Montreal's famed Rocky Horror Picture Show Ball cancelled after cast members allege exploitation

It's a staple of Montreal's Halloween celebrations but this year, the city's beloved Rocky Horror Picture Show Ball is cancelled — and it's not due to COVID-19.

The show won't go on, over what's being described as the exploitation of "the free labour of LGBTQ2S+ folks," after many cast members learned the longtime producer of the show had been earning money from the event, while the actors volunteered their time.

"We believed the show to be something that it was not," said Zev Miller, a cast member for a decade.

A cast meeting held September 2021 brought forward other concerns and ultimately led to the 2022 show being cancelled.

Now some former cast members are calling for a boycott of further Ball events under the current management.

It bombed at the box office in 1975 but has since reached cult classic status: The Rocky Horror Picture Show is a musical romp.

Add a cast performing in front of the screen and the crowd dressed up in costumes, yelling and throwing toast and you have the Rocky Horror Picture Show Ball (not to be confused with the theatre production put on by MainLine Theatre.)

Montreal's yearly event draws large crowds over several nights around Halloween and has been described as one of the largest balls in North America.

But after decades of performances, things came to a head last year, when cast members became aware that Philippe Spurrell, the longtime producer of the show, was making money off the show.

Spurrell, who has been the producer since 1998, refused to give an interview but sent a statement which did not address the salary question.

However, in an email sent to the cast last year, obtained by CBC, Spurrell defended himself, saying he never hid that he "earned part of my living from the event," noting that he assumed that information was shared internally throughout the years.

He would not disclose just how much profit he made from the show.

"Let me assure you that, after making the calculation of my time and financial reward, my 'hourly wage' is equivalent to what the average construction worker earns hourly," he wrote to the cast.

In his statement to CBC, Spurrell said this year's cancellation was due to a number of reasons, including "discord between certain shadow cast members and the shadow cast wanting a more democratic management structure with less hierarchy."