Bally Bostwick on filming the iconic “Time Warp” dance
Barry Bostwick recalls the chaotic stone energy behind filming the iconic “Time Warp” on “Rocky Horror Picture Show.”
Barry Bostwick has a witty, ready response whenever he asks someone if someone can time warp.
“I’m going, ‘Well, is it a step to the left or a step to the right?” They have to say it’s on the left. For me, it was the most important part of that dance,” says the “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” star of one of the soundtrack’s signature songs.
Decades of “Rocky Horror” music have entertained fans for generations, from the original 1973 stage show to the 1973 cult classic films, to so many revivals and midnight shows since. (The film’s 50th anniversary is celebrated with a newly restored version on tours through November and a 4K Blu-ray/DVD on October 7th.) Everyone has their favorite show tunes, but it was thought to be a twist.
“The genius was that ‘Time Warp’ taught me how to do that,” says Patricia Quinn, who played servant Magenta on both stage and screen. “The only other song that did that was ‘Hokey Pokey’. “
“Time Warp” comes from the need for a “Rocky Horror” dance
The story of “Rocky Horror” revealed in the “Strange Journey” documentary
In an exclusive clip of the documentary “Strange Journey,” Richard O’Brien discusses the musical’s origins with his son Linas.
During the rehearsal for the original 1973 “The Rocky Horror Show” stage show, director Jim Sharman wanted the songs and dance numbers of the three servants. Riff Raff (O’Brien), Magenta and Columbia (Nell Campbell) are minions of Dr. Frank and Furter (Tim Curry), a crazy scientist covered in planetary transsexual lingerie who creates a “Frankenstein”-style muscle man named Rocky.
Campbell recalls that Sherman wants something like a scene from Jean-Look Godard’s French film, The Bandet Part. (Madison, a popular line dance of the 1950s, is also mentioned as going through the “Rocky Horror” films.)
O’Brien went home and wrote “Time Warp” overnight. Quinn’s first response: “I looked at it and said, ‘Oh, God, do I have to learn all this?”
In the Rocky Horror movie, Time Warp grows in size and range
“Time Warp” received major improvements as the stage musical turned into a film. It swapped spots and now led to the large curry intro number “Sweet Tranvestite.” Additionally, an ensemble of over a dozen “Transylvanians” – Franken Furter’s colorful acolite band played by London actors, has been added to the film’s wild “time warp” sequence.
Participants in the original stage actors are Bostwick and Susan Sarandon, who plays Brad and Janet, an innocent young couple who are accidentally caught up in Frank’s Gothic castle.
“It was a bit like ‘The Wizard of Oz’. You were seeing something very foreign but fun, as all the Transylvanians brought their character to the dance,” Bostwick recalls. “Your eyes were always bounced back between the creativity that was where the very stone people on that set were doing the day.”
When it comes to characters, “Time Warp” is the most important thing for Columbia. Columbia gets a flashy intro and its clever tap break, along with a bit of origin story. “You’d thought I was Fred Astaire. I did it again,” Campbell said during filming. She also appreciated her outfit makeover, from her “terrifying” old stage preparations that included pedal pushers and sock garters to film outfits filled with sequins in yellow jackets and top hats, red bows and multi-coloured corsets and shorts.
“It was so badly sparkling,” Campbell says. “I don’t care about the pedal pushers of life, but my god, when you have these games, you show them off.”
Today, Time Warp continues to live as a pop culture staple.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0azpjbjuty0
“Rocky Horror” found followers as a midnight movie phenomenon, and “‘Time Warp’ went into disco and was generally featured,” Quinn says.
“Time Warp” and its dance take place at everything from weddings and barmitzvah, not to mention appearing in various cover versions and in the editing of Halloween songs.
Linus O’Brien, son of Richard O’Brien and director of the Rocky Horror documentary Strange Journey, is still “attracted” towards this “silly spoofing” towards this “silly spoofing.”
“When my son was in elementary school, they were playing all these Halloween songs, then “Time Warp” came. this song? “O’Brien laughed, “It was a bit outrageous for elementary school.”
