UK ©1987 Castle Communications PLC (DOJOLP 54)
Released by Dojo Records
EAN: 5013428020548
LP reissue with new cover artwork. Licensed from UK Records.
Side 1
Side 2
Missing songs: "Charles Atlas Song", "Charles Atlas Song (Reprise)", "Eddie's Teddy", "Planet Schmanet, Janet".
LP Front Cover 750x747 JPEG, 271 KB | LP Back Cover 750x747 JPEG, 329 KB | LP Disc Label Side One 749x750 JPEG, 325 KB | LP Disc Label Side Two 749x750 JPEG, 272 KB |
Richard O'Brien's spangled piece of erotic fantasy is so funny, so fast, so sexy and so unexpectedly well realized that one is in danger of merely applauding it without assessing it. That would be a pity. Because besides enjoying the whole non-stop 90-minute entertainment hugely, I believe Mr. O'Brien has something quite nifty to say about the present state of nostalgia. He has taken all the innocent kitsch fantasies of the 50s - horror movies, Charles Atlas muscle-bound ads, sequined pop stars - and turned them into the high camp sensuality of the 70s. The magic wand he uses is the maxim: Don't dream it; be it.
Thus the familiar horror kingpin of the piece is transformed into a gloriously imperious transvestite. Instead of sucking the blood of his innocent victims (that well worn sex-substitute of yore) he does the real thing and deals them fates worse than death. The effect on Brad and Janet, an all-American teenage pre-Pill couple, is something akin to the liberation that Mrs. Whitehouse, Canute-like, is at this moment trying to hold back. From Bill Haley to David Bowie is one hell of a time leap. Mr. O'Brien measures it effortlessly, illuminatingly, and wittily.
'I made you - and I can break you,' snaps the Master (Tim Curry, all suspenders and suspense) to Rocky Horror, his muscular man-made slave (Rayner Bourton in a G-string). It speaks wonders for Jim Sharman's vivid direction which takes the action round, up and over his audience, that, for all its highly sensual ambiance as a piece, it is far too joky to ever be accused of practicing the corruptions it pretends to preach.
Book, Music, & Lyrics by Richard O'Brien
Produced and Directed by Jonathan King for UK Records
Richard Hartley - Piano and Organ
Count Iain Blair - Guitar, Electric and Acoustic
Dennis Cowan - Bass Guitar
Martin Fitzgibbon - Drums
Phil Kenzie - Sax
Narrator - Jonathan Adams
Frank-N-Furter - Tim Curry
Riff-Raff - Richard O'Brien
Brad Majors - Christopher Malcolm
Janet Weiss - Belinda Sinclair
Rocky Horror - Rayner Bourton
Magenta and Usherette - Patricia Quinn
Columbia - Little Nell
Eddie and Dr. Evrett Scott - Paddy O'Hagan
Director - Jim Sharman
Designer - Brian Thomson
Costumes - Sue Blane
Producer - Michael White
Arranger - Richard Hartley
Copyright © 1997 - 2024 Shawn McHorse. Send comments to shawn@rockymusic.org.