{"id":75075,"date":"2020-09-25T14:28:38","date_gmt":"2020-09-25T11:28:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/how-rocky-horror-went-from-tiny-musical-to-filthy-phenom\/"},"modified":"2020-09-25T14:28:38","modified_gmt":"2020-09-25T11:28:38","slug":"how-rocky-horror-went-from-tiny-musical-to-filthy-phenom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/how-rocky-horror-went-from-tiny-musical-to-filthy-phenom\/","title":{"rendered":"#How ‘Rocky Horror’ went from tiny musical to filthy phenom"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#How ‘Rocky Horror’ went from tiny musical to filthy phenom<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

\n Dammit, Janet, you\u2019re 45!<\/p>\n

A science<\/a>-fiction, B-movie-style musical, \u201cThe Rocky Horror Picture Show\u201d opened Sept. 25, 1975, and became the king of cult hits after the Waverly Theater (now the IFC Center) in Greenwich Village began showing it at midnight in 1976. But these were no normal screenings. Raucous, foul-mouthed viewers were yelling \u201cA\u2009-\u2009-\u2009hole!\u201d at the bespectacled hero Brad Majors, played by Barry Bostwick, and \u201cSlut!\u201d at virgin heroine Janet Weiss, a young Susan Sarandon. Many of the funny shouts are, ahem, unprintable.<\/p>\n

That wild mood led to average Joes dressing up in leather corsets and chunky heels, or strip<\/a>ping down to lily-white skivvies, and bringing prop news<\/a>papers, gloves and flashlights. The trend expanded to hundreds of theaters and college campuses worldwide. And when cinemas reopen, fans will continue the tradition \u2014 more than four decades later.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love that audiences have derived such pleasure from it,\u201d director and co-writer Jim Sharman, 75, told The Post from his home in Australia. \u201cWhether you dismiss it as B-movie schlock \u2014 which some of it is, often deliberately so \u2014 or perceive its depths which simmer below the surface, or treat it as wallpaper for a party, it seems to satisfy some mysterious need.\u201d<\/p>\n

I would like, if I may, to take you on a strange journey\u2009.\u2009.\u2009. to the origins of \u201cThe Rocky Horror Picture Show.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Susan
Susan Sarandon, Tim Curry, Jonathan Adams (in wheelchair), Barry Bostwick and Patricia Quinn.<\/span>\u00a920thCentFox\/Courtesy Everett Collection<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The musical started out in 1972 as little more than an idea for an intimate rock show. Sharman was an Australian theater and film director living in London, who had a hit with the West End production of \u201cJesus Christ Superstar.\u201d At the time, Sam Shepard had asked Sharman to direct his play \u201cThe Unseen Hand\u201d there, featuring a British actor named Richard O\u2019Brien as an alien.<\/p>\n

\u201cRichard showed me a sketch, about 10 pages from memory, called \u2018They Came From Denton High\u2019 and played me the opening song \u2018Science Fiction\/Double Feature\u2019 accompanying himself on guitar,\u201d Sharman said. \u201cIt chimed with my interests. We were a generation brought up on sci-fi and late-night movies<\/a>, which we loved. And after suggesting a name change \u2014 it was a rock \u2018n\u2019 roll horror show, so why not say what it is, was my logic \u2014 it developed into \u2018Rocky Horror.\u2019\u2009\u201d<\/p>\n

Sharman secured the upstairs space at the Royal Court Theatre, and O\u2019Brien would not only compose the rockin\u2019 songs such as \u201cTime Warp\u201d and \u201cTouch-A, Touch-A, Touch Me,\u201d but play the long-haired handyman, Riff Raff.<\/p>\n

\"Tim
Tim Curry<\/span>\u00a920thCentFox\/Courtesy Everett<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cRocky Horror\u201d was shaping up, but it had an itch to scratch and needed assistance. The perfect actor had to be found to play Dr. Frank-N-Furter, the sweet transvestite who hosts the annual Transylvania Convention at his foreboding castle. Thankfully, a then-no-name actor arrived \u2014 Tim Curry.<\/p>\n

