The 'Rocky Horror' revolution turns 50

Tim Curry looks back at the musical comedy that set off a cultural phenomenon

- BY STEVE APPLEFORD

TIM CURRY at the Roxy, where his role in underground theater production "The Rocky Horror Show" became a sensation.

The old stage at West Hollywood's Roxy Theatre looks as small as ever to Tim Curry.

Back in 1974, the actor spent nearly a year strutting across its boards in fishnets and a snug corset as Dr. Frank-N-Furter, the flamboyant, sexually ravenous mad scientist of the musical comedy "The Rocky Horror Show."

Witnesses to that run of performances still marvel at the spectacle of Curry's nightly entrance, as he marched from the lobby on a long catwalk, his high heels at eye level with the audience. He would then cast aside his Dracula cape to sing a personal theme song, "Sweet Transvestite."

"It's actually really nice to be here because it was another home for me," says Curry, 79, looking up at the empty stage inside the Sunset Strip nightclub. "It became my stomping ground. I had to appear as though I owned it — and I kind of did."

DR. FRANK-N-FURTER (Curry), a cross-dressing mad scientist, embodied the spirit of sexual freedom and experimentation that permeated popular culture in the 1970s.

(20th Century Fox)

At the end of that same year, Curry was back home in England to shoot the feature film version, "The Rocky Horror Picture Show," a rock 'n' roll send-up of old sci-fi and horror B-movies that became both a cult classic and a vibrant symbol for sexual freedom. It is the original midnight movie and is now being feted around the world for its 50th anniversary with a second life as the longest continuous theatrical release in cinema history.