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Don't be alarmed if the audience yells at the actors when Stage Right performs "The Rocky Horror Show" Oct. 29 and 30 at the Greensburg Garden and Civic Center. Don't take offense, either, if some of their calls are even insulting.

The actors won't mind, and in fact, they'll be disappointed if their own lines don't elicit comments from the audience; because that's what makes the musical so campy, so off the wall and so much fun.

Yelling at the screen or live stage is a longtime tradition for Rockyheads, who turned the original musical and subsequent movie into a cult attraction. It was a response that surprised Stage Right artistic director Tony Marino when he performed it eight years ago with Gargaro Productions at Pappa J's in Pittsburgh's Strip District.

"People started shouting back at the actors, and that was something that I never thought would happen," he said.

The Rocky Horror Show" opened in 1973 at the Royal Court's experimental Theatre Upstairs in London. Richard O'Brien wrote the book, music and lyrics for what was intended to be a six-week production. It was so popular that it moved to King's Road Theatre in Chelsea and was named as 1973's best musical.

When 20th Century Fox's Lou Adler saw it, it took him just 36 hours to cinch a deal to turn it into a movie that was filmed in England's House of Horrors and at a 19th Century chateau that was Gen. Charles DeGaulle's wartime retreat.

The movie was not a big hit when it was released in 1974. That changed in 1976 when Louis Farese, an avid fan and a kindergarten teacher from Staten Island, yelled the first line at Susan Sarandon, who as heroine Janet Weiss, covered her head with newspaper during a thunderstorm.

"Get an umbrella, you cheap -----!" Farese shouted, and the rest is theater history.

It wasn't difficult for fans to come up with more lines to direct at such an outrageous spoof of bad and stereotypical entertainment. "Rocky Horror" pokes fun at classic sci-fi flicks, the sugary Frankie Avalon-Annette Funicello movies, comic books and rock and roll.

The plot opens with naive Janet and her nerdy fiance, Brad Majors, attending a wedding, then driving off in search of an old professor, Dr. Scott. A storm forces them to stop at an eerie mansion where they encounter the mad Dr. Frank N Furter and his entourage from the planet Transsexual in the Galaxy of Transylvania.

Frank N Furter has just created Rocky, a beefcake hunk who's not very bright. He also plots to spoil the innocence of his uninvited but captive guests.

Frank N Furter steals the show with his long black curly hair, gaudy makeup, black corset, garter belt, stockings and boots. Shakespearean actor Tim Curry created the original role on stage and in the movie.

"It's one of the greatest performances of all time in movie musicals," Marino said. "The reason that people love Frank N Furter so much is that he loves himself so much. He goes over the top with how much he loves himself."

Joe Pedulla, a Stage Right regular from Pittsburgh, takes on that flamboyant role as a character that he knew only through one song, "Sweet Transvestite," which he sang one summer in a cabaret in West Virginia.

"I can't believe that anybody could come this far in life without seeing 'Rocky Horror,' and Joe's excited about finally getting the opportunity to do it," Marino said.

Pittsburgh actors Jason Swauger and Scott Sambucco play Brad and the hunchback Riff Raff, O'Brien's character in the movie. Briana Downs, a senior at Point Park College, is cast as Janet. Greensburg Salem high school senior Kiley Caughy is Magenta, Riff Raff's sister who, the audience notes, has racing stripes in her hair. John Noble, of Greensburg, is the narrator, and his son, Alex, is Rocky.

Marino doubles as Dr. Scott and as Eddie, who was played by Meatloaf in the movie. Eddie is a biker and a rock and roller who has a dubious place of honor at the dinner table.

Marino's wife, Renata, is Columbia, a tap-dancing redhead who was sweet on Eddie. She also arranged the choreography, which may have the audience jumping out of their seats to do "The Time Warp" in the aisles. That's easy because "it's just a jump to the left, and a step to the right, put your hands on your hips, and bring your knees in tight."

Marino hopes that some theater patrons show up in costume, and he expects the midnight shows to be more interactive than the 8 p.m. performances. Devoted fans prefer later shows and have been known to throw rice during the wedding and hot dogs when Dr. Frank N Furter appears. They squirt waterguns and put newspapers over their heads in the storm scene and turn on flashlights for "There's a Light (over at the Frankenstein place)." A toast of wine prompts the throwing of toasted bread, and even rubber chickens have been tossed around.

None of that mess will be permitted at the Greensburg Garden and Civic Center. However, the audience is encouraged to shout lines at the appropriate times, and Rocky veterans know when those occur. In one dance scene, they yell at the stringy-haired Riff Raff, "Leg kick! Leg kick!" When Janet appears, they may hiss "Weisss!"

"We're rehearsing our lines to develop a rhythm with the audience," Marino said. "That's all part of the fun."

Mark Kissner is in charge of the set that looks like an eerie castle, and the computer-generated images on the back screen. In the beginning, that features the famous close-up of Columbia's red lips.

Costumer Maureen Auer found Frank N Furter's black corset in a plus-size shop but, Marino said, "It's been harder to find size-12 platform boots for him."

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