It’s been 50 years since The Rocky Horror Picture Show first premiered at UA Theatre in Westwood. Lauded for its raunchiness, campiness, and cult following, Rocky Horror has solidified itself as a genre-defining classic and as an inspiration for countless other works over the years.
Rocky Horror premiered in the mid-1970s, at the tail end of a phase of anti-war counterculture. Disillusioned youths, unsatisfied with conservatism and the establishment, took on a new identity created through music, art, and liberation. The Rocky Horror Picture Show embodied that identity with its depictions of fluid gender and sexuality (unprecedented for the time).
Despite its current status as a cult classic, The Rocky Horror Picture Show’s journey to success was long and paved with pitfalls.
It began as a musical inspired by B-rated horror movies, British glam/punk rock culture, and creator Richard O’Brien’s attempts at an unsuccessful rock’n’roll portrayal of King Herod in Jesus Christ Superstar. With the added talents of Roger Sharmen (who had directed that Jesus Christ Superstar production) and Tim Curry (a previous cast-mate of O’Brien), the first showings of The Rocky Horror Show (with no Picture yet) opened to rave reviews, but the Broadway premiere unfortunately flopped.
When The Rocky Horror Picture Show movie opened in 1975, it was a brief success. However, misfortune struck Rocky yet again, and the nationwide premiere flopped.
But when executive producer Lou Adler visited the so-called failed screenings, he noticed the small audiences would come back again and again, singing along to songs like The Time Warp and Science Fiction.
A brief recut of the film later, its magic flourished; Rocky was a rousing success. It developed an avid cult following, with fans dressing in costume for midnight showings across the country.
The fan-base proceeded to grow exponentially. Beginning in the late 1970s, showings began to include “shadowcasts,” organized troupes of performers who would act out the movie as it played behind them. Audience participation, not just singing, but chants, call and response, even cast-antagonized rituals (like the famed “virgin sacrifice” for first-time Rocky-goers) became a traditional part of the Rocky Horror experience.
Today, The Rocky Horror Picture Show holds the record for the 3rd longest theatrical run in history. It’s been revived several times, for TV and theatrical specials. It takes on a new life at local theaters, college campuses, and even drive-in theaters (popular during COVID-19).
The Landmark Nuart Theatre in Los Angeles has been showing The Rocky Horror Picture Show every weekend for the last 40 years. Nico Fisher (playing Riff Raff) is a recent addition to the resident shadowcast, Sins O’ The Flesh. An avid Rocky Horror fan even before joining the cast, she grew up listening to the music and attending showings at the Nuart.
“It’s awesome getting to carry on the tradition and legacy,” says Fisher.
At the University of San Francisco, Elize Waters ’25 plays Janet. For her, The Rocky Horror Picture Show is a symbol of “new beginnings—of freedom, expression, drama”.
“It taught me to never stop being myself and to never apologize for who I am,” she says.
I was 15 the first time I saw The Rocky Horror Picture Show. I had zero idea what I was walking into then. But over the last 3 years, I’ve returned as many Saturday midnights as possible, just to relish in the energy of the Rocky Horror community.
It’s pushed me further out of my comfort zone than I ever thought possible, and as a result, I’ve met so many wonderful people through my Rocky Horror Picture Show adventures.
There’s something very uniquely beautiful about these safe spaces for fun and open-mindedness to have persisted for 50 years, in hundreds of places, across thousands of miles.
