Can you feel the ... anticipation?

When Michael Beverley walked into the audition, he was already tense. It was like walking through the cafeteria on the first day of school. There was a lot to take in.

Lots of fishnets, lots of heels, lots of personality, lots of competition.

The audition, held at a local dance studio on a September morning, was for “The Rocky Horror Show Live!” at The Wilma. September means a lot of things for Missoulians — University of Montana homecoming, the last days of summer, the return of college students in full force — and, for the theater crowd, the start of the city’s whirlwind production of pure camp.

That morning, a group of around 50 actors, dancers and singers gathered, and while there was no set dress code for the auditions, there were plenty of Rocky-esque garments: Pleather, knee-high boots and glitter galore.

Beverley wore tennis shoes, gym shorts and a tank top.

It was the 29-year-old’s first time auditioning for the Missoula staple show, and while the third-year Master of Fine Arts theater directing candidate had helped produce musicals before, he had never performed in one himself.

A few days later, Beverley was offered a role with the Kinky Chorus, kind of like the ensemble. He’d never even seen the show live before, but he knew enough about the production to know he was in for a good time.

“When I teach undergrad actors, I call it the excitement of possibility,” Beverley said.

“The Rocky Horror Show Live!” at The Wilma has become a Missoula tradition over the years. The show began in 2009 and was seen as a risk for The Montana Actor’s Theatre, but turned out to be a huge success. It has taken some breaks over the years, and 2023 marks its 10th production.

The production is a full-fledged musical, not just a shadow cast with actors performing in front of a screening of the film, as it is often presented in local theaters. The musical, which differs slightly from the cult-classic movie starring Tim Curry, is about an innocent newlywed couple, Brad and Janet, who get stranded in a storm and come upon Dr. Frank-N-Furter — a mad, self-proclaimed transvestite scientist — his castle and troupe of strange house guests.

Reid Reimers, Missoula’s resident Dr. Frank-N-Furter, has been with the production since its inception. Reimers graduated from the University of Montana with a communications degree and later a master’s in theater in 2012.

The first year The Montana Actor’s Theatre decided to give “Rocky Horror” a shot, the director suggested Reimers play Dr. Frank-N-Furter. He’d never seen “Rocky Horror” before, and assumed that meant he’d be wearing a lab coat and a white wig.

“I went home and watched the movie and was like, ‘Oh, crap.’ So I got some heels the next day,” Reimers said. “That’s kind of how it started.”

He’s repeated the same role since 2009 — no other Dr. Frank-N-Furter has graced The Wilma stage — and later started directing. This year he’s a triple threat, an actor, director and producer. He likes directing the best, though worrying about some logistics, like the cost of the show, can be stressful. It costs around $50,000 alone for the rights to the show, plus the actors are paid.

Reimers said it’s been a “mixed bag” over the years, but they typically get quite a few students, like Beverley, who do “Rocky” each year. It can be a nice introduction to professional theater, Reimers said, and there’s nothing else quite like “Rocky” on the market — the audience participation, the rock concert atmosphere, the impassioned Missoula following that turns out for the show every year.

The students who participate in “Rocky,” and the alumni who come back, are all getting something a little different out of the experience. Some are enhancing their college studies by dipping their toes into the professional world, while others return for the feeling of coming back home. And somehow, in other ways, they’re all doing it for the same reasons: for community, for liberation and just for the fun.

‘DON’T DREAM IT - BE IT’

Cast member Mikayla Kay sat on campus in the lobby of the PAR-TV building, pinning her hair to set for a wig cap and touching up her red lipstick to get ready for a “drink and draw” event to promote the show. Weeks ago, when the 24-year-old from Maple Valley, Washington found out she was cast, she was sitting in the same building Zooming into her anthropology class.

“I literally got the email during class. [I was] very excited. It was like, literally, right over there,” Kay said, pointing across the lobby.

