Albuquerque Little Theatre is doing the Time Warp for real this week, staging Richard O’Brien’s original Rocky Horror Show musical as a one-weekend fundraiser, complete with a midnight performance on Halloween night. Performances run 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 28, 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 29, 7:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 30, and both 7:30 p.m. and 11:59 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 31, with tickets priced between $37 and $40.
This isn’t the movie, and it isn’t a shadow cast where fans lip-sync alongside a screen — it’s the stage musical that launched the whole phenomenon, according to Albuquerque Little Theatre. The theater describes the show as part of its 2026-2027 97th season, and this particular run as a special one-weekend presentation meant to serve as a fundraiser for the venue, located at 224 San Pasquale Ave. SW. The story is the familiar one: newly engaged couple Brad and Janet get stranded and stumble into a mysterious mansion, where they collide with an annual Transylvanian convention thrown by a sexually liberated crew that includes Columbia, Magenta, Riff Raff and Dr. Frank-N-Furter, as reported by the Albuquerque Journal.
A Third Appearance in the Show for Mitchell
Maymie Mitchell is appearing in the show for the third time, after having played Columbia once and been an ensemble member once, per the same Journal account. She said this live staging lets her tap dance in a way the role hasn’t always allowed, and she described the show as one that celebrates uniqueness and feels like home for a lot of people who come back to it again and again.
That sense of homecoming runs through the whole production’s pitch to Albuquerque audiences. The theater’s own messaging frames the musical as, in its words, a bold, unapologetic celebration of self-expression, transformation, and the freedom to be exactly who you are, according to Albuquerque Little Theatre. It’s the kind of framing that has helped Rocky Horror endure across five decades in one form or another, from midnight movie showings to stage revivals.
First Time Playing Frank, After 15 Years in Drag
Cameron Illidge-Welch is taking on Dr. Frank-N-Furter for the first time, bringing 15 years of drag experience and, by his own count, roughly 43 viewings of the Rocky Horror movie to the role, the Journal reports. He previously played Brad in another production and spent time as a shadow cast member, miming and performing alongside screenings in the tradition the New Haven Independent describes as fans acting out the film live in costume rather than performing it as a standalone stage work.
Illidge-Welch said that shadow-cast background actually helped him nail some of the physical mannerisms associated with Tim Curry, who originated the role on the West End stage in the early 1970s before reprising it in the 1975 film, according to ABC News. Curry died in August 2026, and Illidge-Welch said stepping into the part so soon afterward felt overwhelming, adding that he felt honored to be trusted with the role.
Getting Frank right took weeks of collaboration behind the scenes. Illidge-Welch worked with costume designer Avery Edwards on the character’s look and spent weeks with a makeup artist designing Frank-N-Furter’s face, per the Journal’s reporting. He described the character as equal parts man and woman, and said he keeps coming back to the role, and to the castle, simply because it’s fun.
Audience Participation, By the Bagful
Part of what makes Rocky Horror Rocky Horror is the crowd itself, and Albuquerque Little Theatre is leaning into that tradition with 100 prop bags per show, stocked with newspapers, water guns and other items meant for audience participation. It’s a tradition with deep roots — midnight showings helped the original film become the longest-running theatrical release in history, according to ABC News.
That audience-participation tradition isn’t without its tensions elsewhere in the Rocky Horror world. A Broadway production has reportedly been working to calibrate just how much of that traditional fan involvement to allow, according to The New York Times. Albuquerque Little Theatre’s version offers audience participation through its prop bags, and includes the midnight Halloween showing, which the theater has billed simply as yes, there's a midnight show on Halloween.
Richard O’Brien wrote the original Rocky Horror Show, and this Albuquerque run returns to that source material rather than any film or shadow-cast adaptation. With performances spread across four nights, including Halloween itself, the production gives local theatergoers a rare chance to see the stage version that started the whole cult phenomenon, done live, props bags and all.
