8th Street Playhouse
The 8th Street Playhouse was a New York City theater that was one of the first in the country to play The Rocky Horror Picture Show on a regular basis. The movie began at the Greenwich Village theater on July 21, 1978 and ran until the theater closed November of 1992.
The 450 seat 8th Street Playhouse was home to the 8th Street Players, which was comprised of several participants who previously frequented the nearby Waverly Theater, where The Rocky Horror Picture Show was introduced as a Midnight movie in New York, in April of 1976.
When the Waverly ceased Rocky Horror screenings, it eventually came to the The 8th Street Playhouse, where became the second home of the The Rocky Horror Picture Show Official Fan Club and one of the most talked about locations for Rocky Horror in the world. The stellar cast, featuring their premiere Frank-N-Furter, Dori Hartley, and MC (and Fan Club President) Sal Piro found themselves the feature of countless news stories in print and on screen. By mid- 1979, the 8th Street Playhouse had instituted a pre-sale policy for tickets, regularly reserving as many as 300 seats on advance. 7 seats were regularly saved for the principal cast members.
In 1980, the 8th Street Players were seen in the major motion picture Fame, which helped to ignite the cult in several markets and gave a glimpse of the madness that was going on at the time to main stream, prime-time audiences.
In 1983, the cast was recorded for the LP release of Say It! The Rocky Horror Picture Show Audience Participation Album, and are pictured, in costume, on the inside of the gatefold cover.
