FOR decades the Rocky Horror Show has had audiences dressing up in basques and throwing toast at the cast. As the musical hits Scotland, creator Richard O\u2019Brien and star Rhydian Roberts ponder its appeal.<\/p>\n
Forty years ago, in 1973, the Sydney Opera House opened, the three day week was in full-force and The Exorcist was terrifying people in cinemas. There was also a small happening in the upstairs, 60-seater space at the Royal Court Theatre in London. A group of exotically attired young thesps were cavorting around, pretending to be sexually liberated and voracious aliens in a B-movie inspired musical called The Rocky Horror Picture Show.<\/p>\n
One of them, who also happened to have written the show, was Richard O\u2019Brien, born in England but raised in New Zealand after his family emigrated in 1952. He\u2019d come to London in 1964 for a one-year working holiday but, finding that he rather fitted into swinging Sixties London, he\u2019d stayed.<\/p>\n
He created Rocky Horror having been fired from playing Herod in Andrew Lloyd Webber\u2019s Jesus Christ Superstar (O\u2019Brien wanted to do it in the style of Elvis, Lloyd Webber not so much) channelling all those schlocky films he\u2019d loved as a teenager with the hip-shaking rock\u2019n\u2019roll singers he\u2019d idolised. I know this because when I ask him about it, he sings a long excerpt of a Johnny Devlin (New Zealand\u2019s answer to Elvis, he assures me) song which is about a girl wearing a \u201ctight, straight skirt\u201d and involves a lot of \u201coooeeeyy-oooeeeyy-ooooeeeeyys\u201d.<\/p>\n
In the busy bar of the Groucho Club, looking like a kind of goth pixie (he is stick thin in black skinny jeans and a black jacket and completely ageless, although he tells me he\u2019s 70), O\u2019Brien has no qualms about singing, reciting poetry, kissing my hand or launching into impressions. He\u2019s charmingly unique, utterly idiosyncratic and seemingly endlessly happy to talk about Rocky Horror, even if sometimes by rather circuitous routes.<\/p>\n
\u201cJohnny Devlin used to wear a burnt orange zoot suit with leopard-print lapels,\u201d he says with reverence. \u201cI went to see him at the local town hall on a Saturday afternoon.\u201d He pauses, enjoying his story but suddenly unsure why he\u2019s telling it. \u201cI\u2019ve lost the plot now,\u201d he says, sounding completely unconcerned by the fact.<\/p>\n
Rocky, I prompt. He starts again, immediately in full flow. \u201cI wanted to bring the excitement of a rock \u2019n\u2019 roll concert into the theatre,\u201d he says. \u201cI wanted a rock \u2019n\u2019 roll show with a storyline and childish, teenage, silly things that I like.\u201d<\/p>\n
At this point it seems both necessary yet perhaps a little absurd to outline the plot of Rocky Horror, such as it is, for anyone who has managed to survive the last four decades without knowing that you jump to the left and then step to the right. Here goes: a young, preppy, strait-laced couple, Brad Majors and Janet Weiss, find themselves stranded in the middle of nowhere during a storm when their car gets a flat tyre.<\/p>\n
Popping into the nearest castle for help, They discover mad scientist Dr Frank-N-Furter about to unveil his greatest creation \u2013 a monosyllabic Adonis in gold trunks, called Rocky \u2013 to a cast of exotic, eccentric creatures. There\u2019s sex, murder, mayhem and quite a lot of singing. If it sounds a little thin, that\u2019s as it should be. This is not a show about narrative arc and character development \u2013 this is about fun and silliness and taboos.<\/p>\n
Word got round about the anarchic show at the Royal Court and Rocky Horror sold out. It won Best Musical in the London Evening Standard\u2019s poll of drama critics that year and the rights were bagged, enabling production of the film to begin the following year. With Tim Curry as Frank and Susan Sarandon and Barry Bostwick as Janet and Brad, not to mention O\u2019Brien reprising his role as Riff Raff, when the film was released in 1975, it flopped at the box office. But by 1976 it had found its place as a midnight movie showing at the Waverley Theatre cinema in New York and a cult was born.<\/p>\n