Kay, a senior working on her Bachelor of Fine Arts in musical theater, plays Columbia, whom she describes as a complex, upgraded phantom, or a groupie: peppy, spritzy and horny. Working on the show, Kay said, has been an “extreme challenge.” Though the schedule on top of school can be demanding, it’s exactly the kind of challenge she’s glad to tackle.

“This show’s very much helped teach me to brush things off because this is what I’m going to school for,” Kay said.

Brynn Hughes, a 22-year-old student from Boulder, Colorado, is performing her second stint in Rocky Horror this year as a Kinky Chorus member. She said she didn’t realize just how big a deal this show was to its audience until she was backstage during her first performance with the cast in 2019 as a phantom.

“I was off-stage in the wings and I watched Jeff Medley, who plays Riff Raff, walk on stage, and the entire audience — [Medley] didn’t say a word, literally took two steps on the stage — and they all lost their minds,” Hughes said. “I was like, ‘oh my god, I get it now.’”

Hughes started at UM in 2019 as a theater major and later changed to an English major with a theater minor. She wants to work in comedy writing one day.

She first auditioned her freshman year with her friends, just to see what a professional audition would be like. She’d only been in high school theater up until that point, and had only attended UM for about a month. She was surprised to see her name on the cast list. Even with a slew of returners every year, no one is ever guaranteed a spot. She auditioned again last year but didn’t make it in.

For Beverley, the stakes are a little different. After he graduated from Salisbury University in Maryland, he got one of his first professional contracts with Missoula Children’s Theatre. Though directing clicked for him more than acting ever did, he knew “Rocky” would be a really fun challenge.

Beverley is set to direct UM’s musical production of “Bright Star” in the spring as part of his master’s thesis, and sees “Rocky” as his chance to know what it feels like to act in a musical before directing “Bright Star.”

“I don’t like asking actors to do things that I wouldn’t do,” Beverley said. “So I’m like, ‘How can I ask them to do anything for a musical when I’ve never been in one?’ Being a part of this has really opened up what it’s like from an actor’s point of view of being in a show like this.”

This particular production has such a big following that, to Beverley, it’s about being part of something bigger than yourself, especially for the audience.

Students of the School of Theater and Dance, like Beverley and Kay, are supposed to fill out a petition to be a part of performances outside the school, the school’s interim director, Mike Post, said. It’s more of a conversation for the students to talk to their advisers and make sure they’re not doing too much, to protect both the school’s productions and its students.

“We encourage people to go work outside, just with those caveats in mind,” Post said. “It’s just a matter of communication.”

The fast process and short time commitment — it’s long hours for a short number of weeks, Hughes said — makes “Rocky” easy to fit in with other shows. Though that doesn’t always mean the timing is a breeze.

Beverley’s first meeting to direct “Bright Star,” his thesis show, is the same day as “Rocky’s” opening night.

Hughes left her job so she could do school and “Rocky.”

“It’s a bit of an ass-kicker,” Hughes said.

But nobody joins theater for the leisurely work schedule, Kay jokes, and “Rocky” is only a condensed representation of the almost masochistic dedication theater-folk have.

“We’re doing this because we want to do it. We chose to be here, we choose to be in the shows that we’re in, [we] are choosing to get these degrees,” Kay said. “You really just have to think about, like, why do it if it’s not fun?”

‘I’M GOING HOME’

In addition to current students, there are a number of UM alumni in this year’s “Rocky” production. Azure Larkwood, a 22-year-old graduate with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in musical theater and a minor in music composition from UM, has performed in “Rocky” since 2019, once as a Kinky Chorus member and now as a phantom.

“Rocky Horror” was Larkwood’s first experience acting in a professional show, but stepping into it was more than a resume-builder for them.

“It was the first time where I was really steeped in a community of majority queer folks,” Larkwood said. “And where the whole show and the whole audience is highly accepting and supportive of everyone being whoever the hell they are. And expressing however the hell they want to express.”

