The Rocky Horror Picture Show

When I was in college, I was the director of a shadow cast in which I played the Criminologist. I met my best friend of 20 years in that cast. RHPS will always have a special place in my heart.

It's astounding... Time is fleeting... Madness takes its toll.

bump

Magenta!

It’s fun to watch it now with Janet as the evil villainess.

[quote] I saw it when I was sixteen and it made me realize there were other lives out there. Lives that didn't revolve around church, family, and small town values. It made me realize men could be beautiful and sex was a good thing.

I saw it and then jerked off thinking about Rocky.

[quote] It made me realize men could be beautiful

If you say so

im 63.. never did care for it. But i faked it to get along with the crowd, kind of thing. i female freind of mine in Laurel Canyon has been to an awards show with TIm CUrry as her "date"

1981 8th Street Playhouse. No other movie has made such a large impact on my life.

Heights Art Theater, the the Cedar-Lee. Midnight Show ran for decades.

Tim Curry's performance was both sexy and Joan Crawford-ish.

He's an accomplished performer who was well trained in English theatre..

8th street 1983. First timers had to stand up and had popcorn thrown at.

It's interesting that all the people in that starred in it have refused to talk about the movie or their part in the movie.

It played at a theater in my Florida neighborhood for years and I remember seeing posters for it when my parents would take me to see other movies. One time we arrived for a Sunday matinee and were super early. They were just unlocking the doors and some of the live cast came straggling out of the theater, having spent the night.

I finally got to see it there when I was 15. My two friends and I went, but by then the live show was gone and there were maybe 15 people in the theater and no one was even yelling anything back. It was really disappointing but I actually got to watch the movie with no interruption and I really liked it a lot.

The theater dropped it shortly thereafter and another theater right around the corner from my house picked it up a few months later. I started going and some of the regulars got together to see if we could do a live cast and the theater owner reluctantly allowed it. We told him it would be good for business. I started out playing the narrator, then did Eddie and Dr. Scott, and I finally got my coveted role, Riff Raff. I was sixteen and for the first time I really felt part of something. It was Florida in the 80s so I couldn't go as far as come out or anything like that, but the whole message of the film and what we were doing went a long way to helping me accept myself and I understood that there was nothing wrong with me, I just lived in the wrong place and I had to be smart until I could escape. I left a couple months after graduation and moved to NYC.

The theater stopped showing RHPS about 8 months after they began, mostly because the theater was getting trashed and they weren't bringing in enough revenue to justify all the cleaning they had to do. After I got to NYC, I went to the 8th Street Playhouse to have "the experience" but by then, they were on their last legs and it was just a shadow of what it had been. But I will always remember how much that film meant to me.

I had a roommate in 1977 who would go and see "Rocky" every Friday night. She was a huge fan. She even had a bird named "Rocky." I thought she was a Sly Stallone obsessive. I'd never heard of RHPS, and she only referred to it as "Rocky."

Overrated. Yeah yeah, I'm sure it was fun to see it in the cinemas back then with all those crazy drunk people around, but if you're seeing it for the first time alone on the telly it's a very lackluster experience. Tim Curry is the only good thing about it.

I knew an university academic/anarchist/gay liberationist who said that 'Rocky Horror' and the film 'Themroc' were perfect examples of liberating anarchy and liberating gay liberation.

He said the message of the film was "Don't dream it, Be it!'

'Themroc' was an ugly, unappealing film which included about one minute's worth of implied homosexual erotica.

Touch-a-touch-a-touch-a-touch touch me, I want to be dirty...

Saw it for the first time in high school. My friends drove me 30 miles to a midnight screening. I got rock hard during the seen when Frank, pretending to be Janet, goes down on Brad. And I literally came in my pants when Brad started getting into it. I had no idea...

^ Wow!!

R13, you're wrong. Nearly all the cast members except (usually) Sarandon have done anniversary shows or video tribute interviews. Patricia and Nell in particular get invited to events annually.

