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Seattle, WA — September 2025 This fall, Unexpected Productions invites audiences to experience the outrageous, the hilarious, and the unpredictable with The Rocky Horror Improv Show, a late-night rock musical parody that puts a fully improvised twist on the legendary cult classic. Performances will be held at the Market Theater in Pike Place Market on Fridays in October at 11:30.
The show was first sparked by an experiment during Unexpected Productions’ genre mash-up Playborhood. “I pitched Rocky Horror as a genre to the Playborhood director, and the show was just completely wild,” recalls Dan Posluns, the director of the Rocky Horror Improv Show. “It was raucous and hilarious, and it was clear from the performance that there was meat on the bone for a fully realized show.” Shortly after, the team brought The Rocky Horror Improv Show to life, and it’s been growing ever since.
Unlike traditional screenings or shadow-cast performances, this production doesn’t use any material from the original show or film. Instead, the cast takes suggestions from the audience to spin a brand-new, fully improvised rock musical that feels both fresh and familiar. “If you squint at it, maybe it has the same shape or outline as Rocky Horror, but with entirely new characters, stories, and songs that are made up on the spot,” explains Posluns. “Let’s just say we made it a late show for a reason—this isn’t the kind of improv you’ll want to bring your grandmother to, unless your grandmother happens to be exceptionally cool.”
The spirit of Rocky Horror, its camp, its rock energy, and its fearless embrace of queerness and sexuality remain at the heart of the show. “Rocky Horror has stayed relevant for more than 50 years because it’s fearless, transgressive, and deeply fun,” says the director. “Each generation rediscovers it, and it continues to speak to people personally, reaching out from outside of society’s norms.”
At its core, The Rocky Horror Improv Show is an immersive audience experience. Fans won’t get to shout the traditional callbacks, but they will help shape the story every night with their suggestions. The cast leans into the wild unpredictability of improv, with one night’s lovers trapped in a haunted castle and the next stuck in a submarine or office building. Even the iconic Frankenfurter character is reinvented each night, devising brand-new devious schemes.
Behind the scenes, the production is bigger than ever. “We’ve got more performances, a bigger cast, a bigger band, and a brand-new sound system so we can rock out even harder than before,” the Poslun shares. With live musicians onstage, body mics, and over-the-top costumes, the show feels as much like a concert as a piece of theater.
The cast has embraced the chaos with gusto. “As improvisers, we often play close to reality, but this show gives us license to smash conventions with a baseball bat,” says the director. “There’s this moment when you realize your imagination is nothing compared to the imaginations of nine improvisers. The show doesn’t just work—it soars beyond anything you dreamed.”
When asked to sum up the show in three words, the director didn’t hesitate: “Sex, hugs, and rock-and-roll, baby.” |
