The Rocky Horror Show

The Rocky Horror Show
1974 poster at Kings Road Theatre
Music	Richard O'Brien
Lyrics	Richard O'Brien
Book	Richard O'Brien
Productions	1973 West End 1974 Los Angeles 1974 Sydney 1974 Copenhagen 1974–76 Madrid (dir. Gil Carretero) 1975 Broadway 1975 Film 1975 Rio de Janeiro (dir. Rubens Corrêa) 1975 Paris 1975 Japanese Tour 1975 Buenos Aires (dir. Gil Carretero) 1975 Melbourne 1976 Toronto 1976 Amsterdam 1976 Japanese Encore Tour 1976 Mexico City 1977 Adelaide 1977 Barcelona 1977–78 Oslo 1978 New Zealand Tour 1978 Wagga Wagga (first Australian regional production) 1978 Brisbane 1978 Belgium 1978 Jericho, New York 1979 UK Tour 1980 Essen (dir. Walter Bockmayer) 1980 US Tour 1980 Germany 1981 Wagga Wagga 1981–82 Australian Tour 1983–84 Belgium Revival 1984 UK Tour 1990 West End Revival 1991 UK Tour 1992 Australian Tour 1994 UK Tour 1994 Buenos Aires 1996 Australian Tour 1996–2000 European Tour 1997 Hong Kong Tour 1997 Barcelona 1998 Sydney Revival 1998 UK Tour 1999 Los Angeles Revival 1999-2007 Poland (dir. Marcel Kochańczyk) 2000 Broadway Revival 2002 UK Tour 2002 St. Louis 2003 Copenhagen Revival 2004 Brisbane Revival 2004 Neighbours Charity Concert, Melbourne 2006 Tribute Concert, London 2006 UK Tour 2008 Sydney Revival 2008–09 Melbourne Revival 2008–09 European Tour 2009 UK Tour 2010 35th Anniversary Benefit Performance, Los Angeles 2010 Glee Tribute Episode 2010 Seoul 2010 New Zealand Tour 2012 Singapore Revival 2013 UK Tour 2014–15 Australian Tour 2014–15 European Tour 2015 40th Anniversary Live Cinema Broadcast 2016 UK Tour 2016 Television Film 2016 Buenos Aires 2016 São Paulo 2017 Buenos Aires 2017–18 Australian Encore Tour 2018 Stratford Festival 2019 UK Tour 2019–20 South Africa Tour 2021–22 UK Tour 2021 Live Cinema Broadcast 2021 Hobart, Australia 2023–24 Australian Tour 2023 West End Revival 2023 Cambridge, Massachusetts 2024 Lido Paris
Awards	Evening Standard Award for Best Musical

The Rocky Horror Show is a musical with music, lyrics and book by Richard O'Brien. A humorous tribute to various B movies associated with the science fiction and horror genres from the 1930s to the early 1960s, the musical tells the story of a newly engaged couple getting caught in a storm and coming to the home of a mad transvestite scientist, Dr Frank-N-Furter, unveiling his new creation, Rocky, a sort of Frankenstein-style monster in the form of an artificially made, fully grown, physically perfect muscle man complete "with blond hair and a tan".

The show was produced and directed by Jim Sharman. The original London production of the musical was premièred at the Royal Court Theatre (Upstairs) on 19 June 1973 (after two previews on 16 and 18 June 1973). It later moved to several other locations in London and closed on 13 September 1980. The show ran for a total of 2,960 performances and won the 1973 Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Musical. Songs in the musical include "Time Warp" (co-written by O'Brien and Richard Hartley), while the costumes were designed by Sue Blane. Its 1974 debut in the US in Los Angeles had a successful nine-month run, but its 1975 Broadway debut at the Belasco Theatre lasted only three previews and forty-five showings, despite earning one Tony nomination and three Drama Desk nominations. Various international productions have since spanned across six continents as well as West End and Broadway revivals and eight UK tours. In 1991 it was nominated for the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Musical Revival. Actor Tim Curry, who originated the role of Dr. Frank-N-Furter in the original London production, became particularly associated with the musical.

The musical was adapted into the 1975 film The Rocky Horror Picture Show, starring O'Brien as Riff Raff, with Curry also reprising his role; the film has the longest-running release in film history. In 2016, it was adapted into the television film The Rocky Horror Picture Show: Let's Do the Time Warp Again. The musical was ranked eighth in a BBC Radio 2 listener poll of the "Nation's Number One Essential Musicals", and it featured on a commemorative stamp issued by the Royal Mail in 2011.

Beyond its cult status, The Rocky Horror Show is also widely said to have been an influence on countercultural and sexual liberation movements that followed on from the 1960s. It was one of the first popular musicals to depict fluid sexuality during a time of division between generations and a lack of sexual difference acceptance. Like the film adaptation, the musical is noted for a long-running tradition of audience participation through call-back lines and attending dressed up as characters from the show.^[1] On the 50th anniversary of the musical in 2023, BBC News states that since debuting in London in 1973 the "production has been performed in 20 different languages" and been "seen by 30 million people globally".^[1]