On Thursday, October 20th, FOX followed up their last year’s reproduction of “Grease: Live” with a 40th Anniversary celebration of the very risqué “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.” If you’re unfamiliar with the sinister film, it’s the source of the Halloween song favorite “Time Warp.” So let’s take a step to the left, and a jump to the write-ings about this musical recreation.
In all versions of the production, we follow the newly engaged Brad Majors and Janet Weiss, perfectly manly, perfectly pure, and perfect for each other. Unfortunately, they get lost on their way back home and stumble upon a very menacing and peculiar castle. Marriage giddy, or perhaps naïve, they approach the mansion for use of a phone, and to say the least, they never find a phone. Instead, they get caught up in a night of ecstasy, the arms of a mad scientist, and the love of being alive.
I discovered the Rocky Horror phenomenon only a few years ago when a thoughtful friend brought it to an October sleepover. Only a few actually knew what we were about to see, and the rest, including me, were in for a surprise. There was violence, there was sex, there was drama, and singing, and dancing. It was a horror indeed. But I was hooked and have since immersed myself in the cult-ure, including a live stage performance at a local theatre.
So when I heard just a few months ago about this FOX reproduction, I didn’t know what to think. My first impressions were mostly on the characters, which is all that the news article revealed.
First was obviously Dr. Frank-n-Furter. “A woman? Way to typically associate a sexual role with a female,” I thought, and boy, I was wrong. Laverne Cox is an Emmy Award-nominated actress, best known as Sophia Burset on “Orange is the New Black” (a show I have not yet watched despite all the rant, rave, and several season popularity), and the first openly transgender person to accomplish such feats. Her list of inspiring roles as a transgender and person of color come full circle as she plays Dr. Frank-n-Furter, a sweet transvestite from transsexual Transylvania. And while it is becoming common to have a more sexually diverse cast, especially with private producers like Netflix and Amazon, I was pleasingly surprised for this casting on a cable network. Nevertheless, she was an accurate look, as the Dr. is a symbol of embracing the different and loving your situation as you take it.
Second was Victoria Justice as Janet Weiss. I had known Victoria Justice since my childhood as Lola Martinez on “Zoey 101.” Adorable, sweet, and sassy, she continued a similar role as the star in “Victorious,” where she additionally established herself as singer. Since her role as Tori Vega ended in 2013, I haven’t heard much about the Nickelodeon actress. Well, until this showed up. To my surprise as a fan of both “Zoey 101” and “Victorious,” I was in neutral state of feeling about her taking the role of Janet Weiss. Her television roles were very dramatized, and I felt that her old acting style wouldn’t portray well into Weiss, who needed a more natural aura to make the character come off correctly. I had no doubt in her singing abilities but wondered how her pop sound would do in comparison to the higher, broadway tones of the movie version.
Everyone else casted was a mystery to me. Who was Ryan McCartan, Staz Nair, Reeve Carney, and Christina Milian? All great actors in their own right, I personally had no idea what to expect, but they certainly all looked the part in the trailer video. If anything, not knowing these names were better because it lowered my already high expectations of the reproduction. They seemed to remain more faithful to the original acting styles of the film, which was good in my eyes, but I sensed that their reprises wouldn’t be completely throwback. The last name I stumbled upon was familiar but couldn’t put my finger on it. Tim Curry?
Tim Curry! the original Dr. Frank-n-Furter, makes a return to for the television anniversary celebration as the Criminologist Narrator. Not only was he the Dr. in the movie, but also the original 1973 London stage production. “I am very happy and excited to be a part of this new event,” Curry said, but I wondered how he felt to be pushed back into the Narrator role, who is a fourth wall character that is describing the documentation what happened in main plot. It also poses the question that what if the 1975 Dr. Frank-n-Furter continued living a life of this doctor. Well, that’s a bit of a stretch, but a nice multiverse theory. It was a bit of a shame to see the once great Broadway and television actor playing the minor narration role, but the sweet return of the original transsexual transvestite made me shiver a bit with antici…
I think Curry is what got me hooked to watch the special, even with my picky tastes, because if he was in, he had to approve it in some way, right? Such, this is my first impressions of FOX’s “The Rocky Horror Picture Show: Let’s Do the Time Warp Again.” A review of the actual film will be next week in hopes you’ll explore further into what is the original Rocky Horror and this special 40th anniversary edition.