Patricia Quinn:

Nell Campbell:

RHPS 40th Barry Bostwick, Little Nell, Patricia Quinn Q&A

University Square Mall Tampa Florida. 1980. Sat in the second row. Pelted with rice, hot dogs, toilet paper, water and more. Was asked to understudy Brad for the group of performers that acted out the movie as it ran, because I had "the look" minus the glasses.

Must have been hell to be maintenance at any theatre the showed that.

Respect.

Is Tim Curry a queer?

That is an ugly word, R27. He is 'an artist'!

Without the audience participation, the movie is piffle, but good piffle.

The music is as catchy as all hell, the hottie characters are genuinely hot, and Tim Curry gives a FANTASTIC performance. He makes the movie, he's a diva, he's a star, he's hilarious, he's touching, he's menacing, while being as feminine as a size 14 stilletto heel. I will always love him for that, even if he never gave another performance like it.

I respect and appreciate it (especially after reading through this thread), but don’t really enjoy it. If that makes sense. I feel the same way about Bruce Springsteen and The Who and roast lamb.

^^ and Monty Python.

I GET IT but I can’t get fully into it. It’s cool that other people do.

I prefer the stage musical. Anyone seen it ?

Fun fact: They had already cast Dr Frank N Furter, but decided to give Tim Curry a reading because he had already made an appointment. Tim strutted into the theatre, already inhabiting the part, and declared, "Ok people, let's rip it up!"

And they did. Frank was recast, and a legend was made.

R13, where did you get the idea that the cast of RHPS don't like to talk about it? The only two I know of who avoid the topic are the extra who played Rocky, and Meat Loaf. In Meat Loaf's case it is largely because it was just a small musical part and doesn't really fit with the image he has cultivated, although he said he found the experience surprisingly enjoyable. In Rocky's case (Peter somebody, can't remember who, and that's probably how he prefers it), he summed it up very well in his one and only interview: "I did it as a favour for someone. I can't act, I can't sing, and I'm painfully shy." Iirc, he was a gym buddy of someone involved in the production.

Of course, 40 years later, even Richard O'Brien has gotten a bit tired of the endless hype.

They cut one song from the movie.

By time 8th Street Playhouse stopped showing Rocky Horror they must have collected more playing cards than Las Vegas.

Still have the LP and CD in my collection, and count them as treasured possessions.

Each time went to see RH at 8th Street Playhouse this Meatloaf video was the intro....

Out gay and proud Peter Hinwood (Rocky Horror) rarely participates in film reunions or other wise seeks PR or whatever from his associations. He never was an actor, and soon went back to a quiet life as an antiques dealer with his partner.

Peter Hinwood was cast as Rocky because they needed a muscular attractive guy. IIRC story correctly at the time not all male actors were into body building (unlike say today), so producers had to expand their search.

Mr. Hinwood is on record saying he "cringes" seeing himself on screen, and is that glad to put that bit of his life behind him to an extent. He did locate and auction off those gold lame shorts, they are now in some Rocky Horror Picture Show museum

I went to a regional live cast of RHPS at some movie theater near West Palm Beach back in the 80s and as a pre-show, they showed that Meat Loaf video, some movie trailers from the films mentioned in Science Fiction Double Feature, some cool fashion things and kitschy ads from the 60s and the Tim Curry music video for I Do the Rock.

They may have shown this one, too. I can't remember. Anyway, I like this song much better.

I propose a toast to it

I was very disappointed in the film, mainly because I had seen the stage play numerous times in LA. Seeing the film was like seeing a film production of Dames at Sea. The tacky, make it up out of nothing aspect of the design was part of the charm of the show (the ray guns were hair dryers). There was no way to transfer that to film. Also, the actors interacted with the audience some. There was a runway into the audience were some of the action took place. I remember at one point in a song Tim Curry injects "Get your rocks off", that was always said directly to an audience member.

The theater was a former strip club turned rock music venue. It was the perfect space for the stage musical. I think what killed the Broadway production was performing it in a Broadway theater. They should have used a venue such as the old Latin Quarter.

R10 where did you go to Elementary school in Cleveland Heights?

Jim Sharman went back to Australia after directing it (and the London OCs of JC Superstar, Evita and Rocky Horror), and returned to directing serious plays and operas. One of Patrick White's novels is dedicated to him.

