''The Rocky Horror Picture Show: Let's Do the Time Warp Again'' (also known as ''The Rocky Horror Picture Show Event'' and ''The Rocky Horror Picture Show'') is a 2016 American

musical Musical is the adjective of music. Musical may also refer to: * Musical theatre, a performance art that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance * Musical film and television, a genre of film and television that incorporates into the narr ...

comedy Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term o ...

television film A television film, alternatively known as a television movie, made-for-TV film/movie or TV film/movie, is a feature-length film that is produced and originally distributed by or to a television network, in contrast to theatrical films made for ...

. It is a tribute to and

remake A remake is a film, television series, video game, song or similar form of entertainment that is based upon and retells the story of an earlier production in the same medium—e.g., a "new version of an existing film". A remake tells the same ...

of the

cult classic A cult following refers to a group of fans who are highly dedicated to some person, idea, object, movement, or work, often an artist, in particular a performing artist, or an artwork in some medium. The lattermost is often called a cult classic. ...

1975 film of the same name and directed by

Kenny Ortega Kenneth John Ortega (born April 18, 1950) is an American filmmaker, touring manager, and choreographer. He is known for directing the films '' Newsies'', '' Hocus Pocus'', ''The Cheetah Girls 2'', ''High School Musical'', ''Michael Jackson's Th ...

, using the original script written by

Richard O'Brien Richard Timothy Smith. known professionally as Richard O'Brien, is a British-New Zealand actor, writer, musician, composer, and television presenter. He wrote the musical stage show ''The Rocky Horror Show'' in 1973, which has remained in conti ...

and

Jim Sharman James David Sharman (born 12 March 1945) is an Australian director and writer for film and stage with more than 70 productions to his credit. He is renowned in Australia for his work as a theatre director from the 1960s to the present, and is b ...

. Starring an

ensemble cast In a dramatic production, an ensemble cast is one that is composed of multiple principal actors and performers who are typically assigned roughly equal amounts of screen time.Random House: ensemble acting Linked 2013-07-17 Structure In contrast to ...

led by

Laverne Cox Laverne Cox (born May 29, 1972) is an American actress and LGBT advocate. She rose to prominence with her role as Sophia Burset on the Netflix series ''Orange Is the New Black'', becoming the first transgender person to be nominated for a Pri ...

, the film premiered on the

Fox Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelve sp ...

network on October 20, 2016.

Plot

The plot of the tribute is fundamentally identical to the original film, with some additional scenes wrapped around the film. These scenes show several people attending a theatrical showing of ''The Rocky Horror Picture Show'', and subsequently are used to introduce some of the audience participation elements from the original film (such as throwing toilet paper on the line "Great Scott!").

Cast

as Dr. Frank-N-Furter, the Mad Scientist. *

Victoria Justice Victoria Dawn Justice (born February 19, 1993) is an American actress and singer. She has received several accolades, including two Young Artist Awards and nominations for three Imagen Awards, an NAACP Image Award, and three Kids' Choice Awar ...

as Janet Weiss, the Heroine * Ryan McCartan as Brad Majors, the Hero * Annaleigh Ashford as Columbia, the Groupie *

Adam Lambert Adam Mitchel Lambert (born January 29, 1982) is an American singer and songwriter. Since 2009, he has sold over 3 million albums and 5 million singles worldwide. Lambert is known for his dynamic vocal performances that fuse his theatrical tra ...

as Eddie, the Ex-Delivery Boy *

Reeve Carney Reeve Jefferson Carney (born April 18, 1983) is an American actor and singer-songwriter. He is best known for originating the role of Peter Parker/Spider-Man in '' Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark'' on Broadway and playing Orpheus in the original B ...

as Riff-Raff, the Handyman *

Christina Milian Christine Marie Flores (born September 26, 1981), better known as Christina Milian (), is an American actress and singer. Born in Jersey City, New Jersey, but raised in Maryland, she signed a contract with Murder Inc. Records at the age of 19. ...

as Magenta, the Domestic Servant *

Staz Nair Staz Nair is a British actor and singer. He is known for his roles on the TV series ''Game of Thrones'' and ''Supergirl''. Life and career Nair is of Malayali and Russian descent. He was a part of the band Times Red. The band were contestants ...

as Rocky Horror, Frank's Creation *

Ivy Levan Ivy Rose Levan (born January 20, 1987) is an American singer, songwriter, model and actress from Bentonville, Arkansas. At 16, Levan moved to Los Angeles to pursue a music career, eventually signing to Cherrytree Records and Interscope Records. ...

as Trixie, the Usherette *

Ben Vereen Benjamin Augustus Vereen (born October 10, 1946) is an American actor, dancer and singer. Vereen gained prominence for his performances in the original Broadway productions of the musicals '' Jesus Christ Superstar'', for which he received a To ...

