The Rich Weirdos

For all you Rocky Horror Picture Show fans looking to interact with this cult classic then be sure to catch these performances that happen every second and fourth FULL weekends of every month. Shows start at 11:30pm at Universal Cineplex 20 (in the CityWalk location)

As a die-​hard Rockyphile for many, many years, this was without doubt the worst audience participation experience I’ve ever seen.
I’ve lived in Orlando for a while, and I’d really been looking forward to experiencing the city’s well-​regarded Rocky Horror Picture Show shadowcast. I had heard good things for years, but I’d somehow never managed to go. I finally did so during October and… wow… I’m at a loss.
From what I’ve been able to learn since my experience by talking to other attendees and former associates of the show, they weren’t always like this. Apparently they used to be extremely organized, in sync, and put on a great performance. Not so much now, evidently.
The first moment I realized something was off was when they started the show by describing it as «a crappy movie.» That’s the theme of their AP script: this is a bad movie and no one likes it. In all my years of RHPS fandom, I’ve never encountered that attitude. The point of the show is to celebrate the movie, not insult it. They kept it up all night, deriding the music, the story, and even the cast — which is odd, considering it contains at least three Shakespearean actors and an Oscar-​winner. The Rich Weirdos, though, seemed to feel their role was to act as a kind of budget MST3K.
That wasn’t the biggest problem, though. It’s a weird approach, but if that’s your thing, sure, run with it. In fact, it appears they used the script from Atlanta’s Lips Down on Dixie troupe as their starting point, so someone must enjoy it. No, the biggest problem was that the AP was a disorganized, incoherent mess.
There were clearly two people fighting for control of the show: an MC, and the fellow playing the Criminologist. The Criminologist, for his part, seemed to know what he was doing. He seemed to be using a completely different script, one with the traditional jokes, the classics that the audience is supposed to know going in, and he did it well. He was badly overshadowed by the MC, though, who spent the entire night shouting into his microphone with a bottomless supply of terrible material. And when I say overshadowed I don’t mean the Criminologist was just less prominent, I mean they were literally talking over each other and the MC was much louder and coarser. It was like watching a tug-​of-​war where one of the participants keeps throwing handfuls of rocks at the other. It’s hard to describe how awful it was. The audience members who had prior experience were completely lost… in fact, the only times there was any coherence in the jokes was when we made them. Otherwise, there was no chorus of voices, just a lot of discordant babble.
Apart from the Criminologist’s efforts, the loose script they were using was, frankly, terrible. As I mentioned, they had taken the current Atlanta script and embellished it, but their embellishments were dreadful and endless. Instead of one joke leading to another and maybe one more, it was one not-​especially-​clever joke leading to six or seven in a row, and when the string of quips was over they had talked over a huge stretch of the movie. One of the fundamental tenets of these shows is supposed to be that you don’t talk over any significant portion of the dialogue so that the audience, especially any Rocky virgins, can still follow the story. These guys had no respect for the film at all, and it showed in their complete obliteration of what was occurring onscreen. They seem to be so convinced of their own superior entertainment value that they assume that’s all the audience needs to see.
What else can I say? Most of the cast was gender-​swapped, that was annoying. I imagine they thought it was appropriate to the film, but it didn’t work, and you could see how proud they were of it. A female Frank-​N-​Furter is just… silly. The prop bags were nice enough but they failed to caution the audience not to throw the rice directly at the faces of the people behind them, so the evening started off with a nice round of sharp eye pain.
The person playing Trixie was great. That’s my one word of praise.
All in all, it was an incomprehensible, disrespectful disaster. I hope there’s a better cast somewhere in the state, but if you’ve never done this before and decide to see this one, please don’t judge the Rocky Horror Picture Show by what you’re about to experience. It’s pretty much the antithesis of what you should expect.

