Rocky Horror Show...how is it possible?

[SweeneyPhanatic]

Posted: 8/3/06 at 5:41pm

Hello all. I saw "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" for the first time this weekend, and I now have another title to my "Need to own" list. I was wondering, how in the world does that happen on a stage? I just don't see it as being possible.

[OzarkElphaba]

Posted: 8/3/06 at 5:53pm

What doing the musical? Um..fairly easily. Remember, movies have big budgets. In the original Theatre Upstairs, they had no huge special effects, no car, no elevator. If you are referring to the people who dress up and act it out in front of the movie screen, well it's kinda how it sounds.

[MrSweetNAwful]

Posted: 8/3/06 at 5:53pm

what about it don't you see as possible?

[SweeneyPhanatic]

Posted: 8/3/06 at 5:57pm

Perhaps it's because I'm only familiar with the (as you stated) big-budget movie version, but I can't even begin to imagine it as a live stage show (meaning the actual musical, not people performing in front of the movie). Of course, I thought the same thing when I learned there was a musical version of "Big," but then I saw the musical a knew how they made it work. Can anyone just tell me what the show is like on stage compared to how it was presented in the movie?

One thing I can't see working on the stage are the cuts to the narrator (or whatever he was). I also have difficulty imagining the house lifting off at the end, but I figure if they can drop a chandelier in "Phantom" that it can't be too hard to do the house in "Rocky horror."

Updated On: 8/3/06 at 05:57 PM

[OzarkElphaba]

Posted: 8/3/06 at 6:00pm

Well, it was a musical first, unlike "Big," or "Wizard of Oz." It's a lot the same. There is a "Phantom" chorus that kinda does all the misc. things needed onstage, including in some versions I've seen, becoming the car. Eddie and Dr. Scott are played by the same person. The script has "Time Warp" taking place after "Sweet Transvestite," but most productions reverse it as in the film. There's a song for Brad, which was cut from the movie. That's about all there is.

[SweeneyPhanatic]

Posted: 8/3/06 at 6:10pm

Do you happen to know who controls the performance rights (MTI, Samuel French, etc.)?

[OzarkElphaba]

Posted: 8/3/06 at 6:18pm

Sam French.

[kaboodles041]

Posted: 8/3/06 at 11:17pm

Rocky Horror is awesome on stage. I saw it right before it closed, and if you like the movie, you'll love the stage version. What's cool is that the actors actually come out and interact with the audience. I remember this one phantom, like dry-humped this old woman.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 8/3/06 at 11:25pm

And that Phantom was Kevin Cahoon.

You think The Rocky Horror Picture Show had a big budget?

Tell that to poor Susan Sarandon. The set wasn't even heated.

[Jane2]

Posted: 8/3/06 at 11:47pm

Sweeney Phanatic, Rocky Horror was on stage in the UK before it became a film. It was performed originally as a cabaret-style show, with Tim Curry. I forget what the year was. The film was made in 1975.

[kaboodles041]

Posted: 8/4/06 at 12:05am

Agree Namo. Rocky Horror is not what I call big budget at all. Not only does it not look big budget (though of course its campiness is a big part of what makes it great), but it also is not exactly the type of movie a studio would pour its bucks into.

[Jane2]

Posted: 8/4/06 at 12:12am

kaboodles, the film is still running at midnight now, after over 30 years. It may have been low budget but certainly has recouped over and over.

[FindingNamo2]

Posted: 8/4/06 at 12:18am

Which is, of course, not the point that was made.

[MrSweetNAwful]

Posted: 8/4/06 at 12:26am

The narrator just walks onto the stage, in a certain spot, usually far stage right or left, and delivers his monos. I'm pretty sure they don't do the rising house in the stage production. Does anyone know what they did in the Circle In The Square version when Riff and Magenta leave the plannet?

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 8/4/06 at 12:34am

circle in the square used a FANTASTIC unit set. One of the more major set pieces looked to be nothing more than a very cool looking chandelier above the stage.. in actually, this was the base of an elevator that lowered Frank for his first entrance, and was used again for "Spaceship". Riff and Magenta step into the elevator and are lifted out of sight..... that was how they left the planet.

fyi, david rockwell's set design was GENIOUS!

[So what...I sing]

Posted: 8/4/06 at 12:56am

I just got Cast as Riff Raff and I tell you, I just read the script...It's going to be a riot. Especially with all of the audience participation that the crowd brings to the show.

Our set will be blank stage with roll on props...very basic, very 'modern'

But the show is different in the way that some of the movie's scenes ... like the dinner table...are not in the stage show. Those were added to the movie.


Also the sets are not the same in the stage show, because obviously its a stage, not a studio with lots of ability to have lots of sets and On location shooting (for a car for example)

But if you ever have the chance to see it live DO IT, and dress up, because it makes the experience that much more interesting.

[FeelingElectric]

Posted: 8/4/06 at 2:37am

The Rocky Horror Picture Show actually had a budget of $2,000,000. Not exactly a big budget movie, but a lot for 1975. Some estimates have it's gross since then (Thanks mainly to midnight shows) at $175 million. At one time, the grosses of the film paid for 20th Century Fox's entire yearly distribution overhead. These facts are from the documentary Midnight Movies, playing on the Starz/Encore networks.

[Matty]

Posted: 8/4/06 at 5:21am

edit - video clip no longer available. Updated On: 8/4/06 at 05:21 AM