Skip to main contentAt last week’s Melange, the POC variety show regularly hosted by the Clinton Street Theater, a drag artist in a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles costume attempted to throw a pizza box into the audience. It didn’t land as expected.
“The power of the queen that threw it got it caught up in the stage lights,” says Clinton co-owner Susan Tomorrow. “It took about 20 minutes of me standing on the seats, fishing it down with a stick, to retrieve it. I was losing my mind laughing so hard.”
For decades, the Clinton Street Theater has been the grittiest cinema in town, short of the defunct porno palace the Oregon Theater up the road. Since 1978, the 220-seat movie house has shown Saturday-night screenings of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, with the requisite gowns and rubber gloves. Last April, the theater welcomed a cohort of new owners, when Lani Jo and Roger Leigh handed over the keys to Tomorrow, as well as Aaron Colter, Tom Kishel, Morgan McDonald, David Gluck, Steven Williams, and Jessica Barber.
Under this new collective, the 108-year-old space has undergone a shift dramatic enough to please Dr. Frankenfurter: What was an old-school repertory theater has become an avant-garde community arts hub.
Following successful fundraising efforts on GoFundMe, the new owners have been able to clear out nearly 5 tons of trash, add soundproofing curtains, give concessions an overhaul, construct new backstage areas, and install more dynamic lighting and sound equipment for live music. “We’re going through and actually fixing those things that were patched with plaster and confusion in the past,” Tomorrow says. “It’s been really nice to shine up and find the beauty of the theater.”
One aspect that’s been shined up is the theater’s most long-standing tradition: Rocky Horror. For reasons that include audience accessibility and staff comfort, the midnight screenings now start at 11 pm and finish up before the bars close. Since August, the Clinton has also added a biweekly show called Rocky Horror for Virgins (hosted by yours truly). This slightly toned-down version of the evening still incorporates audience participation through props, dancing and standup comedy, but explicitly removes elements of public humiliation for audiences who may be too nervous to dive into the full experience.
The reception has been heartwarming, with many parents and grandparents who attended the show in previous decades bringing their kids. At a time when LGBTQ+ content is being aggressively targeted by right-wing media and the existence of queer youths are being debated in Congress, Rocky Horror remains one of the only late-night events accessible to those under the age of 21.
“God, I fear on a daily basis for the safety of the theater because of the kinds of events that we do,” co-owner Colter says. “I hope that the kids who show up to Rocky Horror, as they have for nearly 50 years, continue to feel that it’s a supportive place. I think if you’re a parent taking your kid to that, you have a good relationship.”
But it’s not all about Saturdays. Church of Film, Muriel Lucas’ series that screens rare oddities, has now expanded to every Wednesday. Live performances are regularly selling out, like Melange and Violet Hex’s drag night Galore.
In April, the team will celebrate their first anniversary and John Waters’ birthday. Waters isn’t scheduled to appear: Baltimore’s king of sleeze is hosting a show at the Aladdin. But the Clinton is his temple, with a planned lobby transformation into a themed local art show and screenings of five of his most notoriously trashy films. “We’re hoping to get just the blessing of daddy John from afar,” Tomorrow says.