Larkwood first joined “Rocky” after seeing their brother, Hamilton Clement, play Brad in 2018. Most of Larkwood’s theater experiences while at UM happened to be non-UM shows. When COVID-19 hit during UM’s production of “Spring Awakening,” Larkwood took that pause to dive more into songwriting. Larkwood still enjoys theater now, but likes not experiencing as much pressure for a career in it.

The production changes a bit each year, but one thing that doesn’t change is the script. Larkwood, a writer, usually thinks the script is the most important part of the show, but that’s not the case with “Rocky.”

It’s what the cast does with what they’re given that’s special — it’s why people do the show year after year, Larkwood thinks, because they do it for more than the show’s contents. They come back to the late-night, sweaty rehearsals for the family, for the audience, for the energy. “It’s the same silly show,” said Reimers, the director-producer-Dr. Frank-N-Furter actor. “[But] we’re not doing the same thing at all.”

The theme this year is “Art Deco,” and the set was designed by Adryan Miller-Gorder, a designer and alumna of both UM and the Missoula production. When she looks back on her past experience with the show, both in the audience and on stage in 2014, “Rocky” represents Missoula tradition, almost like a family reunion.

“I remember all my friends, all of us performing together,” she said. “I can go watch it every year and look to my left and say, ‘Oh, hi guys! I haven’t seen you in a while. We’ve been living adult lives. How dumb is that? Let’s scream hot dogs at this stage right now.’”

Miller-Gorder worked on theater productions at Hellgate High School using skills she learned helping her father with his construction business. At UM, she took all the design classes offered, and then some.

She had known Reimers for years before attending UM, so just like going into design, “Rocky” was also a natural next step. She said her studies at UM prepared her for the crazy deadlines and fast-paced schedules, and even if real life isn’t always this hectic, it helped prepare her for “Rocky.”

Designing this year’s “Rocky” set is her first professional theater gig since she left the short time she spent in New York before the pandemic. While visiting Missoula in March, Miller-Gorder remembered running into Reimers at a bar downtown, and that’s when he asked her to collaborate on the show. They began working on ‘napkin sketches.’

“It’s a tradition that immediately reminds me, ‘Oh, that’s right. I’m home,”’ Miller-Gorder said. “In the last few years that I’ve been visiting home, Missoula has changed quite a bit. And it’s actually really nice that ‘Rocky’ hasn’t.”

‘BLESS MY SOUL, I REALLY LOVE ROCK ‘N’ ROLL’

“Rocky Horror” features a live band, where students also get involved. Spencer Stern, a third-year Master of Fine Arts student in theatrical music direction at UM, first got involved in “Rocky” last year. The 25-year-old from Cameron, West Virginia, wanted to attend the show but the ticket prices were too high for him. Tickets this year range from $43.50 to $75. He reached out to see if he could be part of the band, and after it all worked out, he’s back for a second year playing synthesizer.

“Little life hack for you,” he said with a chuckle.

Stern’s theatrical music direction degree is a rare program, and he gets the theoretical bits in school, so productions like “Rocky Horror” let him really present those skills.

On top of that, he gets to feel like a rock star.

“I don’t care what anyone says. Every musician deep down inside wants to be a rock star at some point,” Stern said. “With ‘Rocky,’ I play the first notes of the overture and the house just explodes … I don’t normally get that reaction.”

It’s a sentiment shared by Beverley. “Rocky” in Missoula is really more of a concert than a show, not just for the band and the audience, but the actors as well.

“There’s that part in the back of your brain that’s like, ‘I’m about to have a rock star moment,’” Beverley said. “I’m so excited for it.”

Hughes had a rock star moment her first year performing in the show when an audience member approached her while she was helping clean the space in between showings.

She told Hughes she couldn’t stop watching her during the previous night’s performance, and decided to come again dressed as her. And there she was, wearing fishnets, black shorts and a bedazzled bra just like Hughes’ phantom costume.

