Statue's reality rocks O'Brien

ROCKY EVENING: Rocky Horror show creator Richard O'Brien tells his story to an audience at the Wel Energy Trust Academy of Performing Arts last night. (IAIN McGREGOR/Waikato Times)

Source: http://stuff.co.nz/stuff/waikatotimes/0,2106,3106149a6004,00.html

23 November 2004 
By LUCY REED

It's astounding –- but not for much longer. Rocky Horror show creator Richard O'Brien says the prospect of having a statue of himself unveiled is enough to make anyone feel slightly strange.

It will happen in Hamilton on Friday night, when the city will dance The Time Warp, the best-known song from the hit movie.

"It's an unbelievable journey," says O'Brien. "I have led a very lucky and very privileged life."

He hopes the Riff Raff statue –- a monument to him and the show he created –- will inspire young, creative people to live their dreams against the odds.

"Something that leads them to say `oh stuff it, I'll do it anyway'."

O'Brien last night shared his story with an audience at Waikato University and sang songs, one from Rocky Horror and a new work.

Actors needed wit, intelligence and to be humble, he said. New Zealand's classless society had given him the start he needed, making him realise anything was possible.

Waikato University theatre, screen and media studies student Andrea Bartlett, 20, found O'Brien's advice helpful because, despite the poor financial rewards, she wanted to act.

Hamilton Operatic Society performer Judy Braithwaite said she loved the show's escapism: "It takes you out of your ordinary place and into another."