Grew Up on Long Island saved every penny as a kid and bought the first VCR in the 70's . Rocky played at a theater called the Mini Cinema in Uniondale. They showed it Sat night and had a Sunday matinees too. LI had the first two Rocky conventions at the Calderone theatre in Hempstead. Long Island's Cablevision was a pioneer in cable and actually showed it for one night only in '78 or so, before HBO ever existed . I got to tape it and had a great copy 12 years before it was released on VHS. Now I have the DVD signed by Tim Curry, Meatloaf, Barry Bostwick, Patricia Quinn and Little Nell and they all talked about it.

I just saw, maybe in one of the links, that Susan Sarandon was deathly ill during the filming in a cold damp castle, and in retrospect she does look feverish throughout. Good thing they record the music before filming starts.

I will always be appreciative of it for existing so that Logan Lerman gets put in skimpy golden shorts as Rocky in Perks of Being a Wallflower.

And you shall have it - IN ABUNDANCE!!!!

I love to watch the movie with a shadow cast.....a good one.....it's a blast!

I stage managed a stage production that ran for 12 weeks! One Saturday we did five shows.....3 p.m., 5 p.m., 8 p.m., 10 p.m. and MIDNIGHT!!!

One Transylvanian or another was always calling in - so I went on every night as one ensemble member or another......my favorite numbers to do of course were "The Time Warp" and the finale.....

Good times!!!

Oh....I saw a college production a couple of years ago.....and the director was so misguided.....the Transylvanians were all Zombies and Vampires having sex at every opportunity.

Rocky was the guy who did the choreography and he was just TOO much......more drag queen than muscle man. Frank was okay - but everything just seemed off.

Director wanted to SHOCK everyone - and in doing so completely missed the point. The audience didn't get it either......

I remember when it was shocking.

He’s married

Datalounge is so weird. This thread limps along, but the Designing Women thread keeps going long past anyone having anything new to say.

R53 I've not looked at that thread, but I'd be willing to guess it's three accounts (note I didn't say posters) talking to themselves.

Ever notice Rocky's place is near McArthur, Ohio.

Did Sarandon sing the songs herself ?

"I remember when it was shocking."

For a lot of people, it was their first exposure to the gay culture of the seventies.

Which believe me, was very much confined to cities, and definitely hadn't penetrated as far as West Dullsville where I lived, and the other suburbs! To those of use who had never heard anything but "Do as you're told and act like you like it", heard "Don't dream it, BE IT" was indeed shocking. Definitely not something the local parents would have approved of, but in those days, parents let teenagers go to PG films with their friends without a qualm.

Wow, I jut listened to the Roxy cast, which I cannot believe I've never heard before. (I even had the CD in a box set I bought back in the 90s and never played it once.) It's really, really good. I would venture to say it's even better than the film soundtrack.

R19 Same here.

Roxy Janet blows Sarandon away.

And Roxy Rocky is way better than the guy they got to sing for Peter Hinwood.

And Jan from Grease (Brusha Brusha Brusha) is Magenta and the Usherette !!!

I tried watching it, but had to stop after about 15 minutes. I felt like I was watching a really bad high school play put on by a bunch of melodramatic theater nerds.

It's not a good movie, but it's fun to watch with an interactive audience, and some of the songs are catchy. But the best thing about it is Tim Curry. He is the best part. Sweet Transvestite is the highlight, even more so than Time Warp (at least for me).

I knew a guy here in Toronto who used to play Frankenfurter at the interactive screenings at the Bloor Cinema (before it became the snoozefest known as the Hot Docs Cinema). He was fantastic.

What r30 and r64 said. I like the movie, but I don't love it. The same goes for Mommie Dearest. Faye Dunaway is phenomenal—Pauline Kael praised her performance as only she can—but the movie is a chore to get through. As a friend put it, "It's not even bad camp. It's just bad."

For a while c. 1981, RHPS played at midnight at a multiplex on the outskirts of Long Beach, CA. Harold & Maude screened at midnight too, and the kids tried to make it audience participation also, but it never took off.

