"It's hard to believe that " The Rocky Horror Picture Show" - the most successful midnight movie ever made - could have been "misinterpreted" by its devoted fanbase for decades. And yet, as the iconic glam rock musical approaches its 50th anniversary this year, that debate is raging on. Like, a storm of line-dancers... tapping fierce thunder... over a mad scientist's... slutty little castle."
""I might have to take some blame for that," said screenwriter Richard O'Brien, who raised the issue with the New York Post last week. The 83-year-old actor (who also plays Riff Raff) wrote "Rocky Horror" as a stage musical over a single winter in London in 1973. Two years later, at the world premiere for the film adaptation at the Royal Court Theater on August 14, 1975, he may have confused an editor."
"Guests started to leave before the finale was finished, and O'Brien wanted to prevent that by trimming an instrumental section. "The next thing I see, they've cut both Brad and Janet's songs," he said. "That's the way it showed for an awfully long time, unfortunately." Performed by a bloody Susan Sarandon and a muddy Barry Bostwick, the melancholy "Super Heroes" song is the main event that got the axe."
Richard O'Brien acknowledged possible responsibility after an edited premiere print deleted Brad and Janet's songs and trimmed an instrumental, removing the melancholic 'Super Heroes' finale. The U.S. print that became popular replaced the ending with an upbeat 'Time Warp' reprise over the credits, changing the film's tone. Jim Sharman suspects studio tinkering also contributed to the deletion. The stage musical originated in London in 1973, and the film premiered at the Royal Court Theater on August 14, 1975. The altered ending helped shape the midnight-movie audience tradition.
Read at IndieWire
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