TV Time Warp: Fox to Produce Rocky Horror Show for Small Screen | Playbill

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News TV Time Warp: Fox to Produce Rocky Horror Show for Small Screen It's been a hit stage musical. It's been a cult film. Now, it's set for a TV production. The Rocky Horror Show will come to Fox TV under the tentative title "Rocky Horror Birthday Show."

  It's been a hit stage musical. It's been a cult film. Now, it's set for a TV production. The Rocky Horror Show will come to Fox TV under the tentative title "Rocky Horror Birthday Show."

Coinciding with the show's 30th anniversary — it debuted on the London stage in 1973 — Fox network and Fox TV plan to produce a new TV adaptation of the acclaimed work. Variety reports that Lou Adler, who produced the original Broadway mounting, will executive produce the TV version, which is aiming for a Feb. 2003 premiere.

Stephan Elliott — of "The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert" fame — will write and direct, and Richard O'Brien, who penned the musical's music, lyrics and book, will serve as a consultant and will also write one new tune for the Fox version. O'Brien, who starred as Riff Raff in the Jim Sharman directed film, will have a cameo role in the TV film as will other former cast members. Casting for the TV version has not been announced.

David Madden, who heads Fox TV Pictures, had this to say to Variety about the TV "Rocky Horror": "The reason to do this is to bring it to a generation who hasn't seen it and wouldn't necessarily go to the midnight shows at the Nuart. It's going to be revived by casting people who are contemporary and rearranging the music so it's contemporary. We're dressing the piece in clothes that will make it more entertaining and more accessible to a 2003 audience."

The Rocky Horror Show bowed in London in 1973. It played Broadway's Belasco Theatre from March 10, 1975 through April 5, 1975, with a cast led by Tim Curry, Jamie Donnelly and Meat Loaf. The 1975 film also cast Curry as Frank-N-Furter opposite Susan Sarandon's Janet Weiss and Barry Bostwick's Brad Majors. The recent, Tony-nominated revival at New York's Circle in the Square Theatre boasted a cast that comprised Dick Cavett, Lea DeLaria, Jarrod Emick, Tom Hewitt, Joan Jett, Alice Ripley, Daphne Rubin Vega, Raúl Esparza, Sebastian LaCause and Kevin Cahoon.

 
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