I’m not ashamed to say that it’s because of RHPS that I wanted to know WHET to Fay Wray.

The thing that Hollywood doesn’t get is that the movie’s lead character is not a transsexual, he’s a transvestite. He’s a man who likes wearing a makeup and dressing in women’s clothing, but he likes being a man. The humor and appeal is that he’s clearly a man in women’s clothes. The TV version didn’t understand that.

A friend took me to see it when I was around 19. I had heard about it but never really understood what the fuss was about. The showing was at midnight and I thought the film was so bad that I fell asleep.

I really don't get it.

It’s campy good

I love it. Saw it on tv in the 90s when I was 8. Made my mom let me dress up as a Transylvanian for 3rd grade Halloween.

... I don't think she had seen it.

Young Millennial (early mid-90s baby), and I don’t really get it.

For me, it’s in the same box of dusty campy satirical stagey-Americana as Meat Loaf, only, you know, not as enjoyable.

R67 Yes, and he's also bisexual, seducing both Brad and Janet. But he's "creating" a male lover (Rocky), so maybe he falls somewhere between 4 and 5 on the Kinsey scale.

I really like the songs in the sequel......especially "Denton" and the finale......."ANyhow Anyhow".......SHOCK TREATMENT!

[quote] The TV version didn’t understand that.

That's because Laverne Cox has to be in everything and have multiple nominations, even though it has shown no discernible talent ever.

Is Laverne Cox a transvestite?

Laverne Cox is a TRANS WOMAN OF COLOR!!!!!

Every minute a TRANS WOMAN OF COLOR IS KILLED!!!!!

She had the operation ?

R66: "WHET to Fay Wray. "

She went apeshit.

The original is a classic. The sequel, Shock Treatment, deserves to be. It's take on celebrity culture and the power of television was, like the film Network, years ahead of its time. Lots of great songs too.

I'm so glad someone else likes it R79.

So many brilliant throwaway lines.

Mrs. Ralph Hapschatt aka Hilary Farr of "Love It Or List It".

I just rewatched it tonight with fond memories of working with Tim Curry in the 90s. As you can see, the film is still resonates today!

"I didn't make him... FOR YOU!

I saw the 1974 Roxy production twice. It was so much fucking fun and played to packed houses for 9 months. Its set was practically non-existent, but what it lacked in physical production values, it more than made up for in creativity, campiness, energy, and raunch. It was such a hit that 20th bought the film rights and the movie was fast-tracked to be filmed pre-Broadway. Ironically, the very success of the Roxy production was the thing that ultimately closed it. Tim Curry left before the end of the run (to be replaced by Paul Jabara) and the producers' interest turned to the movie and subsequent Broadway production -- which was a colossal bomb.

Nonetheless, I was excited to see the movie when it premiered. Another Roxy [italic]Rocky Horror[/italic] fan and I went to opening night in L.A. We both came away incredibly disappointed. Tim Curry was still wonderful, of course, but the rest of the movie seemed so forced and lifeless compared to the stage show. Songs had been reorchestrated, losing a lot of their 50s flavor, and many were slowed down. Just compare the Roxy cast's "Science Fiction/Double Feature" or "Dammit Janet" to the film's. Although I've seen the movie several times since then, it has just never worked for me. However, I still occasionally listen to the Roxy cast album.

[quote]It’s fun to watch it now with Janet as the evil villainess.

WEISSSSSSSSS!

R85 The end of the movie seemed 'lifeless' because the movie ended unhappily.

Tim Curry's big final number!

Charles Gray (The Criminologist - An Expert) had nickname of "No Neck".

He died at aged 71 never having married, though they do say he "wasn't the marrying sort".....

That's Confirmed Bachelor to you!

The chant was- "Chuckie Gray, he's okay, he's got no fuckin' neck" and then a grunt or an "OI" or a "hey."

Having started out in my cast playing the Criminologist, I remember it well. I always felt like people were yelling it at me instead of the character and I got a complex about my neck, even though there was nothing wrong with it.

Charles Gray, so deliciously camp yet in possession of a dry charming wit.

^ Maggie is so young and unlined. And she turns into another Bette Davis at 3.50.

