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‘Very questionable characters’

Paradigm Theater brings Rocky Horror Show to Oak Creek

Allison Plean

Barbi Bonfiglio started going to see The Rocky Horror Show every Friday night when she was 16 years old.

“There’s not really an explanation for it. You can ask anybody who went, especially in my generation,” Bonfiglio said. “It was just what you did on Friday night when you were in high school.”

Now that she owns the Paradigm Theater, she will be bringing the cult classic to Oak Creek.



“When I opened the theater, I knew within a relatively short amount of time I would do it,” said Bonfiglio, who is the artistic director and director of the musical theater production.

“It is quite an undertaking. I don’t know if I would have done it if not been urged by some of my friends.”



The musical originated 33 years ago on the stages of London. The basic storyline follows a couple of youths who go to visit their old college professor when their car breaks down.

“They end up in a castle with very questionable characters,” said Bonfiglio, who would not reveal anymore of the plot. “I don’t want to give it away because it needs to be interpreted in person.”

The Rocky Horror Show immediately became a cult classic with secret traditions and a culture of its own.

“In that particular time, it was a phenomenon unique to itself,” Bonfiglio said. “There was no explanation for why things happened the way they did.”

Bonfiglio was secretive about more than just the story line.

“The costumes are fairly indescribable, quite frankly, and those who have seen the show as long as I have will know what the props are,” Bonfiglio said. “But we’ll provide the props, and there is no need to bring them.”

Attendants must be at least 18 years old or accompanied by a parent, and people in costumes will not be turned away.

“If someone wants to wear all white, they can,” Bonfiglio said. “But you will not be sitting in a gigantic theater with a movie screen doing goofy things that maybe wouldn’t be appropriate in a theater.”

The combination of working with a great script, fun music, fabulous talent and costumes has made this experience a memorable one for Bonfiglio.

“It has been the most fun I’ve had doing a show in my adult life,” she said. “Maybe as a teenager I had more fun doing something, but I don’t remember.”


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