as Dr. Everett von Scott, the Rival Scientist *

Tim Curry Timothy James Curry (born 19 April 1946) is an English actor and singer. He rose to prominence for his portrayal of Dr. Frank-N-Furter in the film ''The Rocky Horror Picture Show'' (1975), reprising the role he had originated in the 1973 London ...

as the Narrator/Criminologist (Curry famously portrayed Dr. Frank-N-Furter in the original film). *

Jayne Eastwood Jayne Eastwood (born December 17, 1946), also credited as Jane Easton or Jane Eastwood, is a Canadian actress and comedian. She is best known for her film roles as Anna-Marie Biddlecoff in the comedy film ''Finders Keepers'' (1984), Judy the Wai ...

as The Butler * Jeff Lillico as Ralph Hapschatt * Kelly Van der Burg as Betty Hapschatt-Munroe *

Sal Piro Salvatore Francis Martin Piro (June 29, 1950 – January 22, 2023) was an American actor who was the president of ''The Rocky Horror Picture Show'' Fan Club, a position he held from 1977 until his death. Piro was a part of the original Waverly ...

as The Photographer

Musical numbers

# "

Science Fiction/Double Feature "Science Fiction/Double Feature" is the opening song to the original 1973 musical stage production, ''The Rocky Horror Show'' as well as its 1975 film counterpart ''The Rocky Horror Picture Show'', book, music and lyrics by Richard O'Brien, music ...

" - Trixie # "

Dammit Janet "Dammit Janet" is a song/musical number in the original 1973 British musical stage production, ''The Rocky Horror Show'' as well as its 1975 film counterpart ''The Rocky Horror Picture Show'', book, music and lyrics by Richard O'Brien, musical a ...

" - Brad, Janet, and Chorus # " There's a Light (Over at the Frankenstein Place)" - Janet, Brad, Riff Raff, and Chorus # " The Time Warp" - Riff Raff, Magenta, The Criminologist, Columbia, and Transylvanians # "

Sweet Transvestite "Sweet Transvestite" is a song from the 1973 British musical stage production ''The Rocky Horror Show'' and its 1975 film counterpart ''The Rocky Horror Picture Show''. The song is performed by the character, Dr Frank N. Furter, originally played ...

" - Frank # "The Sword of Damocles" - Rocky # "I Can Make You a Man" - Frank # "Hot Patootie – Bless My Soul" - Eddie # "I Can Make You a Man" (reprise) - Frank, Janet, and Transylvanians # "Touch-a, Touch-a, Touch-a, Touch Me" - Janet with Magenta, Columbia, and Rocky # "Once in a While" ('' extended cut'') - Brad # "Eddie" - Dr. Scott, The Criminologist, Janet, Frank, and Columbia # "Planet Schmanet Janet (Wise Up Janet Weiss)" - Frank, Janet, Brad, and Dr. Scott # "Rose Tint My World" - Columbia, Rocky, Janet, and Brad # "Fanfare/Don't Dream It, Be It" - Frank # "Wild and Untamed Thing" - Frank and Riff Raff # "I'm Going Home" - Frank # "The Time Warp" (reprise) - Riff Raff and Magenta # "Super Heroes" - Brad, Janet, and Chorus # "Science Fiction/Double Feature" (reprise) - Trixie and Eddie

Production

Laverne Cox at Paley Fest Orange Is The New Black

Plans for a remake at Fox date back to 2002, when a 2003 release date was under consideration to mark the 30-year anniversary of the play which spawned the film, a remake for which former

Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street **Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...

producer

Gail Berman Gail Berman (born August 17, 1956) is an American producer and television executive. She is co-owner and founding partner of The Jackal Group, a production entity formed in partnership with Fox Networks Group. The Jackal Group develops and produc ...

would have been involved as co-producer. MTV had also planned a remake, set for 2008 and for which Berman was again tapped to produce, but those plans also fell through. On April 10, 2015, it was announced that

, best known for directing the film '' Hocus Pocus'', the ''High School Musical'' trilogy, and ''

Michael Jackson's This Is It ''Michael Jackson's This Is It'' is a 2009 American documentary–concert film about Michael Jackson's rehearsals and preparation for This Is It (concert residency), the concert series of the same name scheduled to start on July 13, 2009, at ...

'', would direct the remake. On October 21, 2015,

Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...

nominee Laverne Cox, best known for her role as prisoner Sophia Burset on

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...

's prison comedy-drama ''

Orange Is the New Black ''Orange Is the New Black'' (sometimes abbreviated to ''OITNB'') is an American comedy-drama streaming television series created by Jenji Kohan for Netflix. The series is based on Piper Kerman's memoir '' Orange Is the New Black: My Year in a Wo ...

