When Broadway talent does interviews while in the midst of previews, they’ll usually answer the phone in the oddest places. Like a staircase, because that’s the quietest spot for a quick chat. Or their dressing rooms. Or on a walk back to the theater. On a March afternoon, Sam Pinkleton is in the middle of eating his lunch when he answers my Zoom call, seated on the floor next to the seats in Studio 54.
As the Tony-winning director and choreographer puts his food to the side, I tell him I’ve seen Oh, Mary four times (the show he directed, with star and creator Cole Escola, featuring Tituss Burgess, Jane Krakowski, John Cameron Mitchell, and others in the title role). He jokingly says, “We have to get you a prescription to fix whatever’s broken inside of you.” To Pinkleton, and to audiences with taste, he agrees with my inference on the connection between Oh, Mary and his latest project opening on Broadway, Richard O'Brien's The Rocky Horror Show. The best comedy is the stupidest, but you have to be smart to do stupid well.
Related: Luke Evans talks 'dream' Broadway debut in The Rocky Horror Show
“Richard O’Brien [the writer behind the original Rocky Horror stage show] gave me an incredible piece of advice: ‘Just do it simply with good actors,’” Pinkleton says. “He was like, ‘Just take it seriously.’ And there’s nothing more joyous than taking glitter, corsets, jockstraps, and aliens seriously. That feels political.”
The long list of Rocky Horror’s formidable actors shows exactly how seriously the creatives behind the scenes are taking this show. The West End’s Luke Evans is taking on Dr. Frank-N-Furter in his Broadway debut; Tony Award-nominees Andrew Durand and Amber Gray are Brad and Riff Raff, respectively; Emmy nominees Rachel Dratch and Juliette Lewis are the Narrator and Magenta; Golden Globe-winner Michaela Jaé Rodriguez is Columbia; Academy Award nominee Stephanie Hsu is Janet; What We Do in the Shadows’s Harvey Guillén is Eddie and Dr. Scott; and Josh Rivera is Rocky.
Amber Gray as Riff Raff, Juliette Lewis as Magenta, Michaela Jaé Rodriguez as Columbia, Andrew Durand as BradJoan Marcus
Pinkleton started working on the idea of reviving Rocky Horror back in 2018, before Oh, Mary! was even a glimmer in Escola’s eye. He was given the opportunity to direct a show at San Francisco’s American Conservatory Theater in 2020. And two days before rehearsals started, the Covid-19 pandemic shut the world down. Pinkleton picked the idea back up before Escola’s runaway Broadway hit. And nearly two years after Oh, Mary! took the theater world by storm, he now gets to bring Rocky Horror back to the Great White Way for the first time in over two decades.
Rocky Horror has a long-standing place in the queer musical canon for its unabashed confidence and queer themes. Every fan has their own experience with the show. Either they saw it in its purest form, a stage production, or the cult-classic reinvention — a midnight showing with a shadow cast. Others, like myself, might have seen one of the many televised recreations, like on Ryan Murphy’s hit show Glee (which Pinkleton says he has seen) or the 2016 Fox TV remake starring Laverne Cox. For many of theLGBTQ+ cast members, the production holds a special place in their hearts. Guillén tells Out that he first saw the movie at a friend’s house.
Stephanie Hsu as Janet, Paul Soileau as Phantom/Ensemble, Harvey Guillén as Eddie/Dr. Scott, Caleb Quezon as Phantom/Ensemble, Larkin Reilly as Phantom/EnsembleJoan Marcus
“I thought it was like an adult film because they were in lingerie, so I felt very naughty watching it. As I got older, I had the chance to see bits and pieces of it here and there, but it never really resonated with me until later,” he says. “Then I started to understand the story itself. It’s about belonging, about feeling like you’re an extraterrestrial, like you’re from outer space or different from everyone else. That really connected with me, especially growing up queer. It’s very similar to being made to feel different because of your religion, your identity, or anything else — but for me personally, it was my queerness that made me feel like an alien.”
Rodriguez says that her parents introduced it to her when she was young, so she holds it near and dear to her heart. “It speaks to my inner child,” the actress explains. “It liberates me as a person who is a full-on adult, and it encourages me to continue to challenge the status quo and to usher in a new generation that is unapologetic, that is audacious, and is liberated.”
The whole cast and creative crew realized that their production would be the first time many younger audience members interact with Rocky Horror, and Pinkleton says this show couldn’t have come at a better time. “Frank-N-Furter has my favorite line in the show: ‘It’s not easy having a good time. Even smiling makes my face ache,’” the director remarks. “In a world where there’s so much to be furious about, something has to fill the tank.” He doesn’t want to tell audiences why he feels the story is relevant to this current political moment because he feels his interpretation takes away from the experience of learning that part on your own as a theatergoer. “If I tell them, then they can’t find it on their own, and that doesn’t feel fair.”
Pinkleton wants audiences to use the show as escapist entertainment. It’s a piece of science fiction, and the reason why so many queer people are obsessed with the genre is that it’s a portal to a better world. “Science fiction is a way to exist momentarily in a world that has, in the case of Rocky Horror, a wilder, bigger sense of liberation and possibility than the one we walk through every day,” he says. “I feel very strongly that everybody deserves a motherfucking treat, or else the fatigue of being alive right now will wear us all down, and no one will be able to fight.”
Richard O'Brien's The Rocky Horror Show plays through July 19 at Studio 54. Learn more at roundabouttheatre.org and on Instagram @rockyhorrorbway. See more production photos ahead.
Luke Evans as Frank-N-Furter Sara Krulwich/The New York Times/Redux
Rachel as Narrator Joan Marcus
Larkin Reilly as Phantom/Ensemble, Stephanie Hsu as Janet, Andrew Durand as Brad, Caleb Quezon as Phantom/EnsembleJoan Marcus
Larkin Reilly as Phantom/Ensemble, Caleb Quezon as Phantom/Ensemble, Juliette Lewis as Magenta, Paul Soileau as Phantom/Ensemble, Boy Radio as Phantom/EnsembleJoan Marcus
Juliette Lewis as Magenta, Andrew Durand as Brad, Stephanie Hsu as Janet, Amber Gray as Riff RaffJoan Marcus
