Dance to the Time Warp Again
This calendar week Fox celebrates the legacy of 1975 cult musical film hit The Rocky Horror Picture Show with the release of a 2016 TV-movie adaptation featuring a new cast.
Inspired by early Hollywood B movies, Rocky Horror is the story of betrothed couple Brad and Janet (Ryan McCartan and Victoria Justice) who take shelter from the rain in the mansion of alien scientist Dr. Frank-N-Furter (Laverne Cox, a office originally played by Tim Curry). Frank-N-Furter'southward henchman Riff Raff (Reeve Carney) and other lackeys help the doctor bring his brute Rocky to life, with diverse characters seducing Brad and Janet away from each other.
We spoke with director Kenny Ortega, producer Lou Adler, and stars Cox, Justice, Carney, and Curry when they gathered at the Television Critics Association's Printing Tour this summer to promoteThe Rocky Horror Moving-picture show Bear witness: Let'southward Practise the Time Warp Over again.
Here are 11 things we learned nigh the new product.
1. TIM CURRY APPROVES
It'south always scary when someone wants to remake a archetype. If you need whatever reason to have no fearfulness about The Rocky Horror Picture Testify, permit it be that Curry himself gives the Fox motion picture his approving.
"I do, indeed," Back-scratch said when asked if he endorses the new film.
Curry has recovered from a stroke and still sits in a wheelchair, but he performed in the new Rocky Horror equally the narrator. While rehearsing with the whole cast, Cox got Curry's blessing personally.
"Nosotros had conversations our start twenty-four hour period of rehearsal," Cox said. "I sang every song from the movie that Frank-Northward-Furter sings in front of Tim. As we would become through the songs, I would ask him what some of his intentions or motivations and what he thought the moment was. He shared with me some of his thoughts on information technology. I don't similar to divulge everything we talked most."
Ortega especially remembered seeing Cox and Curry bond.
"I'll never forget the get-go day of rehearsal," Ortega said. "Laverne was continuing at the piano and was getting ready to sing 'Sweetness Transvestite' for the very, very first time. And Tim was sitting at the pianoforte side by side to the pianist. When she finished, the first voice that came out was 'Brava' from Tim Curry. And that'south what nosotros all felt throughout this entire experience working with Tim, his generosity, his wit, his charm, his elegance."
two. THE ORIGINAL MUSIC GETS A TWIST
Fans accept been singing the Rocky Horror Show songs since the original stage version's 1973 preview performances. With weekly midnight performances of the picture show since 1975, everyone knows what "Fourth dimension Warp" and "Hot Patootie" sounds like. Then the singers in this contemporary Rocky Horror are giving the archetype songs a slight twist, and so they audio the same, but new again.
Take, for instance, Justice'south perspective on the role made famous past at present–well known film star Susan Sarandon.
"It was challenging as a singer, because I really had to tap into my falsetto more than I ever accept before," Justice said. "And I also wanted to push myself, because I wanted to find advertisement libs and things that were unlike and make it my ain. That was really a lot of fun. I wanted to go on the archetype Janet voice where she kind of talks in this higher register, and it'due south merely a lot more than sweet and saccharine in a lot of ways, merely not copying her. So I retrieve that was probably the biggest claiming is watching the flick and remembering certain things that I wanted to keep but and then also forgetting the remainder of it so I could exist inspired on my ain."
Producer Lou Adler added that the music department, including his son Cisco Adler, produced new mixes of the classics. "What Kenny and I said in the beginning was be true to the original, but brand information technology gimmicky," Adler said. "Then in that location'due south loops and samples, merely information technology's still the original music."
3. COX HAS SERIOUS MUSICAL RANGE
If you but know Cox from acting, get ready to hear her sing. Orange Is the New Black hasn't yet showcased these skills.
"She's a force, 5 octave range, a degree in dance from a major academy, interim her middle out in New York and studying for over 15 years, walking in and bringing something into the room that made us all realize there was no B plan," Ortega said. "She had so much to give to it, a life experience, an incredible depth of talent, an enthusiasm, and a respect, an incredible respect for this film, all that has mattered. She was just an absolute joy. We knew information technology from the beginning that this was the person that gave us reason, really, raison d'être to brand this movie."
4. THEY'RE SINGING More than WORDS THAN GLEE DID
When Glee did its Rocky Horror tribute episode, the powers that be changed some of the lyrics that were considered risqué. For some reason, "Transsexual, Transylvania" was considered inappropriate and had to be inverse to "Sensational Transylvania." You even so can't say the F word on broadcast Goggle box (the movie was rated R), simply "Transsexual" is back.
"There were conversations about practice nosotros modify this?" Cox said. "After my first conversation with Kenny Ortega, his vision for the film was what sold me. You cannot change the lyrics to an iconic song. You can't. The term 'transvestite' is a term that's antiquated. It'southward not a term that we use anymore to describe any trans people I know, but in 1975 it was used in a very different way. So historically we desire to accolade that, and nosotros want to honor this motion-picture show that has been so iconic for and so many people."
5. THIS JANET IS A QUENTIN TARANTINO HEROINE
If you merely know Justice from her Nickelodeon testify Victorious, The Rocky Horror Picture Show tin be a chance to meet her grown upwards. Not but is she playing Janet, Brad's celibate fiancée who has a sexual awakening with the creature Rocky, but she played the empowered sexuality like the heroine of a gritty, violent Tarantino film. Justice says you can hear it when she sings "Affect Me."
