‘Rocky Horror Picture Show’ Arranger Richard Hartley Looks Back on 50 Years: ‘It’s Liberated a Lot of People’

Fifty years ago, The Rocky Horror Picture Show — a sci-fi/horror-flavored philharmonic drama based connected a deed signifier play — pranced onto metallic screens and fell level connected its painted face. “It was a turkey,” concedes composer Richard Hartley, who arranged the people for the archetypal London signifier accumulation and the 1975 film.

Before getting carved up for leftovers, that turkey was relegated to midnight screenings successful New York City and Austin, wherever the gender-bending, transgressive emotion missive to aged b-movies began attracting an assemblage dissimilar thing the satellite had ever seen. People saw it not once, not twice, but implicit and over, often dressing up arsenic the characters and hurling things — toast, rice, puns, obscenities — astatine the screen. “Now, radical spell spot it hundreds of times,” Hartley says of the film, which, remarkably, is inactive playing successful constricted theaters, making it the longest-running theatrical merchandise successful America ever.

Throughout this October, the cult movie to crown each cult films is playing successful a caller 4k restoration (also connected Blu-ray/digital) passim the country, including a screening astatine the Grammy Museum successful Los Angeles connected Oct. 15. On Friday (Oct. 10), a 50th day vinyl variation of the soundtrack hits shelves. Lou Adler — who brought The Rocky Horror Show from the West End to U.S. stages backmost successful 1974 and past co-produced the movie — tapped originative manager David Gorman to comb done archival worldly and plan Rocky’s aureate day package. “You cognize those videos of creation restoration wherever someone’s sitting determination with a Q-Tip going done an lipid coating 1 millimeter astatine a time?” asks Gorman. “(It’s) a batch of that.” The effect “completely respects the archetypal artwork, but conscionable enhances it,” helium adds of the acquainted yet caller edition.

This gold-foil overgarment variation besides includes accumulation diary excerpts and antecedently unseen photos courtesy of Hartley. The English composer precocious hopped connected a Zoom with Billboard to time-warp backmost to the ‘70s and locomotion america done his relationship with Rocky Horror mastermind Richard O’Brien and spill immoderate secrets of the Frankenstein place.

I privation to commencement astatine the beginning. You met Richard O’Brien done Jesus Christ Superstar, is that correct?

It was conscionable aft that. I met the director, Jim Sharman [of a 1972 accumulation of Jesus Christ Superstar at London’s Palace Theatre; Sharman aboriginal directed The Rocky Horror Picture Show]. I auditioned the singers for Jesus Christ Superstar because the philharmonic manager was a person of mine; helium was astir 40 years older than me, and helium said, “You know, I deliberation you’ll beryllium amended astatine uncovering voices that are somewhat much contemporary.” Jim was doing a Sam Shepard play, and Richard was an histrion successful it, and helium wanted maine to constitute immoderate euphony for it. So that’s however we met.

What was your archetypal content of Richard?

Well, helium looked a spot strange, frankly. This quality helium played successful the Sam Shepard play was a unusual quality arsenic well. Anyway, we got on. He told Jim that he’d written this benignant of musical. So we went circular to his location rather precocious 1 nighttime and helium played america “Science Fiction” and past helium played “Sweet Transvestite.” It was ...