EXPERIENCING THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW >>>

I remember taking a friend to the Blue Mouse Theatre to see The Rocky Horror Picture Show. He was a "virgin," as they are so called. Additionally, he admitted to me as we were finding seats that he had never even seen the actual film. As the barrage of lights and sounds cascaded from the troupe of actors standing in front of a screen while audience members added their own interjections, I couldn't imagine just how crazy this must have seemed to him. Certainly, when toast began flying through the air, my friend must have begun seriously reconsidering his plans for the night.

As many people are well aware, it is a sort of rite of passage to see Rocky Horror live. As strange and beguiling as it was for me to have my mind shattered by a VHS copy of Rocky Horror at the age of 11, seeing the film live is a whole other beast. In Tacoma, the place to go to experience this madness is the local second-run Blue Mouse Theatre, where performances of the "film" are held every Saturday, by a cast called The Blue Mouseketeers.

For those who are somehow still unfamiliar with the iconic cavalcade of questionable taste and WTF moments, The Rocky Horror Picture Show is a musical about love, commitment, spooky mansions, spookier party guests, megalomaniacal transvestites, murder, sex, more sex, weirder sex, Frankensteins with six-packs, rock 'n' roll, more murder and aliens - in that order. It's all so gleefully miscalculated - but with such catchy musical numbers - that it spawned a rabid fan base which celebrates Rocky Horror's simultaneous inanity and brilliance by acting out the film while it plays and as audience members are encouraged to yell out catch phrases and occasionally throw projectiles.

What I mean to say is that a live performance is some absurd, perverted fun, and the Blue Mouse Theatre - with its run-down, ages-old charm - is the perfect venue in which to experience it.

[Blue Mouse Theatre, Rocky Horror Picture Show with The Blue Mouseketeers, every Saturday except holidays, doors at 11 p.m., show starts at 11:30 p.m., $5, $1 prop bags, 3916 N. 26^th St., Tacoma, 253.752.9500]