

Roger Ragusa

Mount Vernon, WA – Our own (dare we admit it?) Roger Ragusa has made good on his promise and strolled the length of Downtown Mount Vernon in his costume to generate donations for the Theater Arts Guild. He was a good sport about it and did not try to weasel out of it in anyway. By doing so he has earned $500 for the TAG general fund.

Roger Ragusa – Modern day superhero and defender of good citizens against evil. Do not let outward appearances fool you. Mr. Ragusa is rumored to be a highly trained Navy Seal and international martial arts expert. Here we see him undercover on a secret mission. He blends in with his surroundings so as to not give away his identity.

Can you spot him in this photograph? Look carefully. I’ll give you a hint – he might be between the trees.

This is not just a picture of a street corner. Roger is also camouflaged in this picture. Hint – Look between the cars. If you don’t see him at first, try blurring your eyes a bit and look deep into the picture.

Two women walking a dog on a rainy day. Or is it? Yes folks, Roger is also in this picture. This time I give you no hints, you are on your own.

During our walk a local shop owner says hello. Or is it? Yes, tricked you again. That’s no shop owner, that’s Roger Ragusa. The “invisible man” and “man of a thousand faces”.

Another street shot. Roger might be in this photo and he might not be. I’ll let you decide…

Last stop at the Lincoln Theater with a lady working at the ticket booth – HEY WAIT! That’s no ticket lady, that’s Roger again? How does he do it? We do not know…

RHS PreShow Songs

Rocky Horror Show pre-show songs, intermission and warm up song list for band and cast.

Adam’s Family – Key Bb
Bb – Cm – F – Bb

Munster’s Theme – Key Am
Am – Dm – Am G – Am (2x)
G – C – D – D B E
Am – Dm – Am E Am

In The Hall of the Mountain King – Key Dm
Dm – E/Dm – Eb/Dm – Dm – F (2x)
A – Bb A – Bb A (2x)

Funky Town – Key C
C – – – – G – C
F7 – – – – C7 (#9)

Deliverance – Key C – Banjo and Samples

Haunted Mansion Theme – Key Am
Am – B – Am – Bb – Am – F7 – Am F7(#11) – Am – E – Am

Halloween Theme – Key Dm – Intro 5/4 time then 4/4 rock
Dm – C#m – Dm – C#m
Then Jam on Dm

I Will Survive – Key Am
Am – Dm7 – G – CMaj7 – FMaj7 – Dm7 – Esus – E
Break after sax solo

Viagra (Tomorrow) – Key F
F C/E Dm Gm Am Dm Gm C
F C/E Dm Gm Am Dm Gm C
Fm Fm/Eb Db Eb – Ab Ab/G – Csus – C
F F/Eb Bb/D Bbm Gm C F
F F/Eb Bb/D Bbm Gm – BIG END – Csus C F

Stand By Your Man – Key A
A – E – Bm – E – A
D – A – B – E
A – E – Bm – E – A
D – A – – E – A

CHORUS: A – C#7 – D C#m Bm – A – F# – B – E
A – C#7 – D C#m Bm – A – E – C#7 F#7
D – E – A

Hello My Darling – Key F
F – D – G – C7 – F Abdim Gm C
F – D – G – Gm – C – F

Lyrics and Chords – Stand By Your Man

Stand By Your Man
by Tammy Wynette and Billy Sherrill

Verse 1
A                          E
Sometimes its hard to be a woman
Bm              E7               A
Giving all your love to just one man
D
You’ll have bad times
A
And he’ll have good times
B                                E
Doing things that you don’t understand

CHORUS
A             C#
Stand by your man
D                    C#m   Bm
Give him two arms to cling to
A             F#7
And something warm to come to
B               E7
When nights are cold and lonely
S             C#
Stand by your man
D                      C#m  Bm
And tell the world you love him
A           E7               C#7       F#
Keep giving all the love you can
D     E       A    D   A   E7
Stand by your man

Verse 2
A                             E
But if you love him you’ll forgive him
Bm               E7           A
Even though he’s hard to understand
D
And if you love him
A              D
Oh be proud of him
A           E7              A    D   A   E
Cause after all he’s just a man

CHORUS
A             C#
Stand by your man
D                      C#m  Bm
And show the world you love him
A           E            E7  C#7   F#
Keep giving all the love you can
D     E  A       D    A   E    A
Stand by your man

Lyrics – Funky Town

Gotta make a move to a
Town that’s right for me
Town to keep me movin’
Keep me groovin’ with some energy

Well, I talk about it
Talk about it
Talk about it
Talk about it
Talk about, Talk about
Talk about movin

Gotta move on
Gotta move on
Gotta move on

Won’t you take me to
Funkytown
Won’t you take me to
Funkytown
Won’t you take me to
Funkytown
Won’t you take me to
Funkytown

Gotta make a move to a
Town that’s right for me
Town to keep me movin’
Keep me groovin’ with some energy

Well, I talk about it
Talk about it
Talk about it
Talk about it
Talk about, Talk about
Talk about movin

Gotta move on
Gotta move on
Gotta move on

Won’t you take me to
Funkytown
Won’t you take me to
Funkytown
Won’t you take me to
Funkytown
Won’t you take me to
Funkytown

Original Key: C

Rocky Horror Show LIVE opens Oct 26 2007

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THE ROCKY HORROR SHOW IS COMING TO THE LINCOLN THEATRE
Mount Vernon, WA

“LIVE” BEGINNING OCT. 26-NOV 10 2007!!!!!

Oct. 26, 27, 31 and Nov.1, 2, 3, 8, 9, 10 at 8 pm with a Midnight Show on the 10th. All seats are $20. Tickets for both at the Lincoln Theatre Box Office 360-336-8955 or 877-754-6284 more info at www.theaterartsguild.org

Theater Arts Guild Presents Richard O’Brien’s “The Rocky Horror Show” Live at the Lincoln Theatre

Directed by Jane Skinner, with Music Direction by Conrad Askland

In association with Skagit PFLAG, the Pride Foundation and SPAC

An zany erotic adult musical of which the film cult classic,” The Rocky Horror Picture Show” was based on, Brad and Janet are an innocent young couple stranded at the home of a mad scientist intent on building the perfect man. His castle is filled with bizarre characters who worship their leather & fishnet master, Dr. Frank-N-Furter, eventually forcing Brad & Janet to examine their own sexuality and hidden desires. Based on the original stage musical by Richard O’Brien this performance comes alive with unforgettable song-and-dance numbers that have come to represent the sexual liberation of the 1970s. So fish out your fishnets, and sharpen your stilettos for the rockiest ride of your life!

The Rocky Horror Show is not appropriate for all audiences; it contains mature themes, sexual situations, strong language, and some possible nudity. No age restriction but parental discretion is advised.

Since this is an audience participation show in a historic theater we ask that no outside props are brought in but a “Rocky” audience participation pack will be sold in the lobby for $5.00 prior to the show.