Flustered Mustard
Saint Charles, MO
Rocky Horror made its cultural footprint in St. Louis back in the mid-1970's and remains one of the largest Halloween traditions in the city. While seasonal shows still happen with the Samurai Electricians cast at the Tivoli, nearly a block from the Varsity, where Rocky originally played, a few of the cast members wanted to give more frequent showings a try. So, we banded together a group comprised almost entirely of former high school theatre alumni and Flustered Mustard was born.
From the very beginning, we had our eyes set on St. Andrews Cinema in Saint Charles, one of the last true Dollar Cinemas and a relic of the past. Charmingly dingy and stuck in 1989, the venue was absolutely perfect for midnight Rocky Horror screenings. After months of negotiating, we decided on bi-weekly shows on Friday and Saturday nights. Once finalized, the posters were made, costumes sewn, props built, and we hit the ground running in late June of 2017. Ads in local schools (both high school and college) helped us pull in just the crowd we were aiming for; rowdy teenagers.
While we make no claim to fame on being extremely unique and original, we do take pride in the vast amount of artistic talent and creativity our cast members have brought to the table. Having mostly grown up together, the collaboration among the group is what keeps us strong. Our show takes heavy inspiration from how the shows used to run in St. Louis back in the 70's; low- budget, over-the- top performances, and opening each night with the classic music of Meat Loaf and Tim Curry. For the most part, all costumes and props are owned by the group itself as opposed to the individual cast members. It helps keep the vision straight, the costumes in check, and everyone always knows where their stuff is when they need it. Rehearsals on non- show weekends ensure our cast brings their A-Game. All promotional material, artwork, and photography is done by cast members and is unique to Flustered Mustard, which has helped steadily build our own identity in the area.
While we've only been running since June 2017, we have our eyes set on a long run. We're loving it, the theatre loves us, and we're pulling in crowds of mostly repeat audience members. Some are there every show, while some choose to set their own pattern of frequent attendance. Either way, they make us who we are, and we couldn't be more thrilled to see their faces every other weekend.
Our reason for doing the show comes from a true sense of admiration for Rocky Horror history, people, and the movie itself. By no means would we ever put anything into our show specifically to offend. With most of us having backgrounds stemming from theatre and other performance areas, it's important to us that the audience have just as good of a time watching as we do performing. In a cinema only seating 200, it's gotten to the point where audience participation is so big the cast themselves can't compete with the callbacks. This mindset helps keep us, the audience, and the cinema staff enjoying each and every show. Or so we think. Who knows, we're just a group of teenagers trying to have a good fucking time.
Flustered Mustard has shows every other weekend at St. Andrews Cinema in Saint Charles, Missouri. They happen on both Friday and Saturday night, and tickets go on-sale at the box office the Wednesday of show weeks. Drop us a message through Facebook if you ever plan on stopping by. We would love hearing from you!
When: Every other weekend on Friday and Saturday at Midnight.
Where: St. Andrews Cinema in St. Charles, Missouri.
Cost: $5.00
Check us out on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FlusteredMustardRHPS
St. Andrews Website: www.sac3.com
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