Culture
Time Warp on 54th Street, Rosie O'Donnell Is Back on Broadway
Two decades after her last Broadway role, the Long Island comic takes the Narrator's chair in The Rocky Horror Show at Studio 54 for two weeks only
The chair turns around and the room stands up. That is how Rosie O'Donnell came back to Broadway this week. She sat with her back to the audience at Studio 54, swiveled to face the house for her first entrance as the Narrator in The Rocky Horror Show, and the crowd rose before she said a word.
BroadwayWorld, which posted video from her first performance, described the standing ovation, and its clips include her first bow, which was followed by a reprise of the Time Warp. The outlet called it her return after a 20 year absence. Her run was announced for October 6 through October 18, which put her first night on a Tuesday.
It is a short engagement and a strange, perfect fit. A woman who spent six years selling Broadway to daytime television is now the one in the chair with the book, telling the story of Brad and Janet and the house where their car breaks down.
Two Weeks in the Narrator's Chair
O'Donnell is keeping the seat warm for Rachel Dratch, who earned a Tony nomination for the role. The Hollywood Reporter said Dratch is taking a short leave and is scheduled to return on Tuesday, October 20. Until then the role belongs to O'Donnell, at the old disco on West 54th Street.
The company around her is the same one that has made this revival a hit. Jake Shears of Scissor Sisters plays Frank-N-Furter. Lorna Courtney is Janet and Kevin McHale is Brad. Amber Gray plays Riff Raff, Sherie Rene Scott is Magenta, Valentina is Columbia, Jimin Moon is Rocky, and George Salazar doubles as Eddie and Dr. Scott. Sam Pinkleton, who won a Tony for Oh, Mary!, directs.
The numbers have been good to them. TicketNews reported that the production set a Studio 54 box office record during the week ending June 28, and BroadwayWorld's grosses chart puts that week at $1,215,225. The engagement has been extended twice. Performances are now on sale through February 28, 2027, according to the show's official site and BroadwayWorld. The revival collected nine Tony nominations, including Best Revival of a Musical.
The chair turns around and the room stands up.
There is a heavier note under the fishnets this fall. Tim Curry, who made Frank-N-Furter famous in the 1975 film, died at his home in Los Angeles on August 25 at 80, Variety reported.
A Long Way From Sandymount
O'Donnell grew up in Commack, on Long Island, and she has spent much of her life talking about New York theater to anyone who would listen. The Hollywood Reporter noted that she hosted the Tony Awards three times and championed Broadway constantly on The Rosie O'Donnell Show, which ran from 1996 to 2002. On stage she played Rizzo in Grease, the Cat in the Hat in Seussical, and Golde in Fiddler on the Roof.
Then she left. O'Donnell moved to Ireland in early 2025, shortly after Donald Trump began his second term, and settled with her child in Dublin, first in Howth and later in Sandymount. The Daily News said she told an interviewer in August that the noise around her departure made her feel "re-famous."
She has not stayed away from New York for long. This summer she performed her one woman show, Common Knowledge, at the Daryl Roth Theatre on Union Square, for 12 sold out performances from July 22 through August 8, according to TicketNews. In August she spent a week as a guest host of Jimmy Kimmel Live! in Los Angeles. When the Rocky Horror casting was announced in September, TicketNews reported, she wrote on Instagram that she was thrilled and that Broadway is where show business lives up to its dream.
She has not stayed away from New York for long.
Doing the Time Warp Again
Rocky Horror has always worked best as a party, and this revival leans into it. The producers bill Richard O'Brien's show as the only musical to have been in continuous production somewhere in the world for 52 years. It began in 1973 at the Royal Court Theatre in London, the Daily News noted. Here it lives in a room that already knows a thing or two about late nights.
The Narrator is a curious part. He or she stands outside the story, a dry, slightly scolding guide who keeps interrupting the fun to explain it. It suits a comic with O'Donnell's timing and her history with this crowd. On her first night, the house was on its feet before she spoke.
For anyone who grew up watching her talk about Broadway in the afternoons, the two weeks are a small piece of city history passing through. The window closes on Sunday, October 18. After that the chair goes back to Dratch, and Studio 54 keeps doing what it has done since the spring, which is throwing a Halloween party in Midtown that lasts all season.
For another Broadway goodbye worth catching before it is gone, read our story on Six's last months at the Lena Horne.