Clue, the 1985 film based on the board game, was not a smash hit upon release. Over time, thanks to cable, home video and word of mouth, the quirky black comedy finally found its audience. Its acclaim grew enough for it to make the jump from screen to stage as CLUE, which Straz audiences can play, er, see May 28-June 2.
The movie cast of Clue included British actor Tim Curry, who already knew a bit about films finding their audience.
Curry introduced himself to the world at large portraying the sardonic, sinister and sexually voracious Dr. Frank-N-Furter in The Rocky Horror Show. (See it on stage when Jobsite presents The Rocky Horror Show July 10-Aug. 4.) His over-the-top-barely-begins-to-cover-it performance helped make the campy musical a sensation in London and Los Angeles. Its 1975 adaptation for the screen, however, faceplanted in regular release.
The Rocky Horror Picture Show found its place and its people on the midnight movie circuit. There, it became more than a hit – it became a phenomenon. Rocky Horror became a weekly gathering, primarily for kids who found the mainstream unwelcoming, unattractive or unbearable. Curry’s Frank, in all his corseted, platform-heeled glory, was the film’s most identifiable figure.
As Rocky Horror infiltrated flyover country in the late 1970s, Curry took on the role of Manhattan disc jockey Johnny LaGuardia in the mostly forgotten 1980 drama Times Square. The storyline is basic misunderstood youth vs. clueless or uncaring authority, with a pair of punk-rock runaways airing their grievances with LaGuardia’s help.
The movie’s a mess thanks to studio efforts to sanitize director Allan Moyle’s gritty version. It tanked at the box office as well, but for those who saw it and identified with its themes, it became a rallying point, championed in later years by Kathleen Hanna of riot grrrl rockers Bikini Kill as well as U.K. provocateurs Manic Street Preachers.
Times Square’s fans tended to be kids whose dreams went beyond college and career. Curry’s DJ is the conduit through which their message is spread. Curry’s performance is unsurprisingly more subdued here than in Rocky Horror, but Johnny’s championing of misfits and Frank’s anything goes attitude aren’t worlds apart.
Curry has played hundreds of roles on stage and screen, but in these two films, he embodied a message: Embrace yourself, your strangeness, your inability or unwillingness to fit in. Give yourself over, if not to absolute pleasure, then to believing in yourself.
The featured image of this blog was provided courtesy of Jobsite Theater in promotion of their upcoming production of The Rocky Horror Show.