'', joined the cast to play Dr. Frank-N-Furter, the mad-scientist role originated by

in the 1970s.

Lou Adler Lester Louis Adler (born December 13, 1933) is an American record and film producer and the co-owner of the Roxy Theatre in West Hollywood, California. Adler has produced and developed a number of iconic musical artists, including The Grass Ro ...

, who produced the original film, also co-produced the remake, along with Gail Berman and Kenny Ortega; Ortega choreographed the film in addition to directing and producing. The creative team planned "to stick faithfully to the text and the score of the original but greatly re-imagine the story visually". Much of the film was shot at

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

Casa Loma Casa Loma (improper Spanish for "Hill House") is a Gothic Revival castle-style mansion and garden in midtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada, that is now a historic house museum and landmark. It was constructed from 1911 to 1914 as a residence for fina ...

, being used for both Frank N. Furter's castle and the "Castle" movie theatre where the audience participation scenes and

's performance of "

" were filmed. A theatre marquee was temporarily erected at the front entrance for these scenes. An unreleased virtual reality experience was in development at the time. A 360-degree video camera rig can be seen in a behind-the-scenes video released by Fox during a marketing promotion. However, the project was stopped for unknown reasons.

Release

The world premiere of the film was on October 18, 2016 at

MIPCOM MIPCOM (Marché International des Programmes de Communication, English: International Market of Communications Programmes) is an annual trade show held in the French town of Cannes, traditionally in the month of October and running for 4 days. It ...

. The film premiered on Fox on October 20, 2016. The first 25 minutes of the film were screened at

San Diego Comic-Con San Diego Comic-Con International is a comic book convention and nonprofit multi-genre entertainment event held annually in San Diego, California since 1970. The name, as given on its website, is Comic-Con International: San Diego; but it is co ...

, as well as RKO Con 2, a Rocky Horror convention in Providence, Rhode Island. ''The Rocky Horror Picture Show: Let's Do the Time Warp Again'' was released on DVD on December 6, 2016. An extended cut of the film was included featuring deleted scenes and the frequently excised song "Once in a While", as sung by Brad.

Reception

Viewership

The movie drew 4.95 million viewers, with a 1.7 rating and a 6 share in the 18-49 demographic.

Critical reception

The special received mixed to negative reviews, although Cox's performance was mostly praised. Many critics agreed that the production would have been better if it were live, raising questions why Fox decided not to do it live, given the success the network had with '' Grease: Live''. On

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, it has a 28% score based on 40 reviews; the critical consensus states, "Laverne Cox's fabulous portrayal of Frank N. Furter leads a strong ensemble effort, but the stars can't infuse this reimagining with enough energy, creativity, and quirk to make ''TRHPS: Let's Do the Time Warp Again'' a worthwhile endeavor." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, the film has a 55 out of 100 rating, based on 23 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Esther Zuckerman of ''

The A.V. Club ''The A.V. Club'' is an American online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was cre ...

'' felt that the remake focused too much on the weirdness in the original film without acknowledging the campiness it had been filmed with. Viewers who had never seen the original film would be confused by the movie-within-a-movie approach used in the remake. Matt Tamanini of Broadwayworld.com said that the remake "was a strikingly disappointing missed opportunity" that "felt far more like a production on ''

Glee Glee means delight, a form of happiness. Glee may also refer to: * Glee (music), a type of English choral music * ''Glee'' (TV series), an American musical comedy-drama TV series, and related media created by Ryan Murphy * ''Glee'' (Bran Van 30 ...

'' than the actual production of ''Rocky Horror'' on ''Glee'' did", although he did praise the casting of Cox, saying "In the long history of ''The Rocky Horror Show'', the musical has broken down doors and helped pave the way for an era of LGBT acceptance. So for Cox to step into Tim Curry's iconic fishnets is a victory in its own right."

Awards

The program was nominated for the

GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding TV Movie or Limited Series The GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding TV Movie or Limited Series is one of the annual GLAAD Media Awards which is offered to the best LGBT-related television limited series or movie. At the 31st GLAAD Media Awards, the award was split and honore ...

International broadcasts

The film was scheduled to be broadcast in

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

TV3 Channel 3 or TV 3 may refer to: Television *Canal 3 (Burkina Faso), a commercial television channel in Burkina Faso *Canal 3 (Guatemala), a commercial television channel in Guatemala *Channel 3 (Algeria), a public Algerian TV channel owned by EPTV ...

on October 24, 2016, three days after its original broadcast. In UK, the film was first broadcast on October 28, 2016 on Sky Cinema Premiere.

References

External links

*
''The Rocky Horror Picture Show: Let's Do the Time Warp Again''
at

2016 film teaser
at

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...

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