For four decades, the movie has been screened in cinemas all over the world, audiences have been turning up in lab coats and fishnets, basques and hotpants to fiddle about with an array of props and spend their evening shouting at the screen and getting up to dance in the aisles. I can honestly say that I\u2019ve only watched the movie in its entirety once, at least 20 years ago, and yet for some reason \u2013 subliminal cultural conditioning? \u2013 I know all the words and moves to the Time Warp. I have, on odd occasions found myself saying, \u201cThe river was deep but I swam it, Janet\u201d and, in a rather wobbly falsetto singing, \u201cTouch me, touch me, touch me, touch me\u201d.<\/p>\n
Sorry, that was almost too much information. My point is that The Rocky Horror Picture Show is a phenomenon, one of those odd cultural creations that has burst out of its basque and found its way into the general cultural consciousness. You don\u2019t have to have seen it to know about it. And if you have seen it there\u2019s a very good chance that you love it and are happy to watch it endlessly, either in the cinema or on stage when you can. That\u2019s why it\u2019s still going strong.<\/p>\n
Although sexual mores and taboos have shifted since the Seventies, the appeal of the show doesn\u2019t appear to have diminished. You might think that in a world where fetish clubs and sexual encounters as random as you dare are but a mouse click away, there wouldn\u2019t be much need to slip into your fishnets for a dose of Rocky Horror, but there is, apparently, no end to the pleasures to be found in singing along with a sweet transvestite from Transsexual, Transylvania.<\/p>\n
The revamped 40th anniversary production that\u2019s currently on tour proves the point. With a cast that includes X Factor\u2019s Rhydian Roberts as Rocky and Oliver Thornton (previously seen in West End hit Priscilla Queen of the Desert) as Frank, the sets have been tweaked, the costumes revamped, but the silliness and the songs are just the same.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the best bit of fun that you can have,\u201d says O\u2019Brien, who took to the stage again two years ago as the narrator. \u201cFrom an actor\u2019s point of view you get up on stage and at the end of the show you feel that it was great to do rather than, thank God it\u2019s over. It\u2019s just fab. That noise coming over the footlights at you \u2013 it\u2019s empowering. It\u2019s not a difficult show to do because you want to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Roberts agrees, which is impressive given that he\u2019s three months into doing eight shows a week. \u201cI never thought I\u2019d enjoy it quite so much,\u201d he says. \u201cI just run around in leopard print pants, that\u2019s it. I just sit back and look like a clueless baby. Essentially that\u2019s my role.\u201d<\/p>\n
As for wearing as little as he does, he says that in the audition he told the producers that he didn\u2019t have any inhibitions. It takes some nerve to go on X Factor but still, I\u2019m guessing he might have been exaggerating a little to make sure that he got the part.<\/p>\n
\u201cI might have cooked the books slightly because I did really want to do it, but I don\u2019t have any inhibitions that have stopped me from immersing myself into the role. And actually it\u2019s quite liberating to be virtually naked on stage.\u201d<\/p>\n
The producers first approached Roberts about the role of Frank, which is hard to believe when you see the photographs of him as Rocky. The hair, the body \u2013 he looks like he might have been created by a mad scientist to play the part. The hardest thing is maintaining the six-pack and the pecs he says. \u201cI\u2019ve trained very hard because I\u2019m not naturally muscly. I don\u2019t think the producers knew initially that I had a body.\u201d He convinced them by telling them he used to be the strongest bench presser in Britain under-18 and offered to demonstrate. \u201cThat\u2019s what got me the job,\u201d he laughs.<\/p>\n
