The Rocky Horror Picture Show hits 40: why is it still such a fan favourite?
Is it the jumps to the left or the steps to the right – or maybe it’s the pelvic thrusts? The cult classic’s co-writer and director Jim Sharman has his own theory
Jim Sharman is going through a bit of a time warp.
Sharman, 70, is a celebrated theatre and opera director in his native Australia with dozens of productions to his credit. He has been an artistic director of the Adelaide Festival of the Arts and was the creator of the Lighthouse theatre company, which focused on innovative staging of classic plays as well as works by new Australian playwrights.
But early in his career, Sharman was a lot more rock ’n’ roll, directing three seminal musicals – Hair in Australia, Tokyo and Boston; Jesus Christ Superstar in Australia and London; and most significantly, The Rocky Horror Show, a wacky, erotic sci-fi horror musical written and composed by actor Richard O’Brien, which opened in London in 1973 and played in Los Angeles, Sydney, Melbourne and New York.
In 1975, Sharman directed and co-wrote The Rocky Horror Picture Show, which 40 years after its release is still the ultimate midnight movie. Executive-produced by Lou Adler, who had seen the stage production, Rocky Horror was shot on a low budget at Bray Studios in England, the old Hammer horror film studios.
“It wasn’t such a smart move,” says Sharman, laughing. “There was no heating, and it was the middle of winter.”
Though he did direct the 1981 follow-up Shock Treatment, Sharman says that was enough involvement in anything Rocky Horror.
He returned to the Australian stage and never looked back.
Sharman rarely discusses Rocky Horror and hadn’t seen the film in more than a decade. But he recently watched it on Blu-ray before he left Sydney for a visit to Los Angeles. It made him reconsider the movie’s appeal.
