Shock Treatment

Following the unexpected and overwhelming success of The Rocky Horror Picture Show on the midnight circuit, Richard O'Brien approached producer Michael White with the idea of making a sequel.[9] In 1978, he began work on a script titled Rocky Horror Shows His Heels,[10] which found Frank and Rocky resurrected, Brad and Dr. Scott turned gay, and Janet on the verge of giving birth to Frank's baby. Director Jim Sharman was resistant to revisit the material and Tim Curry had no desire to reprise the role of Frank,[11] but O'Brien had put some work into the songs, so he decided to retain them and simply revise the story.

The new script was titled The Brad and Janet Show.[12] This version is closer to what ultimately became Shock Treatment and was planned to be produced, but the filmmakers were plagued with a variety of problems. Dr. Scott had been included in the script, but Jonathan Adams was not interested in reprising his role.[11] The filmmakers intended to shoot on location in Denton, Texas,[13][14][15] but production screeched to a halt in 1980 when the Screen Actors Guild went on strike.[16]

With only a small window when cast and crew were available, the filmmakers had to get creative. Television had been a heavy motif in the script, so production designer Brian Thomson came up with the notion to rework the story and set it in a giant TV studio, utilizing a film studio in England,[9] which shaved $1 million from the budget[16] and gave them the luxury of working in a controlled environment. The script endured a final draft in which all of the locations were changed to television shows, and the role of Dr. Scott morphed into game show host Bert Schnick. "I was frightened the strike was going to finish too soon and we’d have to go back to our original conception," commented O'Brien.[16]

Many Rocky Horror cast members returned for the film, but only Jeremy Newson reprised his role as Ralph Hapschatt. However, due to his title of "Judge", some fans have speculated that Gray is also reprising his role of the unnamed Criminologist. In addition to actors from Rocky Horror, other alums filled out the cast. Many of the original film's Transylvanians appeared as audience members, while Imogen Claire was given the slightly-larger part of the Wardrobe Mistress. Raynor Bourton, who originated the titular role of Rocky in the stage production, portrayed one of the singing soldiers in Thank God I'm a Man, and Chris Malcolm, who originated the role of Brad Majors, was cast as Vance Parker, a local police officer. Founder and long-time president of Rocky Horror fan club, Sal Piro, also has a silent cameo appearance as the man using the payphone during the opening sequence.

With her stardom on the rise, Susan Sarandon's return demanded more money than the budget allowed.[17] Auditions were held at The Roxy theater to find a suitable replacement, and Jessica Harper, previously of Brian De Palma's cult musical Phantom of the Paradise, dazzled the filmmakers with her singing skills.[15]

Cliff De Young had been Sharman's original choice for Brad in The Rocky Horror Picture Show, as the two had worked together on the 1972 off-Broadway play Trials of Oz,[15] but De Young was starring on the television series Sunshine in California, thus unable to appear. Upon learning that Bostwick was unable to participate in Shock Treatment, Sharman tracked down De Young and gave him the role.[15] This afforded De Young the opportunity to reunite with Harper, with whom he had co-starred in a stage production of Hair.[15][18]

As is standard with musicals, music and vocals were recorded prior to principal photography[18][19] at the renowned Abbey Road Studios.[15] The first scene shot was the Farley Flavors commercial break with Macy Struthers and a group of children. Wendy Raebeck was ill and collapsed after one of her takes.[19]

De Young modeled his performance of Brad after David Eisenhower, and based Farley on Jack Nicholson.[20] The elaborate opening shot begins on Farley in the overhead video booth, and the camera slowly does a 360° pan around the room as the crew prepares for the show and Brad and Janet enter the studio. For this scene, De Young had to do a quick change and quickly run downstairs to hit his second mark.[19] Duel Duet was shot over the course of a day, with De Young spending the morning shooting his scenes as one character and the remainder of the day costumed as the other.[15] He began with a very restrained performance of the song but was encouraged to go broader, and was pleased with the final result.[15]

Starting in the mid '00s director Benji Sperring, a fan of the film, pursued Richard O'Brien for nearly a decade trying to acquire the rights to produce a stage adaptation.[36] O'Brien finally relented and gave his consent, stipulating that it had to be staged in a very small, intimate venue, as the original The Rocky Horror Show had been.[36] On this proviso, the show wound up at the King's Head Theatre in Islington, London, where artistic director Adam Spreadbury-Maher made the suggestion that Tom Crowley adapt the script.[37] Crowley had never seen the film, and read the screenplay first to prepare for his interview.[38] He was initially apprehensive about the project, but Sperring's vision was so concise that he agreed. It was reported that O'Brien adapted and produced the show, but he remained fairly hands-off. O'Brien, co-composer Richard Hartley and Sperring agreed on the story's direction prior to scripting,[38] and they consulted primarily through email during the rest of the production process.[39]

Sperring and Crowley reworked the story, eliminating most of the supporting and peripheral characters. "A big point of inspiration for me came from the screenplay that became Shock Treatment, The Brad and Janet Show," commented Crowley, "wherein the major factor in Brad and Janet's marital difficulties was that Janet had just been promoted at the local TV studio and Brad had just lost his job."[38]

"The biggest shock is that in the original movie, there isn't any shock treatment," Sperring remarked.[36] "They don't really explore that, so we've put that back in."

The production premiered at the King's Head theatre in Islington, London in the United Kingdom in the spring of 2015.[40]

• Julie Atherton as Janet Majors
• Ben Kerr as Brad Majors
• Mark Little/Pete Gallagher as Farley Flavours
• Mateo Oxley as Ralph Hapschatt
• Rosanna Hyland as Betty Hapschatt
• Nic Lamont as Nation McKinley
• Adam Rhys-Davies as Cosmo McKinley

The Daily Telegraph wrote "this sequel to The Rocky Horror Show can't match the original but still provides deliriously silly entertainment";[41] The Stage singled out Mark Little as being scarcely able to carry a tune,[42] but Carrie Dunn wrote in her review for Broadway World, "his sheer charisma and presence is absolutely perfect."[43]