The Rocky Horror Show is a long-running British horror comedy stage musical, which opened in London on 19 June 1973. It was written by English-born New Zealander Richard O'Brien, and developed by O'Brien in collaboration with Australian theater director Jim Sharman. It came eighth in a BBC Radio 2 listener poll of the "Nation's Number One Essential Musicals".[1]
The play was adapted as the 1975 film The Rocky Horror Picture Show, a cult film and the longest-running theatrical release in film history.
History
Jim Sharman's success with the original Australian production of Jesus Christ Superstar led to an invitation to direct the first London stage production, and it was during the London run of Superstar that he met Richard O'Brien, who had played Herod for just one performance. O'Brien wished to play Herod as Elvis, but quit Superstar when the producers asked him to tap-dance. While unemployed, O'Brien worked on a new rock musical with a rough-draft title of "Rock Horroar."
While working together at the Royal Court's Theatre Upstairs on a production of Sam Shepard's The Unseen Hand, O'Brien played Sharman some of the songs he had written and they began to flesh out the concept for the show. Sharman brought in fellow Australians Nell Campbell, a.k.a. 'Little Nell,' and long-time production designer Brian Thomson, who had designed his productions of Hair and Superstar. Costume designer Sue Blane and musical director Richard Hartley rounded out the original creative team.
The musical went into rehearsals with the working title "They Came from Denton High," which was changed just before previews at Sharman's suggestion to The Rocky Horror Show.[2]
After two previews, The Rocky Horror Show premiered at the 63-seat Theatre Upstairs on 19 June 1973 and ran until 20 July 1973. It had a running time of only 70 minutes as it did not include the songs “Charles Atlas Song’ (and its reprise) and “Eddie's Teddy” and played twice-nightly at 9 and 11pm. These ‘missing’ songs were added upon the transfer to the Classic Cinema where the schedule became a more regular eight performances per weekly (i.e., two shows on Friday and Saturday). The show continued to be performed without an interval.
The Theatre Upstairs was run by the Royal Court as a project space for new work. Veteran stage producer Michael White produced the play and Pete Moss later becamemusical director. The production was a critical and commercial success. Record producer Jonathan King saw it on the second night and signed the cast to make the Original Soundtrack Album over a long weekend that was rushed out on his U.K. Records label. King was involved heavily in the initial promotion for the show as well as being the other backer of it financially with White. In 1974, producer James Petruccio brought it to the U.S., first in Los Angeles at the Roxy club on Sunset Strip, then at the Belasco Theater in New York where critics panned it. It closed there after 45 performances.
Back in the U.K., the production transferred to the Classic Cinema on Kings Road, London, from 14 August 1973 to 20 October 1973, a run-down 270-seat venue scheduled for demolition. Transferring again to the Kings Road Theatre, a 350-seat converted cinema, the production ran from 3 November 1973 to 31 March 1979 with many cast changes, until plans for the theatre's demolition prompted another move. The Rocky Horror Show transferred to the 820-seat Comedy Theatre on Panton Street in the West End, running from 6 April 1979 until 13 September 1980, closing the play's initial run of 2,960 performances. After occasional productions in the early 1980s, the play was revived for the Theatre Royal Hanley tour in 1984, and still is performed regularly in the U.K.[3]
Synopsis
- Act I
The Usherette in a derelict cinema introduces tonight's film in a song ("Science Fiction/Double Feature"), with masked Phantoms providing the backing vocals.
After attending the wedding of Ralph Hapshatt and Betty Munroe, Brad Majors confesses his love to Janet Weiss ("Dammit, Janet!") and the two become engaged. The narrator appears to explain that Brad and Janet are leaving Denton to visit Dr. Everett Scott, their former science tutor, while driving into a rainstorm. During the trip, their car has a flat tire, and they are forced to walk through the rain to seek a telephone in an old castle ("Over at the Frankenstein Place").
The narrator explains that Brad and Janet are feeling "apprehensive and uneasy," but must accept any help that they are offered. As Brad and Janet arrive, Riff Raff, the hunchbacked handyman, greets them, and his sister Magenta, the maid, appears. Then Riff Raff and Magenta perform the show's big dance number "Time Warp", joined by Columbia, a groupie. Brad and Janet try to leave at this point, but are stopped when Dr. Frank N. Furter, a pan-sexual mad scientist, arrives. He introduces himself as "a sweet transvestite from Transsexual, Transylvania" and invites Brad and Janet up to his laboratory ("Sweet Transvestite"). As he goes up, Brad and Janet are stripped to their underwear to dry off. Magenta and Columbia speak briefly of an unlucky delivery boy named Eddie.
