Vereen, who won the 1973 Tony as Best Actor in a Musical for his performance as the Leading Player in Pippin, will play the role of Dr. Scott, originated on Broadway by rocker , and played on film by Jonathan Adams. Vereen recently completed a nightclub stand at Feinstein's/54Below in New York.
I鈥檓 excited to announce that I will join the cast of as Dr. Everett Scott!, who created the iconic role of "sweet transvestite" mad scientist Dr. Frank-N-Furter in the original London, Broadway and film versions, recently joined the cast as The Criminologist who narrates the story.鈥� Ben Vereen (@BenVereen)
Also previously announced for the cast: Tony Award winner Annaleigh Ashford as Columbia, pop singer Christina Milian as Magenta, "American Idol" finalist and "Glee" actor Adam Lambert as Eddie, Victoria Justice (鈥淰ictorious鈥�) as Janet Weiss and Ryan McCartan (鈥淟iv & Maddie,鈥� Heathers the Musical) as Brad Majors.
Laverne Cox, the ground-breaking transgender actress who earned an Emmy Award nomination for her performance on "Orange Is the New Black," will star as Dr. Frank-N-Furter.
Actor and singer Staz Nair will play the title role of a hot young man created in the laboratory to fulfill Frank's desires. , who created the title role of Spider-Man Turn Off the Dark on Broadway, has been cast as Frank's helper, Riff Raff. Additional cast members are yet to be announced.
Emmy Award winner Kenny Ortega (鈥淗igh School Musical鈥� franchise, 鈥淭his Is It,鈥� 鈥淒escendants,鈥� 鈥淗ocus Pocus,鈥� 鈥淣ewsies鈥�) will direct, choreograph and executive-produce "Rocky Horror" for Fox.
"The Rocky Horror Picture Show" follows sweethearts Janet Weiss and Brad Majors, who stumble upon Dr. Frank-N-Furter鈥檚 bizarre abode. Frank-N-Furter, a sexually ambiguous, flirtatious alien mad-scientist, is holding an annual, Transylvanian science convention to showcase the birth of "Rocky Horror" 鈥� a fit, attractive man created solely to fulfill Frank's desires.
"The Rocky Horror Picture Show" was adapted from the 1973 West End musical , which ran only 45 performances on Broadway in 1975. The film, which came out just a few months later, used several members of the Broadway cast, including Tim Curry, Richard O鈥橞rien (also the composer/lyricist/librettist) and Meat Loaf. wrote the stage version and collaborated with Jim Sharman on the film, which was also directed by Sharman.
Among highlights of the score are 鈥淭ime Warp鈥� and 鈥淪weet Transvestite (from Transylvania).鈥�
The film was not a hit in its original release, but soon developed into a favorite in midnight screenings at which fans dressed up like the characters and answered the dialogue on the screen.
