Rocky Horror was born on June 16th, 1973 at the Royal Court Theatre Upstairs, London. The theatre held a maximum of sixty three audience members that night, which is a couple of hundred less than the number of people I've met who have claimed to have been there at that very first performance.

Twenty Five years later eight hundred and eighteen seats at the Richmond Theatre are occupied by die-hard fans, previous cast members and even the odd virgin or two. The 25th party night actually took place on Wednesday, 20th May with Richmond being the nearest venue to the location of the original performance.

Tim Curry played Frank 'N' Furter for that first performance, in 1998 the role was played with great gusto by Jason Donovan. Jason had played the part in Australia and has received rave reviews for his portrayal of Frank by both the press and fans alike during the current UK tour of the show. You can find more information about Jason on the Rocky Horror Company web site.

Also in the audience were two actors that had played Frank 'N' Furter in previous productions of the stage show: Anthony head (guest at Transylvania 1992 and currently to be seen in the television series of 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer') and Peter Blake.

At the end of the performance as the narrator sings the last verse of 'Superheroes' a figure dressed in a rather fetching silver dress jumped from the wings to sing the last line of the song. Richard O'Brien has never looked so silver in all the shows we've seen him in! Patricia Quinn then returned to sing the reprise of 'Science Fiction Double Feature' before the cast all took their bows, each dressed in a silver version of their costume.

Richard O'Brien then returned to the stage, carrying a small silver wrapped package which he threw out into the audience. One very lucky person is now the proud owner of a limited edition 'Rocky' birthday doll (and it's no good asking for one now, they've all gone).

Magenta and Riff Raff preparing to return to Transylvania.

We know for a fact that they were delayed as they joined Richard O'Brien and the rest of the cast as Richard led the audience in a final 'Time Warp' for the evening.

Many of the fans we spoke to agreed it had been one of the best performances of the tour so far and a fitting way to celebrate twenty five years of the worlds greatest rock and roll musical.

All was not over for the evening as the celebrations continued with the cast, crew and guests partying the night away at the Cobden Club in W11.