Tonight on the show, we’re diving into a trio of cult-favorite musicals that blur the lines between horror, comedy, camp, and tragedy: The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975, starring Tim Curry), Little Shop of Horrors (1986, starring Rick Moranis), and the 2001 filmed stage production of Jekyll and Hyde: The Musical, featuring David Hasselhoff in a career-defining dual performance.
At first glance, these might seem like wildly different productions—ranging from glam-rock alien chaos to doo-wop-infused plant horror, to a dark, gothic tale of split identity—but together they tell a broader story about how musical theater has embraced monstrosity as metaphor. Each of these works asks: What happens when the line between man and monster blurs? What desires are we really afraid of? And can we sing our way through the madness?
Tim Curry’s Frank-N-Furter is a force of nature—part scientist, part seducer, part destroyer. Rocky Horror was a revolution in form and content, upending gender norms, mocking genre tropes, and creating an interactive cult ritual that has endured for nearly 50 years. It’s a cultural milestone not just because of what it is, but because of what it unleashed—a safe space for the weird, the queer, and the outsider.
Rick Moranis' Seymour in Little Shop of Horrors gives us a very different kind of mad scientist: a nebbish pushover corrupted by power, ambition, and a bloodthirsty plant. The film (based on the Howard Ashman and Alan Menken stage musical) blends 1960s Motown stylings with Faustian tragedy, capturing the dark side of the American dream—and warning us what happens when we feed the things that promise us love and success.
And then there's Jekyll and Hyde, the most classical of the three, but perhaps the most psychologically intense. Hasselhoff’s performance—often memed, but undeniably committed—gives us a musical take on Robert Louis Stevenson’s timeless story of duality. It’s a sweeping, gothic powerhouse of repression, temptation, and the dangers of scientific hubris—a thematic cousin to both Frank-N-Furter and Seymour in ambition and eventual ruin.
Reviewing these three together allows us to trace how musicals have uniquely adapted horror and moral ambiguity to the stage and screen. From parody to tragedy to grand melodrama, these stories use music to heighten emotion, build absurdity, and expose the deep fears and fantasies lurking behind every monstrous transformation.
So grab your fishnets, your gardening shears, or your top hat and cane—we’re about to explore the darker, stranger side of musical theater, where the monsters are often the ones singing the loudest.
Disclaimer: The following may contain offensive language, adult humor, and/or content that some viewers may find offensive – The views and opinions expressed by any one speaker does not explicitly or necessarily reflect or represent those of Mark Radulich or W2M Network.
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