For the diehard fans, Rocky Horror has spilled off the screen and into real life. Part of the canon is having a live revue act along with the film, word for word, line for line.

Professional actor Perry Morton, who began playing Dr. Frank-n-furter in the flesh when he was 12, says playing in a Rocky Horror revue is more than just another role. "People get really wrapped up into it," he explains. "I went through a stage a few years ago when I dressed up as Frank every day for six months. Even today, sometimes I'll use Frank as a defense mechanism. I'll never be able to get my life away from it."

"[The show] was always exciting, and it was usually different," says Morton, who quit the revue this summer after nine years of performing in theaters around the country, including the Harvard Square movie house.

Acting in the revue serves as an outlet for pent-up emotions, says Kara M. Walsh, who spent two years with the Harvard Square cast. "I used to live in a very small town, and I really hated it because you couldn't be what you wanted to be without people saying something," she says. "You went to Rocky, and the people there didn't say anything."

"When we see an audience enjoying us, looking at us, and not the movie, it's really a special feeling," says Karen M. Agostino who spent nearly two years with live revues in New York and Cambridge. "It's such a phenomenon. There's nothing like it."

Actors in the revue hypothesize that the show appeals to the fans' desires to be different. "People see a quality, maybe something hidden in themselves, in one of the characters," Morton says.

And some Rocky Horror fans may derive security from the show, wacky characters and all, Agostini suggests. "Some people need the stability of seeing the same people again. It's a lot like a club. We know each other very well."

Have Watergun, Will Travel

Putting together a live revue that is water- and toast-proof takes hours of work, says Mariann Diedrich, director of the Harvard Square performances. "When someone says they want to be in the cast, we first have to find their part, then train them, and then coordinate them with the rest of the show," Diedrich says. "There is a lot of planning and a lot of work."

Diedrich began her two-year stint in the revue working on the technical aspects of the show--operating lights and sound. "I went to see it a couple of times, and told the players I wanted to be a part of it. I started out as a techie, and then began playing parts. I kept getting bigger parts, as I kept learning more of the movie."

Despite the hours of work required, Diedrich says there always seems to be a steady supply of prospective actors. "Every weekend we have people who say they want to join the cast. People always have the desire to be funny and strange."

But doesn't the same show, however bizarre, get old after several viewings? Piro, who has seen more than a decade's worth of Rocky Horror, says that many theaters try to maintain interest by holding special event nights.

Two years ago, Piro's New York cast and crew threw a "We are the World" benefit night for African famine victims. And just last year in Cambridge, two members of the local revue were married at the show, in front of a sold-out audience.

"It was really neat," Agostini says. "They came in a limousine, rolled out the red carpet, and the crowd just went crazy. There was a justice of the peace there, and they had a really nice ceremony."

For true devotees, there are annual Rocky Horror conventions and members of the Rocky Horror Fan Club receive Piro's Rocky Horror Newsletter, which includes tidbits about cast members and Rocky-related events. Even the original cast members have stayed involved with the movie. Over the years, Piro has met most of the other cast members. "When I was over in London, I met Richard O'Brien, who wrote the movie and played Riff-Raff," he says.

Rocky Horror's popularity is not just an American phenomenon. Piro, who is president of the International Rocky Horror Picture Show Fan Club, says that the cult has spread world-wide. "Rocky Horror now plays all over Europe," he says. "It just opened in Greece, and it's been a big success in London for years. It's truly international."