2016 Lets Do the Time Warp Again

The Rocky Horror Picture Evidence has long been a go-to example of how to pervert traditions and expectations with a knowing smiling (and splashy musical numbers, besides). From its debut on a tiny London stage in 1973 to its subsequent 1975 motion-picture show adaptation starring Susan Sarandon and Tim Curry, the moving-picture show'due south ensuing cult classic status, and the thousands of midnight screenings that are still held worldwide each year, the horror one-act has ever been a legendary celebration of army camp and deviant pleasure.

Fast-forrad to 2016, where Fox has been teasing its own version of Rocky Horror (subtitle: Allow'south Practise t he Time Warp Again) for more than a year now, capitalizing on the tendency of TV networks staging their own musicals. Information technology trumpeted the casting of Laverne Cox (Orange Is the New Black) as Dr. Frank N. Furter, the role Back-scratch played so memorably in the film. It added official youth correspondents like Nickelodeon vet Victoria Justice as Janet, the role originally played by Sarandon. It opted non to exercise a live staging of the original musical, the better to embrace the grand and incredibly weird possibilities Rocky Horror holds.

Those grand and incredibly weird possibilities mean that to make the musical feel deadening would require some existent sanitizing attempt. But stripping Rocky Horror of its specialness is just near the only matter Play tricks'due south accommodation commits to without reservation.

The story, as you may recall, is pretty simple: Brad and Janet are a clean-cutting pair of young lovers who stumble into a castle later on their car breaks downwardly on a dark and stormy night. There, they meet a fun-loving bunch of out-and-proud "Transylvanian" freaks who spend the residual of the evening chipping away at the couple's prim and proper worldview by introducing them to a feisty world full of sex appeal, gender-bending characters, and lustful smirks dripping with acidic charisma.

Unfortunately, Fox'due south version of Rocky Horror is a hesitant mashup of the stage and film versions that somehow manages to extinguish the spark of both.

On the one mitt, I could've expected as much, given that Let's Do the Fourth dimension Warp Once again was made for a major circulate network, despite its historically risqué subject area affair. While it's true that gender has never been viewed as more fluid than it is today, primetime television programming is still at the mercy of advertiser concerns and wary parents. And this project in particular was directed by Kenny Ortega, the man behind the fairy-tale witch romp Hocus Pocus and Disney'southward squeaky clean Loftier School Musical trilogy; "gender kink" isn't exactly his jam.

Just on the other hand, I had tentatively higher hopes. Songwriter Richard O'Brien's original Rocky Horror Bear witness was a transgressive revelation when it debuted, cheers to the style it ripped the curtains off a gleefully unrestrained subculture. Even if recreating it on circulate TV in 2016 couldn't capture that initial thrill, the potential was there to adapt information technology in a style that would more directly challenge the nowadays-mean solar day status quo.

Instead, Let's Do the Time Warp Again is a sterile facsimile of Rocky Horror'due south original camp, filtered through the lens of Party City's least inspired Halloween aisle. Here are its three biggest letdowns, ranked from least to most egregious.

Let's Practice the Time Warp Again tries to honor Rocky Horror's legacy with a truly dumb framing device

Rocky Horror famously lives on far beyond the confines of the phase and screen, in the course of frequent screenings of the original film accommodation. These events often double as costume trip the light fantastic parties where screaming along to the music and even throwing things at the screen isn't just accepted only encouraged.

This kind of agile participation in the musical'south legacy kept Rocky Horror relevant for years beyond its seemingly short shelf life as an artifact of the burgeoning sexual revolution, enticing generations into Frank's creepy-absurd lair of horrors. Then information technology makes sense that Play tricks's version would want to wink at this tradition somehow — but it lacks the imagination to do it in an interesting way.

As Let's Practice the Time Warp Again begins, a perky "usherette" (Ivy Levan) croons the musical'south opening song of "Science Fiction — Double Feature" as she preps a crowd of Rocky Horror superfans to sit down downwardly and watch the movie unfold.

The crowd then pops up sporadically throughout the rest of the bear witness, sometimes throwing things at the screen and egging on the doe-eyed Janet with ecstatic sneers. But the juxtaposition never really makes sense, coming off as a halfhearted try to bring some meta-commentary into the mix.

Even worse, viewers who try to watch without any noesis of the source material will probable exist lost within minutes.

This needlessly complicated framing also brings another aspect of the production into stark relief. Everything from the apartment sets to the stilted acting to the lamé costumes makes Ortega's Rocky Horror feels like it takes identify at a heart school trip the light fantastic.

Choosing to not stage a alive production — as Fox did pretty successfully with Grease earlier this year — means that Rocky Horror didn't have to consider the practicality of revolving sets and the ups and downs of performers acting in real time. So why isn't this pretaped movie more than ambitious in its staging, choreography, or direction?