\u201cTim auditioned singing Little Richard\u2019s \u2018Tutti Frutti,\u2019\u2009\u201d Sharman said. \u201cHe ripped the Royal Court roof off. He had it, then and there\u2009.\u2009.\u2009. and, beneath the makeup, Tim was that rare thing, a thinking actor with an adventurous streak, and [had] the technical chops to really deliver. He simply got it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Rocky Horror Picture Show\u201d opened in 1973 and was a hot ticket overnight.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe really thought we were doing an indie musical for three weeks at the Theatre Upstairs on no budget and minimum fees for the love and anarchy of it,\u201d Sharman said. \u201cBut when rock stars and famous artists were fighting for tickets, it sunk in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Film and record producer Lou Adler saw the show when it transferred to a larger theater. Adler was a huge name, having produced Carole King\u2019s \u201cTapestry,\u201d and wanted to stage the show in LA and then make a film of \u201cRocky Horror.\u201d He believed in the material, and let Sharman and O\u2019Brien run wild.<\/p>\n

\"Richard
Richard O\u2019Brien<\/span>20th Century Fox Film Corp.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cBeyond a cut to the final song in an early version, quickly reversed following some fan complaints, to my knowledge, there was little to no studio interference in the movie,\u201d Sharman said. \u201cBy agreeing to a very low budget and a very short schedule, which guaranteed a lot of the original creatives their rightful role in its making, it slipped under the radar.\u201d<\/p>\n

Curry and O\u2019Brien reprised their iconic roles on-screen, joined by Sarandon, Bostwick and Meat Loaf as Eddie. There were also some added duties for the composer. Onstage, the opening song \u201cScience Fiction\/Double Feature\u201d was sung by a female usherette, but that fateful 1972 meeting with O\u2019Brien lingered in Sharman\u2019s mind for years.<\/p>\n

\u201cI never forgot Richard\u2019s haunting, yet slightly androgynous, voice singing \u2018Science Fiction\u2019 the first time I heard it, so I thought he should sing it,\u201d Sharman said.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Brien wouldn\u2019t just stand still and perform, though. Sharman wanted lips. Big red lips. Inspired by the surrealist films of Luis Bu\u00f1uel and a Man Ray painting of a floating mouth in production designer Brian Thomson\u2019s office, Sharman decided he had to have smackers and teeth.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were a lot of mouths and lips floating around at the time!\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"Barry
Barry Bostwick and Susan Sarandon<\/span>20th Century Fox Film Corp. All<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The director had also had a dream one night in which \u201cRiff Riff and Magenta somehow coalesced into one androgynous being.\u201d This is why, in the film, we see actress Patricia Quinn\u2019s lips and hear O\u2019Brien\u2019s sky-high voice. Like the rest of the movie, that mouth has stayed an iconic image in pop culture.<\/p>\n

Today, Sharman is hardly a one-hit wonder, having remained a prolific theater director in Australia. Despite working often, he looks back fondly on the \u201cmental mind f\u2009-\u2009-\u2009k\u201d he gave the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love that outsiders have found a movie that speaks to them. It\u2019s certainly the late-night audience who made it a classic,\u201d Sharman said. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t made like any other movie and was left alone to be itself, so it has a life of its own.\u201d\n <\/p><\/div>\n

\n

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Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“#How ‘Rocky Horror’ went from tiny musical to filthy phenom” Dammit, Janet, you\u2019re 45! A science-fiction, B-movie-style musical, \u201cThe Rocky Horror Picture Show\u201d opened Sept. 25, 1975, and became the king of cult hits after the Waverly Theater (now the IFC Center) in Greenwich Village began showing it at midnight in 1976. But these were…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":75076,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/08\/14E.ROCKY_WEB-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[72643,72706,1361,72707,72708],"class_list":["post-75075","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-9-25-20","tag-meat-loaf","tag-movies","tag-musicals","tag-tim-curry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75075","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75075"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75075\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75076"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}