The last time I was part of “The Rocky Horror Show,” I wore a black corset. Two decades later at Oasis and Ray of Light Theatre’s latest immersive revival of Richard O’Brien’s beloved 1973 stage musical at Oasis nightclub, I wore a white bridal veil.
San Francisco, CA
How revisiting ‘Rocky Horror’ at S.F.’s Oasis reminded me what it means to belong
San Francisco Chronicle columnist Tony Bravo at Oasis for “The Rocky Horror Show” in San Francisco on Saturday, Oct. 11, 2025.
Santiago Mejia/S.F. ChronicleHaving traded my libertine youth for a happy married life years ago, the symbolism felt fitting.
“The Rocky Horror Show”: Book, music and lyrics by Richard O’Brien. Directed by Jason Hoover. Through Nov. 1. Two hours, 20 minutes. $45-$108.58. Oasis, 298 11th St., S.F. www.rayoflighttheatre.com
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Back in college, I played the lead of provocative mad scientist Dr. Frank-N-Furter, originated by Tim Curry. On Saturday, Oct. 11, during opening weekend of the South of Market venue’s final full production before closing at the end of the year, I was pulled on stage for the part of Betty Monroe (If the character doesn’t ring a bell, it’s because she’s only in a few seconds of the show and 1975 film.) Reading my vows alongside Tim Budding, the audience member enlisted to play the groom, Ralph Hapschatt, reminded me once you’re a part of the “Rocky” family, that connection remains.
For anyone who knows the show about the Transexual Transylvanians who ensnare, seduce and morally liberate the square Brad and Janet (played here by Julio Chavez and Lisa Frankenstein), family might not be the word that comes to mind. But that’s what this production, and the entire global “Rocky” fandom can feel like.

D’arcy Drollinger stars as “Frank” in “The Rocky Horror Show” at Oasis in San Francisco on Saturday, Oct. 11, 2025.
Santiago Mejia/S.F. ChronicleWhile the original London stage show was an unexpected hit, the film adaptation — starring Curry, O’Brien, Little Nell Campbell, Patricia Quinn and Meatloaf reprising their roles, alongside Barry Bostwick and Susan Sarandon as Brad and Janet — was a mainstream flop.
By 1976, however, it found a following at Waverly Theater in New York City, where midnight screenings featured “shadow casts” recreating scenes as audiences shouted back in response to the dialogue. Long before Oasis owner — and veteran Dr. Frank-N-Furter — D’Arcy Drollinger had the idea of reimagining “Rocky” for the club, audience participation was already a key part of any viewing.
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As the film celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, its legacy is being reevaluated. When I performed in my college production, the musical wasn’t always taken seriously. It was seen as camp (it is), vulgar (ditto) and unserious (wrong!). But underneath the sexual anarchy, it’s always been about outsiders searching for belonging, and generations have found that sense of community at “Rocky” screenings and revivals around the world.
“I think people can be dismissive of it because they don’t know where it came from and they don’t know the history,” director Jason Hoover told me. “It’s like the history of Oasis; ‘Rocky’ offered a safe haven for people to be who they want to be.”

San Francisco Chronicle columnist Tony Bravo at Oasis for “The Rocky Horror Show” in San Francisco on Saturday, Oct. 11, 2025.
Santiago Mejia/S.F. ChronicleQuinn, who famously played Magenta onstage and in the film, shared the same sentiment with me in an interview last year.
“Years ago at a convention, a girl came up to me with tears in her eyes. She had an arm that was disabled, and she said, ‘This film has changed my life,’” Quinn recalled. “And that’s the first time it ever meant anything to me. It obviously meant that she was accepted in the crowd.”
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After the “Rocky” wedding scene on Saturday, the audience was ushered to the main stage. Among a crowd where many were dressed as characters from the show, it was hard to differentiate actors from audience members. Sitting on a couch near the stage, I asked actor Trixxie Carr if she was the “real” Magenta when she draped herself across me before realizing that yes, she was indeed playing the role.
