“The Rocky Horror Show” on Broadway got serious on Wednesday night as the cast paid tribute to the late Tim Curry.
The British actor, who died Tuesday at age 80, originated the role of that “sweet transvestite” Dr. Frank-N-Furter in the 1975 cult-classic musical film “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” as well as the 1973 London theater production.
At curtain call, actor Paul Soileau, who plays Frank, spoke admiringly of the actor who created his naughty part.
“The way Frank-N-Furter survives is that he finds vessels and he goes into them, and he takes them over, and he keeps moving and moving all around,” Paul Soileau said to the audience at Studio 54.
“But if you trace it all back, 53 years ago there’s one home and one vessel; one mothership that Frank-N-Furter can actually call home. And it’s Tim Curry.”
The standing crowd burst into applause and broke into a chant of “Tim! Tim! Tim!”
Soileau went on.
“[Writer and composer] Richard O’Brien laid a piece of paper in front of Tim Curry with ingredients on it. And he took all of those ingredients, and he created this beast that everyone found something within and could see a piece of themself inside of it,” he said.
“Just as Richard O’Brien created ‘Rocky Horror Picture Show’ to find something more about himself, you can also say that Tim Curry created Frank-N-Furter to express and find something deeper about himself. And somehow it resonated for this long with this many people in this room here right now.”
Soileau added: “Obituaries always say that he didn’t have children. And that’s bulls–t, because he has so many children in this world. Tim Curry has more family than I think any of us could ever imagine.”
He then called onto the stage Tony Award nominee Luke Evans, the first actor to play Frank in this revival, and Scissor Sisters frontman Jake Shears, who will step into the stilettos on Sept. 11.
The entire cast, which also includes “Saturday Night Live”’s Rachel Dratch, joined the three Furters in a rendition of the song “I’m Going Home.”
Out in the lobby at Studio 54 on Wednesday night was a memorial picture of Curry as Frank, surrounded by electric candles.
Curry actually played the role on Broadway at the Belasco Theatre back in 1975.
The director of that production as well as the movie, Jim Sharman, told me from his home in Australia, “He was a unique talent, a lovely person and a tough cookie.”
“Lipstick traces of him remain in the movies that will outlive him.”
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