REVIEW: The Rocky Horror Picture Show (FOX 2016)

Most of you that actually know me know that Rocky Horror has been a HUGE part of my life.  I met my wife there.  A good portion of my friends are or used to be part of a shadow cast.  That movie, performing it on a stage with two different shadows cast and being part of the audience participation have greatly made up a huge part of what I am today.  I even still have portions of my costume that probably do not fit me anymore.  I have seen various stage productions and the movie so many times that I cannot tell you exactly how many times I have seen it.  If I were to hazard a guess, it would be more than 1500 times.  I bring this up because on 10/20/2016, FOX dared to air a remake TV movie of THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW and I know people are going to ask me about it.

I want to start off right now and get to the point of this so you can know my overall thought of it was…I liked it.  I really, truly, honestly really like it.  Did I think it was great…no.  However, I thought it was a great representation of the play and the movie and it adds more.  My thought is “Yay! We have more Rocky Horror in this world to enjoy!” With that, there were a few things I did not like or agreed with but those things I feel did not detract from the overall production.  Let’s get to my negatives first…

The biggest complaint I had about this production was not the casting of Laverne Cox as Frank, it was her portrayal of Frank.  I have played Frank twice and in my opinion, not so well.  That is an amazingly tough character to play.  Tim Curry in that stage and film version set the bar so damn high, it is nearly impossible to hit his bravado and swagger that he carries in it.  He walked and amazingly fine line between being both masculine and feminine at the same time.  You knew it was a man but there were feminine qualities infused in everything he did.  He WAS the Sweet Transvestite.  Laverne Cox has that swagger down but she did not walk that fine line between being masculine and feminine.  She came across entirely too feminine in look and attitude.  She looked and acted fully like a woman with tons of swagger.  The next biggest complaint is the music.  The music is a huge part of any production of any production of this show.  It is a nearly a raw old form of rock.  Every production I have seen has kept this aspect of the music in some way.  However, FOX decided that they wanted to go with a super high polished and over produced version of the music and the singers performed like they were all contestants on the overly homogenized American Idol.  I found that rather disappointing.  The bite and attitude was stripped away from the music.  That is basically the only complaints I have at this time.  Additional viewing may bring up other minor complaints.  As for the majority of complaints I have seen online, I think they are pretty much unwarranted.  Those individuals had a common thread in all of their complaints…it was not the original movie production.  They were the worst form of purists.  They felt it should have not been touched.  I also suspect that they have never seen other productions of the show either and do grasp that this an ever evolving show.

Tim Curry on the left as Frank and Laverne Cox on right as Frank

For the good, I have quite a few things I felt they did was awesome.  They broke the fourth wall and had an audience in a theatre watching the show.  From time to time, you got to see them throw out an audience participation line but no so much that it was totally distracting.  It was something new and a very nice touch.  The set production and costuming was updated for the times but it was not overly slick and stripped down like the music.  It had a lot of the attitude that was sorely missing from the music in this production.  For you purists out there, the script was followed nearly to the letter. I think I heard maybe one or two deviations of the film script but I was actually pleasantly shocked and delighted how close were to it.  I guess perfection does not need to be mucked with and that helped keep the attitude the show has in place.  Lastly, the direction of the cast was tweaked for a modern audience and they made some changes to some reactions and timings that matches our current culture so it would not feel dated.  Another tweak I noticed was that they knew that this not something to take serious and they turned up the campiness in their portrayals and line delivery.  Brad in particular.  They made is dialog come across like a bad super hero movie where he is the hero.  His lines came across stilted and I found that hilarious…you have this guy coming across that he thinks he has got it all under control and cool under pressure and we all know that he is just an asshole.

Why am I not bashing this production and actually embracing it?  Rocky Horror has been a part of my 47 years on this planet for a better part of 30 years.  An old friend encouraged me to go to see a midnight show in 1986 at now long gone UA Lynnhaven Mall location in Virginia Beach, VA.  Yeah, I am talking about you Kevin Fyffe.  In those 30 years, as I have stated, I have seen the original movie nearly countless times along with other live stage productions. This is a living and breathing show.  It adapts and changes with the productions, the shadow casts and with the audience participation.  This is why it has endured and even thrived for over 43 years when the first stage show premiered in London 6/19/1973.  It taps into an attitude that gives a voice to those that feel like outsiders.  If you understand this about Rocky Horror, then any production should be welcomed if they stick to the camp and attitude which for the most part, this new production does.  For you purists of Rocky Horror, shame on you.  You should know better that this is open for different interpretations as long as they keep the attitude and play it campy.  We all know that Tim Curry is a god when it comes to Frank but you should also check out

David Bedella as Frank in the live production that aired in 2015 on the BBC.  He rivals what Curry did and brought some new energy to the role.

David Bedella as Frank in the 2015 live production of Rocky Horror

If you have not seen the FOX production yet because you heard the complaints from the purists, just forget them and just go in with an open mind and try to forgive the overly produced music and overly feminine portrayal of Frank.  It is actually fun if you are not trying to recreate the original movie and that is what it is all about. And you purists out there, it is not like they actually changed the original movie.  You will always have that fall back on.