Brad and Janet enter the laboratory, where Frank N. Furter gives them laboratory coats to wear. Frank announces that he has discovered the secret to life itself. He unveils his creation, a blond, well-built man named Rocky Horror, who is brought to life. As his bandages are removed, Rocky worries about his predicament ("The Sword of Damocles"). Frank N. Furter admires Rocky's physique by singing a tribute to muscle builders ("I Can Make You a Man"). A Coca-Cola freezer in the laboratory opens to reveal Frank's former lover, Eddie, a biker covered in surgical scars. Eddie — now rendered a zombie after having part of his brain removed by Frank — contemplates his new existence and recalls his former life ("Hot Patootie – Bless My Soul"). Frank panics, forces Eddie back into the machine, and hacks him to death with an axe. Frank tells Rocky — the recipient of the other half of Eddie's brain — that he prefers him to Eddie ("I Can Make You a Man (Reprise)"). Brad and Janet are then ushered to separate bedrooms for the night.
- Act II
The narrator foreshadows that Brad and Janet may be quite unsafe. Janet enjoys Brad's advances in her darkened bedroom before realizing that it is in fact Frank in disguise. He convinces Janet that pleasure is no crime, and after she asks him to promise not to tell Brad, they resume their lovemaking. The scene changes to Brad's darkened bedroom, where Brad makes love to Janet before discovering that, once again, it is Frank in disguise. Frank promises not to tell Janet, but as they resume, Riff Raff interrupts on the television monitor with the message that Rocky has escaped. Janet searches for Brad in the laboratory, and discovers Rocky hiding there. Checking the television monitor, Janet sees Brad in bed with Frank, and seduces Rocky ("Touch-a, Touch-a, Touch-a, Touch Me"). While searching the television monitor for Rocky, the rest of the group discovers that Janet has slept with him, and Brad becomes hurt and angry ("Once in a While"). Riff Raff then notifies Frank N. Furter that there is another visitor entering the castle: Doctor Everett Scott, the wheelchair-using science tutor whom Brad and Janet intended to visit.
Doctor Scott is pushed into the laboratory by Columbia, and Frank N. Furter accuses him and Brad of trying to investigate his castle. Doctor Scott assures him that he has come in search of Eddie, his nephew ("Eddie's Teddy"). Frank N. Furter displays Eddie's corpse to the group and then uses a device to electronically restrain the three visitors and a rebellious Columbia to the floor ("Planet Shmanet Janet"); the inhabitants of the castle are revealed to be space aliens led by Frank, who abandoned their original mission in order to engage in kinky sex with earthlings and work on Rocky. Magenta insists that they return to their home planet now that they have been found out; Frank refuses and, instead, declares his intentions to put on a "floor show."
Under Frank's influence, Columbia, Rocky, Brad, and Janet perform song and dance routines while clad in lingerie ("Rose Tint My World"). Afterwards, Frank entices them to lose all inhibition and give in to their basest carnal instincts, resulting in everyone’s beginning to engage in orgiastic sex ("Don't Dream It – Be It") before they are interrupted by Frank, who leads them into the concluding number of the floor show ("Wild and Untamed Thing"). The show comes to an abrupt end when Riff Raff and Magenta enter, wearing spacesuits and carrying ray guns. Riff Raff declares that he is usurping Frank's authority and taking all back to their home planet. Frank makes a final plea for sympathy from Riff Raff, trying to make him understand his desire to spend the rest of his life having sex with earthlings ("I'm Going Home"). Riff Raff is unmoved and guns down Columbia, Frank, and Rocky before ordering Brad, Janet, and Doctor Scott to leave.
The trio evacuates the castle as it blasts off into outer space, confused about the implications of their sexual escapades ("Superheroes"). The Narrator says "…crawling on the planet's face, tiny insects called the human race, lost in time, and lost in space – and meaning." As the show ends, The Usherette returns to sing "Science Fiction – Double Feature (Reprise)."