Some theater shows are what Stern calls “stodgy,” where the audience has to be “prim and proper,” but not this one. At “Rocky,” it’s a place for the audience to let loose.

“Rocky is what I think theater should actually be,” Stern said.

THE ‘TEST CASE’

For Reimers, there are three major factors that make Missoulians turn out for the show every year. There’s the source material itself — for example, fans of the movie flock to the show — and the audience participation that everyone loves (i.e. screaming “asshole” at Brad and “slut” at Janet). Then there’s the timing; it’s great for the Halloween holiday.

But the last part of what makes “Rocky” work is what Reimers calls the “lovely liberal bastion” of Missoula. Though “Rocky’s” influence certainly permeates beyond Missoula’s borders, this production at The Wilma has become synonymous with a unique Missoula experience.

The Wilma production is an all-ages show, and will continue to be, though recent state legislation led Reimers to question if the show might be challenged.

House Bill 359, which would prohibit minors from attending drag shows, was signed by Gov. Gianforte in May. A federal judge issued a temporary block on the law in July in response to lawsuit challenging the bill, and that block was extended on October 13.

Reimers acknowledges that “Rocky” isn’t necessarily drag, but looking at the wording of the law — it would prohibit minors from attending or even being near “sexually orientated” shows — it’s possible someone could “raise a stink.”

“I have no interest in diving into a nightmarish legal case with the state, but I think we would be a great test case,” Reimers said. “In a lot of ways, [“Rocky Horror” is] a story all about liberation and finding your own place in the world. It’s been really inspiring to people over the years, and so I’d hate for somebody to miss out on that because of some ignorant laws.”

Many of the cast members take pride in the show’s open, accepting and expressive nature. They say, “It’s racy, not raunchy.” For Beverley, the show is all about liberation, and the sense that the audience feels like they belong to part of something. For Hughes, it’s all about that expression, something we may see a lot of in Missoula, she said, but not always the rest of Montana.

“It can be seen as really controversial, but it’s not controversial,” Hughes said. “It’s for people to be themselves, and that’s not very controversial.”

Larkwood said they think people in Missoula are hungry for stories like “Rocky” with queer narratives, “even strange ones like this, that are more about aliens than it is queer people,” they said.

“It’s the people. It’s being in a room full of people that are dressed in however way they want to dress, whether that’s like, big and crazy and wild, or in, you know, full beautiful drag or in a strange costume,” Larkwood said. “Whatever it is, and then to have that reflected like on stage.”

And, just because this production is an all ages show, that doesn’t mean this is the type of show that young kids are attending anyway. Parental discretion is advised.

“If they don’t want to come to the show, don’t come,” Reimers said. “It’s not like a 6-year-old is going to have their own money and be downtown at midnight on Halloween.”

‘BETTER WISE UP’

Beverley may have been tense walking into the audition, but it also had that sort of “Missoula-approachability,” he said, that made him feel less intimidated.

Now that he’s been in rehearsals for a few weeks, Beverley said it’s been a refreshing experience to get out of the undergrad-graduate student dynamic and to work with theater people who are not directly involved at the University.

The rehearsals can be demanding with long nights and lots of choreography that leave them sweating by the end, but Hughes said there’s something about coming to rehearsals after a long day and leaving everything behind to hang out with her “‘Rocky’ family.”

“It’s easily the best part of my day,” Hughes said.

Beverley, along with Kay, the student playing Columbia, will both open the show on Friday as “Rocky” virgins — the name given to people who’ve never seen the show live before (the movie doesn’t count). They said they’re both looking forward to the audience’s energy.

It’s a show that’s not really complete without the crowd to enjoy it, and just like the cast, that crowd will come for their own reasons — for tradition, for the welcoming atmosphere, to throw rice on stage (from the prop bags, of course) and to call Brad an asshole. They’ll come because “Rocky Horror” in some ways represents the best of Missoula, by giving a space for people to express themselves.

“This has been a thrill ride,” Beverley said, “and I can’t wait for the audience to hop on.”