The stage musical, The Rocky Horror Show, is a theatrical phenomenon. It has enjoyed the kind of success for which most dramatists would trade their eye-teeth!
THE Rocky Horror Show opened at the Royal Court’s upstairs Theatre, London, 1973, with an audience of 63. An immediate success, eventually it moved into the King’s Road Theatre and ran from 1973 to 1979; then the West End Comedy Theatre during 1979 and 1980. Universally, it has enjoyed the longest continuous run of any contemporary musical.
The show has been seen by more than 30 million people in 30 countries, and translated into 20 languages. In 50 years there have been 100 productions; 40 cast albums; and seasons which have run for five years, including a world tour between 1996 and 2005.
Composer/lyricist/writer, New Zealander, Richard O’Brien, said, “Back in the 1970s, when someone asked me to entertain the Christmas staff party at the EMI Film Studios, I turned-up with a song called Science Fiction, Double Feature. Who would have known this germ of an idea would turn-into what is today, The Rocky Horror Show.”
In 1975 it was made into a film called The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Directed by Australian Jim Sharman, and starring Tim Curry, it has grossed $135 million from a budget of $1.6 million. Forty-nine years later, it is still screened world-wide, making it officially cinema’s longest running theatrical release. It has a cult following: dedicated audiences know the dialogue and sing along with the musical numbers. The film has a global presence, and in 2005 was selected by the United States Library of Congress for preservation in the United States National Film Registry, as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.”
Harry M. Miller’s original Australian production starring Reg Livermore as Frank-N-Furter, played for two years at the Bijoux Theatre, Balmain. It transferred to the Regent Palace – the old Channel 7 Teletheatre, on Johnston Street in Fitzroy, starring the late Max Phipps.
Curiously, after a sell-out season in Sydney, it was proving a disaster at the box-office. The director, Jim Sharman, was not available. I was engaged, as Mr Miller said, “to fix-it-up for Melbourne”. We rehearsed for two weeks, launched again, and by some stroke of theatrical magic, it took-off. It played for two years. Such was the demand for tickets, some weeks the cast did 10 performances, including popular Saturday midnight shows. Subjectively, Max Phipps, an actor of such power, was the best Frank-N-Furter, ever. Ultimately, he was so exhausted, the management reluctantly closed the show.
A season of the same production which I directed at the Warner Theatre, Adelaide, was an unmitigated disaster, even with Phipps in the lead role. Along with the original Broadway production,
it is the only staging which has flopped! Confounded by Adelaide’s indifference, we told ourselves, rightly, it was more about them than the standard of our work!
The 50th anniversary production now playing at the Atheneum Theatre, Melbourne, starring Jason Donovan as Frank-N-Furter, and Myf Warhurst as Narrator, is doing cracking business! There are those dedicated audience members who have seen the show hundreds of times.
If you haven’t, then you should, go see The Rocky Horror Show!
Like all significant social substance works, Rocky Horror has become an important document. Its daring sexual liberation confronted audiences; it destroyed myths; and provided a touchstone for those who did not see themselves as being part of what is deemed ‘the norm’. Its abundance of charm lies in its humour and inclusivity.
Rocky Horror is a show for everyone. You would have to be churlish not to enjoy.
Roland is heard with Brett MacDonald on 3BA Mondays at 10.45 and can be contacted via [email protected].