Seeing as the 2026 cast recording for the current revival of Rocky Horror still hasn’t been released much to my chagrin, I’ve decided to make this a bit of a grab bag of things. And while there is, a 2015 live production from the UK that was simulcast into theaters much like the current revival, it doe not have a cast recording. The 2026 musical keeps promising a cast recording but as of my writing, it has not been released yet which is frustrating. So instead, I’ll look at various takes on the songs and show from the years ending with a performance of a song from this current revival’s cast on Jimmy Fallon.
So let’s begin. First up is an Alvin and the Chipmunks take on the Time Warp
I just gotta say huh. Yes yes, I know Time Warp is a song that is included on many children’s Halloween party playlists but hearing the Chipmunks sing this is so bizarre. I… uh uh have no words for this. Thankfully, they didn’t change the lyrics but I don’t want to think about the Chipmunks doing a pelvic thrust. They’re children for goodness sake. If anything Simon as the Criminologist is the only part of this that is acceptable in my brain. Now I have to know if there is a Kidz Bop version of the song and if so I am scared.
Found the Kidz Bop version and uhm yeah, I’ve gotta lot of questions. First why, I feel for these kids They understandably cut out the part about the Pelvic thrust but oof this is a rough cover. Easily, the worst version of Time Warp I’ve heard today. This is a song kids can listen to but shouldn’t sing. This is a song that I believe more mature voices are needed to tackle.
The next thing we are looking at comes from The Drew Carey Show’s second season finale and imo the lead up doesn’t matter too much
. All you really need to know is that Drew and his friends were down in the dumps hoping to see a midnight screening of Rocky Horror but it had been replaced by Priscilla: Queen of the Desert. Another important movie in queer spaces. I’ve not seen it but there is a line that strikes me as interesting.
Forget it Carey, your drag is old, our drag is new.
It’s a small throwaway line but in a way it does speak to how communities are more likely to latch onto the new shiny thing and ignore what came before. Never mind that the song featured here, Shake Your Groove Thing came out in the same era as Rocky Horror.
This breaks out into a giant dance-off with a song battle of Time Warp and Shake Your Groove Thing. This is surprisingly fun and these two songs actually pair together pretty well. I enjoy this moment and this is the one scene from The Drew Carey Show that my brain distinctly remembers. It’s just fun and captures the fan love for the movie quite well.
Well, let’s take a break from Time Warp and look at a different song as we look at Luke Evans’s take on Sweet Transvestite.
Okay can the cast recording for this show just come out already. From a visual standpoint, this is the most drastically different look for Rocky Horror but that is a good thing as not all version should ape the movie. That was an issue I had with the Glee episode. It took a while for my brain to accept a Frank with a mustache but it works in a way to show Frank can be masculine and feminine. I think one of the interesting choices made here to show how threatening yet fun his Frank can be is him swinging the telephone. It might seem playful at first and it is but it also shows how Frank invades people’s personal space as he gets closer and closer to Brad and Janet while swinging the phone.
Welp, this isn’t how I wanted to close out the look the songs but the 2026 musical still hasn’t released its cast recording. I hope instead you enjoyed this grab bag. It was a bit different than what I usually do for Monstrous Musicals and this is the first year I’ve ever dedicated Monstrous Musicals all to one show. I do have one more Rocky Horror blog left. Join me next time as I close out my look at Rocky Horror by doing a Villains Profile on…
Frank-N-Furter
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