Nell Campbell (Columbia), left, Barry Bostwick (Brad Majors) and Patricia Quinn (Magenta): Reuniting for The Rocky Horror Picture Show 50th Anniversary Spectacular Tour
THREE stars from The Rocky Horror Picture Show are doing the Time Warp again on a 13-date tour to mark the cult film’s 50th anniversary. Next stop, York Barbican, tomorrow night (26/4/2026).
Barry Bostwick, the original Brad Majors; Nell Campbell, the original Columbia, and Patricia Quinn, the original Magenta, are touring Great Britain together for the first time to take part in a question-and-answer session at each show before the screening of Jim Sharman’s film version of Richard O’Brien’s musical.
The August 1975 movie will be shown in a new 4k print, accompanied by a shadow cast performing key scenes ‘live’ on stage while the full unedited film is shown behind them.
Tomorrow’s audience will have an opportunity to meet the stars; view a memorabilia display with film artefacts; participate in a costume contest (judged by Patricia); interact with the shadow cast and utilise the participation prop bag included with every ticket for use throughout the show.
Barry Bostwick’s Brad Majors in the 1975 film
Barry, now 81, says: “It’s coming back where it all began: London, Bray Studios in Windsor, then the world! Thank you to my friends of inclusion and weirdness for welcoming me 50 years ago and again today!! I look forward to sharing my amazing 50 years of Rocky with all of you.”
Patricia, 81, says: “[More than] 50 years ago, I auditioned for The Rocky Horror Show at the 60-seat Royal Court Theatre Upstairs in London. I asked my agent, ‘what’s it about?’. He replied, ‘something to do with a circus’. He wasn’t wrong. I’ve been in this circus ever since! ‘Cirque du Rocky Horror’. I’m lucky! We’re all lucky!! Don’t dream it, be it.”
Nell Campbell, 72, says: “It is extraordinary that five weeks’ filming in 1974, belting out the joys of transvestites and dancing The Time Warp in fishnets and corsets, resulted in a movie so beloved that a fifth generation of fans are frocking up to join in our celebrations. What a thrill to meet the UK fans, share our stories and together shiver with aaaaanticipation.”
Quick refresher course: The Rocky Horror Picture Show is the iconic little movie of O’Brien’s musical that conquered Hollywood starring Tim Curry as the devious and fabulous Frank-N-Furter; Bostwick and Susan Sarandon as nerdy American college couple Brad and Janet; Meat Loaf as ex-delivery boy Eddie, who dates a groupie, Campbell’s Columbia, and Quinn’s Magenta, servant to Riff Raff, O’Brien’s role.
Patricia Quinn’s Magenta in The Rocky Horror Picture Show
“We’ve already done the tour across America, 15 states” says Patricia, when speaking ahead of the UK tour’s opening show in Manchester on April 10. “More like 32 cities,” says Barry.
The reaction? “It was truly beyond belief,” says Patricia. “It was beyond my wildest dreams. I thought I knew everything about Rocky Horror. I thought I knew all the fandom. I thought I knew everything. I do a lot of Comic Cons and there’s grandmas and their daughters and their granddaughters all dressed as Magenta, whatever, asking for one’s autograph.
“And I thought, there’s nothing I don’t know about the fan situation of this. But I hit the States and I was beyond overwhelmed. I mean, 1,000, 2,000, sometimes 3,000 people a night would be at the film. Beyond extraordinary – and they don’t clap when one comes on. They stand up and yell!”
Patricia and Nell are no strangers to audience cheers. “Pat and I were both in the original London stage production,” says Nell. “We were witness to the show being written and put together, and the songs came out throughout what was only a three-week rehearsal period. But the show came together and sort of doubled in its size to what it began as.
“But because Tim Curry [Frank-N-Furter] especially was so unbelievable on stage and worshipped, we did have an audience going nuts every night after he came on.”
Barry first saw Curry in the role at the Roxy in Los Angeles. “From the moment I saw him on stage and running around, I was in ball!” he recalls. Cue audience participation: “Well, the ghouls, they come and they seat you. And then they do things to you, apparently, to warm you up for the craziness! And I felt underneath my table that my toes were being sucked on by Kim Milford, who was playing Rocky at the time.”
Why has Rocky Horror endured, both on screen and stage? “Because it’s good,” says Patricia. Is it that simple? “Yes, of course. The music’s wonderful.”
“It’s a rock’n’roll show, you know, and rock’n’roll never gets old,” says Barry. “It’s for everybody, sexually; hetero, trans, bi,” says Nell. “Don’t dream it, be it. Well, it’s got great songs. The characters are great.
The poster artwork for The Rocky Horror Picture Show 50th Anniversary Spectacular Tour
It looks fantastic – and it whizzes along. It’s a celebration of all types of sexuality. It’s a musical that does liberate people and there is no other musical I think that affects people like that and embraces every sexuality and encourages people to be who you are and love every bit of it.”
Nell is revelling in the audience interaction. “It really is a party of everyone getting together. We dress up, they dress up, and we all have a hoedown – and I do encourage the audience to think beforehand what question they would really love to have us answer because we might be the very key to unlock something they’ve always wondered about,” she says.
“But they should also dig in the back of their closet and find that feather boa from maybe 30 years ago,” says Barry, who likes to give a prize to whoever asks the best question.
There is still time to put on your thinking cap, York. “We always get the question, ‘who is sleeping with who?’”, says Barry. So, not that one.
The Rocky Horror Picture Show 50th Anniversary Spectacular Tour 2026, York Barbican, tomorrow (26/4/2026), 7pm. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.