Another fun fact: Charles Gray never met any of the other RHPS cast, as his scenes were shot at a different time, entirely on an enclosed sound set. He also never saw the film, although he was pleased and amused by the cult following that he gained. He came back as Oliver Wright in Shock Treatment, where he actually met the rest of the cast properly for the first time. In an interview a couple of years before he died, he described both roles as "delicious".

Clip was from a great BBC television series "Play of the Month" program "The Millionairess" written by George Bernard Shaw. Entire thing is up on YT IIRC and well worth watching. Just grab some nibbles and beverage of choice...

Maggie Smith did "The Millionairess" in 1972 just a few years after film "Prime of Miss. Jean Brodie"; and yes she was young and delicious, but still coming into her own.

BBC and ITV did a huge amount of fine work like "Play of the Month" in 1970's, but sadly only a fraction of work ever made it across the pond to USA (picked up by PBS stations).

Of course now (and for many years) both have stopped doing these grand series due to budget constraints. BBC even auctioned off their entire costume department several years ago. Things like Downton Abbey only get done it seems when there are deep pocket sponsors helping to foot the bills.

R94

Thank you for that interesting bit of information.

He died alone you know Charles Gray; parents predeceased him and there weren't any siblings that one knows of thus neither nieces or nephews. Mr. Gray's remains were cremated at Golder's Green where they remained, but don't know if they were scattered or placed in a "tomb".

Never the less his Find A Grave page remains very active with flowers posted weekly, this years after his death, so Mr. Gray seems to indeed have enjoyed a cult following.

I'd never seen that before, R96, thanks.

Gray had several cult followings - he is remembered mostly for camp comedy and schlock horror, but he had a list of acting credits longer than your arm (even if you have a very long arm). He was hugely popular in Hammer Horror and James Bond fandom too. Peter Cushing once described his own method of selecting roles as "Does it sounds enjoyable?" followed by "Is this the sort of thing people would like to see me in?" I always feel that Gray adopted the same approach.

It's very sad that he died alone, but he was a terribly private person and seemed very happy with his own company. I wonder how much of that is an assumption on my part, and whether he was actually lonely.

Charles Gray was part of a superb all star ensemble of television performance of "Absolute Hell", by Rodney Ackland

As Maurice Hussey, Mr. Gray stole every scene he was in, no easy feat with fellow cast members such as Judy Dench, Bill Nighly, and Nathaniel Parker.

R97

Charles Gray is in some pretty good company at Golders Green; veritable who's who of British society from noblemen down to actors and persons of science. Interestingly ashes of actor Jack Hawkins are at Golders Green who Charles Grey dubbed his speaking voice in film performances after the man lost his voice (larynx removed due to throat cancer).

R98, Thank you for knowing one of my favorite plays. My dream is to direct it someday.

Absolute Hell was on local Public Broadcasting station rotation many years ago during gay pride month (June), and manged to record. Must have played that tape twenty times since. Am going to order DVD from UK sooner or later as my player can handle international recordings.

AH was on YT until damned interfering fools got it pulled down. Now you can watch online only by paying.

Would have loved to see the recent National Theater with handsome Charles Edwards as Hugh.

Have always wondered about Charles Edwards, over 50 years old and still never married, nor even a whiff of female attachment of any sort.

I'm sorry, Absolute Hell looked rather drab and claustrophobic for my taste.

Too much talk, too much Nighy so I started to fast-forward.

[quote] BBC and ITV did a huge amount of fine work like "Play of the Month" in 1970's, but sadly only a fraction of work ever made it across the pond to USA

Most of those old shows not copied for the US were probably destroyed and gone forever. That's really a shame.

R104

Sadly am afriad you are correct...

"Some of the 120 episodes are missing from the archives, having been junked in the 1960s and 1970s."

It was good fun. I nice piece of counter culture, alternative, non-mainstream film. Pushed some boundaries. Gave some future stars a chance. And brought so many people looking for community in weirdness together. I love it for everything it is. I don't care how it could have been better or which version was the best. It just added something delightfully off kilter to this world that has lasted the test of time.