The Rocky Horror Picture Show those willing to experiment with something a little bit different, a little bit outré, "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" has a lot to offer". "The New York Times" called it a "low-budget freak show/cult classic/cultural institution" and considered the songs featured in the film to be "catchy". Geoff Andrew of "Time Out" noted that the "string of hummable songs gives it momentum, Gray's admirably straight-faced narrator holds it together, and a run on black lingerie takes care of almost everything else", rating it 4 out of 5 stars. Dave Kehr of the "Chicago Reader" on the other hand considered the
The Rocky Horror Show a BBC Radio 2 listener poll of the "Nation's Number One Essential Musicals". As an out-of-work actor in London in the early 1970s, Richard O'Brien wrote "The Rocky Horror Show" to keep himself busy on winter evenings. Since his youth, he had developed a passion for science fiction and B horror movies; he wanted to combine elements of the unintentional humour of B horror movies, portentous dialogue of schlock-horror, Steve Reeves muscle films, and fifties rock and roll into "The Rocky Horror Show". A major theme running throughout the musical is transvestitism, which according to O'Brien was not originally meant