As well as having the physique for Rocky, Roberts says that he\u2019s glad not to be Frank because he\u2019s the character who has to deal with the rowdy audiences, since a big part of the fun of the show is shouting out call-backs \u2013 added lines or quips that are usually rude \u2013 in between the script\u2019s dialogue or wielding carefully selected props at key moments: rubber gloves to snap on as Frank does when he gives his creation speech, a newspaper to hold over your head as Janet does when caught in the rain. Or maybe a slice of toast to lob when Frank proposes to raise a glass or a glow stick to hold aloft during There\u2019s a Light.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe get thrown if there aren\u2019t the regular shout-outs,\u201d says Roberts. \u201cWe allow for them like laughs in comedy, really. Generally we\u2019re not disappointed. It\u2019s what we thrive on, not to mention the outfits that we see when the house lights go up.\u201d<\/p>\n
At least some of the inspiration for the audience participation for O\u2019Brien came from going to see films in Victoria on a Saturday night where O\u2019Brien was one of the audience of \u201cwhey-faced youths\u201d. Someone would shout something at the screen and everyone would laugh.<\/p>\n
It planted a seed for O\u2019Brien and now the whole sing-a-long-a movement depends on it \u2013 \u201cI\u2019m not bitter,\u201d says O\u2019Brien, eyebrow arched. For Roberts, the sexual politics of the show \u2013 the gay abandon, the exhibitionism \u2013 is what makes audiences flock to spend a couple of hours in the weird world of Rocky Horror. For him, that\u2019s as much about O\u2019Brien as it is about the show.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a person Richard still is the manifestation of what Rocky is about,\u201d Roberts says. \u201cHe lives and breathes that world. And he\u2019s not the only one. There are hundreds and thousands of people who come along and celebrate it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Roberts is right. Sipping a glass of red wine and giggling with his soon-to-be wife, Sabrina, O\u2019Brien is magnificently eccentric, an appealing combination of conservative and quirky. The couple are about to move to New Zealand, where they\u2019re getting married on 6 April. O\u2019Brien had his citizenship confirmed last year and delights in telling me he saw the country\u2019s prime minister on TV being asked about welcoming O\u2019Brien back to the country and confessing to having dressed up to attend Rocky Horror in his youth.<\/p>\n
\u201cHello,\u201d he says, sounding salacious in a way that only O\u2019Brien can, his eyebrow crawling up his forehead, \u201cAnd what did you wear? Was it a little gold swimsuit or something more exotic?\u201d He laughs. He turns to Sabrina. \u201cWe\u2019ve got another 30 years,\u201d he says, eyes twinkling. \u201cI\u2019ll be a hundred and she\u2019ll be just about the age that I am now.\u201d They\u2019ve bought a house set in \u201ctwo-and-a-half acres of paradise\u201d and although I can\u2019t quite imagine O\u2019Brien in a rural idyll, he\u2019s having none of it.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s parochial and very nice. I love it,\u201d he says. \u201cWe have friends who are musicians and artists and they do like to eat and drink. As far as I\u2019m concerned music and food and drink \u2013 we should be all right.\u201d<\/p>\n
I\u2019m sure he\u2019ll be fine. And he\u2019ll always be happy to talk about Rocky Horror. Why wouldn\u2019t he be? O\u2019Brien must have seen his show hundreds of times, all over the world, so I wonder which was the best production he\u2019s ever seen?<\/p>\n
\u201cThe last one,\u201d he says with a smirk. \u201cOh I don\u2019t know really. I don\u2019t want to start naming people because if I say he or she, all the others over 40 years will wonder \u2018what about me?\u2019, just as I would.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve seen it good. I\u2019ve seen it questionable. The strange thing is that even the questionable performances are loved by the audience.\u201d He describes one in which the narrator forgot to come on stage at one point. O\u2019Brien, watching with the director, was horrified. Still, though, when the curtain fell, the audience was roaring. \u201cI turned to my fellow director and said, \u2018it\u2019s foolproof, isn\u2019t it?\u2019\u201d He laughs, heading to the bar for another glass of wine.