Although it’s been years since I’ve been to a live production, the callbacks to the dialogue quickly returned to me. I’m generally not an audience participation person, but “Rocky” is the exception. I danced the “Time Warp” and got a (chaste) lapdance in the bathroom from a gogo girl. The only time I drew the line was eating a hot dog handed to me from a gloryhole, because I’m a vegetarian.
By the time we reached the finale, I was singing along to the show’s central anthem, “Don’t Dream It, Be It.” It was emotional revisiting those lyrics. I’ve gotten to live so many of the dreams I had as that college kid in a corset, including finding a place like Oasis where I could be part of a weird, wonderful community.

San Francisco Chronicle columnist Tony Bravo with Lisa Frankenstein, who stars as “Janet” in “The Rocky Horror Show” at Oasis in San Francisco on Saturday, Oct. 11, 2025.
Santiago Mejia/S.F. ChronicleBut with the club closing on New Year’s Eve, that dream is coming to an end.
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Clips of past Oasis and Ray of Light “Rocky” productions played as Drollinger sang the ballad “I’m Going Home.” Cheetah Biscotti as Columbia and Ryan Patrick Welsh as the Criminologist brought me to the piano beside Drollinger where I joined in on the chorus. I was grateful this place — and this show — had been a home for so many.
At the end, Drollinger and the cast surrounded me on the couch.
“It’s breaking my heart every night,” he whispered to me about the impact the show is having on him during this run through Nov. 1.
My heart was breaking too, but in a beautiful way. Some people never get to find their “Rocky” or Oasis, but I found both.
San Francisco, CA
San Francisco voters to decide on dueling measures on Top Executive Pay Tax changes
San Francisco voters weighed in Tuesday on two competing measures that seek to change the Top Executive Pay Tax, with one of the measures also including a change to the Gross Receipts Tax.
Should both measures pass, the one with the most votes will take effect, according to the propositions’ legal text.
Currently, the measures state that most businesses with San Francisco gross receipts up to $5 million are exempt from the Gross Receipts Tax. And businesses that use more than half of their city payroll for in-house administrative and management services pay an Administrative Office Tax instead of a Gross Receipts Tax.
The Top Executive Pay Tax is a tax some large businesses pay if their highest-paid managerial employee earns more than 100 times the median pay of their San Francisco employees. Businesses that have city gross receipts up to $5 million and are not subject to the Administrative Office Tax are exempt.
Proposition C
Proposition C states it would increase the number of businesses that could be exempt from the Gross Receipts Tax and would stop any further increases to the “Top Executive Pay Tax” after a final rate bump.
The proposed measure says it would raise the Gross Receipts Tax exemption ceiling to $7.5 million. The $7.5 million ceiling would also apply to the Top Executive Pay Tax exemption.
As for changes to the Top Executive Pay Tax, Proposition C states it would implement the 2028 tax rate increase in 2027, but then stop any future increases.
Supporting Proposition C are Rodney Fong, CEO of the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce, and Chris Wright, senior vice president of Advance SF, an organization of companies, which includes Bank of America, OpenAI, Waymo, the SF Giants CEO and others.
Fong and Wright, in their argument for the measure, say giving businesses more tax breaks would help keep more employees on payroll and would give companies the ability to “contribute to city services in a predictable and balanced way.”
Critics of Proposition C, such as the San Francisco Tenants Union, slam the measure as “billionaire-backed” and argue it would kill the Top Executive Pay Tax and would hand out more tax breaks to businesses at a time when the city is in a budget deficit and faces cuts to essential services.
Proposition D
Proposition D also seeks to change the Top Executive Pay Tax, which is collected from some large businesses where the highest-paid managerial employee earns more than 100 times the median compensation paid to other employees.
If approved, the measure would change the calculation of the tax using the compensation of all employees, not just employees based in San Francisco. Top Executive Pay Tax rates would also be increased for San Francisco gross receipts and payroll.
Supporters have billed the measure as a way to counteract federal cuts to Medicaid. A report by the City Controller’s Office said the measure could result in $250 million to $300 million in additional revenue.
