Why 'The Rocky Horror Show' Has Stood The Test Of Time

“But I was amazed on a daily and nightly basis doing Rocky last year, slipping back into the heels – and I can assure The Music readers that my bum is still in pretty good shape – just how much audiences still love the show, and how much I loved slipping back into the corset. I always hoped I’d get another crack at it while I’m still in pretty good shape, but it’s still fascinating seeing how the audience has changed over 20 years. We live in a selfie-obsessed, social media-mad world these days, and it seems that during nine shows out of ten the audience tends to be more outrageous than us up on stage! It’s a riot, an absolute riot!”

Why does McLachlan believe that both the songs and the production itself have stood the test of time so well? “For those folks who know and love the show the die is cast: every song is familiar and it immediately brings back memories – like any great music a song will take you back to a great time in your life. But what I find extraordinary is that there’s a catchy familiarity. I met kids last year who’d never seen the film or the production before – dare I say it Rocky Horror virgins – and you’d meet them and they just adore the music. If you speak to [creator] Richard [O’Brien] he just says, ‘Oh darling, whatever came out, came out,’ because he’s not a flashy guitar player, he just loves the blues. He has a raw approach to playing and he just loves Buddy Holly and Elvis – you can hear stuff in Rocky Horror that’s just pure Buddy Holly! I mean Buddy wouldn’t have lyrically written about transvestites from Transylvania, but musically the planets aligned for Richard and he came up with a stream of songs just destined to resonate with people.”