March 1975. You’re at an early performance of The Rocky Horror Show on Broadway. It is a smash in London, where it will run until 1980. It had a successful 9 month run in LA last year—and when’s the last time you heard a musical say that? (The Broadway run will not be as successful as its predecessors and will close in early April after running less than a month.) The show opens with an usherette in a rundown theater welcoming you to a “Science Fiction Double Feature,” setting the tone for a spoof of B-movies. After this prologue we meet Brad and Janet, a square couple who have the audacity to get engaged at their best friends’ wedding. When they head out on their new life together, they experience car trouble and a rainstorm. They see that the lights are on at a nearby mansion and approach it hoping to find shelter, or at least a phone. A stange person answering to the name Riff Raff greets them before they are introduced to the proprietor of the establishment: Dr. Frank-N-Furter, a mad scientist in a corset and fishnet stockings who self-describes as a “Sweet Transvestite from Transexual Transylvania.” Before the bewildered Brad and Janet can say much of anything, Riff Raff—joined by other unusual inhabitants of the mansion, including a tap dancing usherette and a gothic maid who doesn’t seem particularly suited for cleaning—launches into ”Time Warp.” It’s a pastiche of 1960s dance-craze songs. with instructed steps that are shockingly suggestive for the conservative Majorses (to say nothing of whatever matinee ladies haven’t fainted by this point).
The Rocky Horror Show is a camp send-up of horror movies, a celebration of queer identities, and a critique of heteromormativity. At this point it is 50 years old, and it would probably ignite a political firestorm if it were released today. But it’s been a cultural touchstone, with inclusive communities gathering around midnight screenings of the movie version. And yet, this show that embodies “alternative” culture features a song (and dance) that is a reliable multi-generational crowd pleaser. If you were to shout “It’s just a jump to the left” in a crowded theater, a mass of people would respond “and then a step to ri-i-ight.” Could Richard O’Brien—who played Riff Raff in addition to writing book, music, and lyrics—imagine that a song he wrote to keep busy while he was out of work would be done at middle school dances five decades later (when it couldn’t even last five weeks on Broadway)?
Recommended Recording: ”Time Warp,” The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975 Film Soundtrack)
The Rocky Horror Show had mounted successful productions on 3 continents before the movie came out. Featuring most of its original London and LA casts, the film flopped in its initial release. But it soon gathered a following thanks to its small corps of dedicated fans who began racuas midnght showings with audience shoutouts and shadowcasts lip syncing the show in front of the screen. It’s now practically a counter-culture right of passage. The novel (and film) The Perks of Being a Wallflower is a coming-of-age story centered on this tradition. The soundtrack, which includes most of the stage score, became the definitive recording. The film swaps the placement of “Sweet Transvestite” and “Time Warp,” with the latter introducing Brad and Janet to the mansion denizens before Frank-N-Furter shows up. This change has since been incorporated into the stage version.
Alternate Performances
The Rocky Horror Show has received ~77 cast recordings. Its second Broadway revival is set to open this spring! International recordings include Australian, Brazilian, Canadian, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, German, Icelandic, Japanese, Korean, New Zealand, Norwegian, Peruvian, and Swedish casts. A pre-Buffy the Vampire Slayer Anthony Head recorded an album of Rocky Horror… songs in 1991.
1973 Original London Cast - The original London production ran for seven years. The original cast featured Tim Curry, Nell Campbell, and Patricia Quinn who would recreate their roles in the movie version.
2001 Broadway Cast - The Broadway first revival acknowledged and encouraged the audience participation of the movie’s midnight screenings and became a hit running over a year. The great Raul Esparza plays Riff Raff. He doesn’t get to show off much on “Time Warp,” but you best believe he sings like rent is due elsewhere on the recording.
The Rocky Horror Picture Show: Let’s Do the Time Warp Again (2016) - Kenny Ortega directed this TV movie remake, featuring Lavern Cox as Frank-n-Furter. It added a framing device of people in a movie theater watching the movie and interacting as if at a midnight screening. It was amazing trans representation on network TV, and the rest of the cast was talented, but the whole is left feeling much less than the sum of its parts.
Is it Covered by The Rat Pack, Audra McDonald, or Glee?
Audra McDonald was a presenter at the 55th Tony Awards, where the revival of Rocky Horror… performed “Time Warp,” but she hasn’t recorded anything from the score herself. That being said, no casting has been announced for the upcoming revival, and while Mama McDonald may not be “right” for any of the roles…I’m going to manifest this for her anyway.
Glee had a whole Rocky Horror themed episode in season 2, although it sanitized the source material considerably. The corresponding album hit number 6 on the Billboard hot 100, which was amazing for a Rocky Horror recording but the lowest debut for a Glee album at the time.
In the Wings
Song No. 24 will drop next week. Until then, you may want to check out “Creatures of the Night,” season 2 episode 21 of Cold Case. It’s a wild episode centered on a midnight screening of Rocky Horror… Barry Bostwick, who played Brad in the movie, is a guest star in the episode. But he doesn’t play himself—he’s just a whole other character that happens to look exactly like Brad.
My son called me at work in the late 90's asking to borrow a camisole. He and friends were going to see the Rocky Horror Picture Show at the Cedar & Lee in Cleveland Hts. They also dressed up our Ukrainian exchange student as the French maid. I kept my fingers crossed they would not be pulled over.