"It has almost like a Quentin Tarantino, sexy kind of twang to it in the beginning, which is really fun," Justice said. "I think I was able to throw in some new advert libs in there that was really cool for me. I did all kinds of fun stuff."
six. IT'S TIME FOR KIDS TO See ROCKY HORROR
The original Rocky Horror Picture show Show (pictured above in film poster) was rated R, but Justice admitted she saw it when she was 15. At 8 p.yard. on Fox, kids younger than xv will be able to witness the updated version, and Justice thinks that's a good affair.
"I call up if I was a parent, I'd totally be down to show my fifth grader," Justice said. "I'd exist like, 'This is a classic. Y'all need to know these songs. You demand to get familiar with these characters. You lot need to know who Tim Curry is.' And then we would picket the original after."
Still, Justice respects your decision if you do not bear witness your fifth grader Rocky Horror.
"I call back that's upwardly to the parents to make that option," Justice said. "It is airing on Fox. Even though the story is the same, the script is the same, it isn't anything so scandalous that it wouldn't be able to air on network Television receiver. So really I recall that'due south only upwards to the parents' discretion if they are comfortable showing their kids."
vii. AND Scout It WITH THE WHOLE Family unit
Not merely does the bandage of 2016'sRocky Horror Picture Show encourage young viewers to encounter the movie, but they should share it with the whole family. Gender identity and open sexuality are topics parents are encouraged to discuss with kids, and Rocky Horrormay help give parents a expert opening.
Justice recalled her mom taking her to that midnight prove at age 15.
"Actually my mom has always introduced me to all different types of art always since I was lilliputian," Justice said. "She's like a super-cool mom who's on the cutting border of things. So it was so much fun, but information technology was so funny because I was a virgin to seeing a Rocky Horror midnight evidence, they were aware of information technology. The shadow bandage took red lipstick and put a big V on my head and they drew a penis on my friend Josh's face. So it was pretty funny. Our moms were upward for the ride though."
8. COX IS LIVING PROOF ROCKY HORROR MATTERS
Cox has earned acclaim for the strides she's made for trans acceptance. She'southward broken downwards walls that stood in the fashion of trans actors in Hollywood, and it all goes dorsum to The Rocky Horror Picture Evidence. The film was vital to Cox discovering who she is and having the backbone to come out.
"When I was a higher student and discovered The Rocky Horror Motion picture Show, the character that Tim created became a template for my own exploration of my identity," Cox said. "Because of Tim and the version of that movie, 'Don't dream information technology, be it' became a personal mantra. I'yard being information technology right now."
ix. THE Bandage LEARNED HOW TO Get SEXY
The kind of sexuality on display is not piece of cake for everyone to access. Information technology takes some viewers many performances and many years to become all the fashion and dress in fishnets and high heels like Frank-N-Furter and his minions. Everyone can go full Rocky Horror in their own time, only the cast of this movie had to rehearse specifically to bring the sexuality to life.
"I call up when I started rehearsals for this movie, we all really got in touch with the sexuality of it," Justice said. "During our first day of rehearsal, Kenny had us all practise an practise together where we had to basically walk around the room with all the dancers and all the actors and brand center contact with different people. And then he would say, 'Okay, cook.' Then nosotros'd have to become up to that person we're next to and melt and drape all over them. I was a lot of fun."
x. CARNEY LEARNED TO WALK IN HIGH HEELS
Carney played a different kind of monster on Showtime'south Penny Dreadful. He was Dorian Gray, the man who could remain young while his portrait anile instead. In Rocky Horror he plays Riff Raff, the function originated by Rocky Horror creator Richard O'Brien. It turns out, Carney really liked Riff Raff's high heels.
"I think any sort of obstacles, anything you have to fight against every bit an actor is generally a helpful affair," Carney said. "So for me, having the heels was kind of cool. I actually grew to beloved them, to be honest with you. I'd actually dear to go a pair for myself to vesture at home. They're really comfortable. They were very form plumbing equipment to my human foot. You did accept to be careful when you become over to the side similar that. You lot had to make sure you didn't twist your ankle."
11. THE AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION HAS BEEN WORKSHOPPED FOR 40 YEARS
Midnight screenings of The Rocky Horror Flick Prove developed an audience participation component that became as famous every bit the film itself. Throw rice at the wedding scene. Call out answers to questions the characters inquire. DVD and Blu-ray releases of the film take included audience participation recordings, but this flick includes an audience in the film itself. They weren't scripted, just the director still had to maintain some command.
"When we shot the film and we filled the theater with fans, we tried many things," Ortega said. "We wanted to make sure the callbacks didn't make it the way of telling a story but that historic the telling of a story. So together information technology was trial and mistake. Nosotros would try them, and we would say, 'That one actually works. That one actually supports the story. That one kind of gets in the mode and draws us back' and found a way to remainder the callbacks into the arc of our full story."
While some fan groups tried to create a script that audiences around the globe could follow, audience participation always became a sort of free for all. It'southward difficult to control a rowdy midnight crowd. The producers of Rocky Horror had final cut this time and chose the best audience participation moments.
"The callbacks are natural," Adler said. "You can't write them. Every bit in the commencement i, it's a space that was not left for a callback. Something in the dialogue or the visual just prompted the audience to either put on a hat when someone on the screen put on a hat or make a comment when Janet Weiss did. Information technology'southward just a purely natural sort of matter. You don't write them, as we never did for the original."
The Rocky Horror Picture Prove: Let's Do the Time Warp Againarrogance Thursday, October 20 at eight p.m. ET/7 p.k. CT on Trick
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Source: https://editorial.rottentomatoes.com/article/rocky-horror-11-reasons-to-do-the-time-warp-again/
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