“Proposition D is the solution to our budget deficit. It asks large corporations — not small businesses, not working families — to contribute a little more,” supporters said in the city’s official voter guide.
The measure has the backing of most of the Board of Supervisors, along with labor unions and Rep. Nancy Pelosi.
Opponents, including Mayor Daniel Lurie and state Sen. Scott Wiener, have argued Proposition D would negatively impact the city’s recovery following the COVID-19 pandemic.
“San Francisco is already one of the most expensive cities in the country to live and do business. Adding extreme and unpredictable tax increases risks driving employers away just as we are trying to bring jobs, workers, and foot traffic back downtown,” said Supervisor Matt Dorsey in the city’s voter guide.
San Francisco, CA
San Francisco ‘adult supremacy’ workshop brands teachers as oppressors — as fringe trend spreads in California schools
A San Francisco public school reportedly hosted a workshop on “adult supremacy” — a new woke trend labeling teachers and adults “oppressors” that’s quietly gaining traction in California.
The confab, held at John O’Connell High School during an “Ethnic Studies Everywhere” weekend seminar in April, was titled “Youth as Knowledge Producers: Challenging Adult Supremacy Through Ethnic Studies,” according to an attendee who spoke with The Post.
“Due to systemic power dynamics inherently the relationship between students and educators is an oppressive one. Oppressor (educator) & oppressed (student),” a presentation slide explained.
The workshop was led by Jennifer Sanchez, a third-year ethnic studies educator in the Central Valley, and convened by Teachers 4 Social Justice, a nonprofit that aims to create “empowering learning environments, more equitable access to resources and power, and realizing a just and caring culture,” according to its website.
Teachers 4 Social Justice was founded by local teacher activist Jeremiah Jeffries, who led an unpopular push to rename public schools during the pandemic that was abandoned after sparking outrage from local parents.
So-called adult supremacy “constructs adults as developed, mature, intelligent, and experienced, based solely on their age and ensures that adults control the resources and make the decisions in society,” the presentation further explained.
Success “within the Western context” is “demanding, overwhelming, and dehumanizing,” the presentation claimed.
Friends of Lowell Foundation, which advocates for academic merit at San Francisco schools, compiled the “adult supremacy” slides.
Another slide obtained by The Post cited the work of academic Jackson Matos, who is mentioned as connecting “adultism” to cultural imperialism, marginalization, exploitation, powerlessness and violence.
“We have knowledge and life experience, and it is our job as parents and teachers to impart information on the next generation, on our kids,” one flabbergasted San Francisco parent, who asked not to be named, told The Post.
“Given that a large percentage of students in the district do not meet grade level standards in ELA and math, our focus as a school district is clearly way off track,” the parent said.
Friends of Lowell Foundation has taken legal action surrounding the school district’s controversial “ethnic studies” curriculum, which was made a one-year requirement for high school freshman this year.
The San Francisco teachers’ group isn’t the only organization blaming “adultism” for society’s failures.
Adam Fletcher is a consultant who counts California school boards and agencies among his clients. He’s made “adultism” a centerpiece of equity training aimed at teachers.
“Adultism, as an idea, is bias towards adults,” Fletcher said in an online seminar held by TEACH Los Angeles, an educators’ network funded through grants from the California Community College Chancellor’s Office, per its YouTube page.
Likewise, the Oakland Youth Commission announced last year a training for city employees about adultism, which is blamed for taking power away from kids, according to slides published online.
The Santa Clara Behavioral Health Services Department sponsored an “anti-oppression training series” that explores how “ageism and adultism” fuel discrimination.
“Participants consider how the myth of independence, rooted in settler colonial capitalism, contributes to the marginalization of youth & elders by diminishing agency, excluding perspectives, & reinforcing stereotypes in behavioral health practice,” an invitation read.
San Francisco Unified School District didn’t respond to a request for comment.
The district may be in hot water over its ethnic studies program, with Superintendent Maria Su due to appear at a June 10 congressional hearing about parents’ rights and “inappropriate content” in schools.
San Francisco, CA
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