Strange Journey rides fun path

Whether or not you include the word picture in its title, The Rocky Horror Show definitely took a strange journey worthy of documentary coverage. It also helps if that documentary gets made by the show creator’s son with access to key players and archival footage. This gives Linus O’Brien access to the original play and movie director Jim Sharman along with essential performers like Tim Curry, Barry Bostwick, and Susan Sarandon. Perhaps no one expected that Sarandon would eventually eclipse the $20 thousand salary she got for Rocky, but the Oscar winner clearly maintains fondness for that early job. As for other important names, the most significant comes with Richard O’Brien, the performer millions of Rocky Horror followers know as Riff Raff, whose long skeletal face, scraggly hair, and deformed back could wildly burst into the “Time Warp song and dance, a routine so adored by stage and screen audiences that many feel compelled to join in the routine. (Transparency: yes, even my clumsy limbs can and have done “The Time Warp”) ((in a movie theater)). Such audience participation helps make Strange Journey: The Story of Rocky Horror a deserving topic for its unusual path towards a world record as the longest running theatrical release ever—no other movie comes close, not even The Sound of Music since the London singalong features stage performers. Rocky, as fans know, draws singalongs and dancealongs plus additional dialogue from viewers along with a costumed quote “shadow cast” performing the whole plot in front of the screen version. Nothing quite captures the sensation of a Rocky Horror Picture Show adventure except going to a real movie theater notes the Strange Journey documentary. True, and with Strange Journey, newcomers and diehard fans discover a delightful and insightful celebration of a project that ultimately truly earned and deserves an adjective too often used and abused about movies: unique.