I attended the Live Show with no expectations other than to have a great time. The rich weirdos cast ruined the entire event. The movie was scheduled for 12am. Be prepared to sit for the first half hour watching an «audience participation» segment that is actually the MC yelling into the microphone the whole time. It was not comedic at all. Why not schedule that portion at 11:30pm, and start the show ON TIME? Because of this delay, we had to miss a portion of the movie as the valet at universal is only open until 2am.
Now for the movie itself. The entire time you watch the show, there are cast members yelling at the screen. I can’t comment whether they were always funny because most of the time, you couldn’t understand them. The things I could here, were not funny, not relevant and didn’t add a thing to the show. The cast should take a step back, allow the audience to participate as intended and only interject when needed. Let the focus be on the performers who are acting during the show. Which also had their own issues, but I give them A for effort.
Not what I was hoping for at all. I would say try another company performance and you may get a good, fun time!

I love the Rich Weirdos performance of the Rocky Horror Picture Show. My husband and I have been going to their performances for years, even before they moved to AMC City Walk.
Get there early because they do tend to sell out, especially their Halloween Specials (apparently they do three specials, but the last one on Halloween is the one we usually attend.).
Don’t bring props, just buy it from them as that’s the only time they get donations.

The Rich Weirdos perform Rocky Horror audience participation screenings at AMC Universal Cineplex at Universal Citywalk. They perform 4 times a month on every 2^nd and 4^th Fridays and Saturdays. The show costs the same as any movie ticket there (all ticket proceeds go to Universal) and the Rich Weirdos sell prop bags (those proceeds go to the Rich Weirdos for costumes, new set pieces, etc.). Get your tickets 1 – 2 hours early because sometimes they sell out (which has unfortunately happened to me before). The Rich Weirdo shows are at midnight, making them among the latest showtimes at Universal Cineplex.
The Rich Weirdos troop sets THE bar for Rocky Horror shadowcasts. I’ve been to RHPS audience participation screenings around Florida, but NOTHING even compares to the passion and wildness you’ll see at a Rich Weirdos show. There are elaborate virgin (first time viewer) initiations, the prop bags each contain a flavored condom for you to keep (not to throw during the show), both male and female actors will hit on you for fun, and there are many call-​out lines that are specifically about Orlando and Florida. The call-​out lines change from week to week and the actors play different characters from week to week, because the troop rehearses every Sunday. They love new members, and evidently they go to Denny’s after each rehearsal. Some nights are themed, where, before the show, the actors will act a certain way (ex. like zombie versions of their characters) and do certain shticks (ex. having a vomiting contest). Theme and regular nights are marked on the calendar that’s on the Rich Weirdo’s website. Sometimes they will do other musicals as well (ex. Shock Treatment), that are also listed on there.

Love The Rich Weirdoes! Definitely the best shadowcast I’ve ever seen for Rocky Horror Picture Show. I’ve seen this cast perform 4 times; I try to catch the show every time I’m in Orlando, especially around Halloween time! Keep up the amazing work, guys.
PS– Not suitable for children, and not for the easily offended and/​or for those that lack a sense of humor…

First of all I’m a huge Rocky Horror fan. Hell, I even performed as Columbia during my college days.
The Rich Weirdos have to be one of the best Rocky Horror groups I’ve seen. You never know what to expect with them. It’s definitely worth checking out the Orlando specific call-​backs. They perform on the 2^nd and 4^th weekends (both Friday and Saturday) of every month at Midnight at the movie theater at Universal CityWalk. CityWalk can be rather lame, but if you’re in the area doing all of that touristy crap, you should definitely check out the Rich Weirdos if you like abortion and chin fucking jokes.
The Rich Weirdos are also known to shadow cast other movies such as Moulin Rouge and Little Shop of Horrors. And they also do theme nights i.e. gender switch night, zombie night, pirate night. You get the idea. My favorite theme was Handicap Night. I almost pooped myself when I saw the blind Dr. Frank-​N-​Furter or eating disorder Janet pull a chicken drumstick out of boobs.
And Logan has to be one of the funniest MC’s ever.