Then again, if Fob wanted to put on a live Rocky Horror, information technology would've had to expect elsewhere for its cast.

Rocky Horror needs a rock-solid cast to sell its lunacy. This version doesn't have it.

Dainty try, though!

Fox

O'Brien'southward energetic and eccentric vision requires a cast that can commit to every ounce of weirdness. It needs actors who tin titillate and seduce, giggle and smirk, and launch themselves headlong into the Transylvanians' bizarro globe.

Fox's Rocky Horror probably could've looked a fleck harder for people to fit this description.

In that location are some vivid spots, similar Adam Lambert'south brief flash every bit Ed and Broadway veteran Ben Vereen stepping in every bit Dr. Scott. But this Rocky Horror withal stumbles in casting its most iconic roles — which is a shame, especially in the case of Cox, whose casting signaled a refreshing willingness on the production's office to welcome transgender talent where many similar productions all the same would not.

Though Frank is meant to exist the seductive anchor of the bear witness (and more on Frank in a minute), ane of the biggest letdowns is Justice's Janet. She should be the musical's lightning rod, the wide-eyed ingénue whose blossoming sexuality equally viewed through the Transylvanians' eyes defines the trajectory of half the show.

Where Sarandon — a titanic predecessor, to exist sure — managed to play Janet's innocence and her simmering desire simultaneously, Justice only shows off a single peppy gear. In Justice's hands, Janet'due south shifting affections for Brad (a decent Ryan McCartan), Frank, and Rocky (Staz Nair) simply come out of nowhere.

(Justice is at least improve than Christina Milian's manic Magenta, who displays a talent for bringing things to a screeching halt with a unmarried clunker of a histrionic line delivery.)

And then in that location'south Cox as Dr. Frank N. Furter.

To be clear: Cox gives this function everything she'southward got, and is frequently great. She snarls at both Brad and Janet's squareness and Frank's own Transylvanian creations with a vicious glee, stalking around the castle with a supermodel strut.

But that supermodel strut is too the trouble with Cox'southward portrayal of Frank and the way Ortega'southward production treats the grapheme. Ultimately, it'south the straw that breaks Rocky'south back.

Let's Do t he Fourth dimension Warp Over again sucks all the transgressive, hypersexual fun out of Rocky Horror

Nell Campbell, Patricia Quinn, Tim Curry, and Richard O'Brien in the original Rocky Horror movie.

Twentieth Century Fob

Instead of trying to reframe Rocky Horror in a way that could resonate with 2016 audiences, Let's Practice the Time Warp Once again lacks whatever sense of time or place, somehow managing to both slavishly copy the original and fail to generate any of its spark. Brad and Janet are all the same bland goody two-shoes in church gloves, only the Transylvanians now expect and human action similar leering theater kids in Hot Topic castoffs.

And crucially, this version of Rocky Horror doesn't seem to experience comfy doing the one thing Rocky Horror should do best: queering the fuck out of anybody and everything in its path past subverting every gender and sexuality expectation you might take.

Sure, there'southward Cox's Frank, but as Diversity's Sonia Saraiya points out, the actress plays Frank every bit a decidedly feminine character, fifty-fifty though i of Frank's defining qualities is that he'south a relentlessly gender-fucked weirdo. Cox's Frank is just also glamorous, as well meticulously stunning, to be truly weird.

Without Frank straddling gender lines, the character's creation of an Adonis Rocky and seduction of Brad isn't virtually the queer revelation it could be. The production'southward queerest moment necessarily becomes Frank's flirtation with Janet, only it's more of a sidebar than a defining feature.

When Brad and Janet throw themselves into the Transylvanians' comprehend, it's supposed to be a triumphant moment that shows off their willingness to step outside their comfort zone. In this stilted version, though, it feels more like Pull a fast one on is ticking off a "Yep, this moment happened in the original" box.

Any good Rocky Horror production knows that its electrical thrill lies in turning shock value into an art grade. It knows the original version wasn't but revolutionary because it was overtly ridiculous and sexual, but considering information technology was defiant rejection of the postwar era's properness (represented past Brad and Janet slowly shedding their pastel wearing apparel). It knows that Frank N. Furter'southward seductive ability lies in peeling back your ain outward propriety to find whatsoever layers of depravity might be lurking underneath.

It'due south a shame that Fob's Disneyfied adaptation doesn't seem aware of any of these things.

Rocky Horror Motion-picture show Show: Let's Practice the Fourth dimension Warp Again airs Thursday, October 20 , at 8 pm on Fox.

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Source: https://www.vox.com/culture/2016/10/20/13317664/fox-rocky-horror-picture-show-review-laverne-cox

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