Luke Evans, Rocky Horror Cast Give Special Performance Honoring Tim Curry
The cast of Broadway’s “Rocky Horror Show” paid tribute Wednesday evening to the musical’s original star, Tim Curry, following his death at 80.
Specifically, following the Wednesday night performance of the Tony-nominated musical, actor Paul Soileau, who currently plays Dr. Frank-N-Furter (the character made famous by Curry), was joined onstage by Luke Evans, who departed the role on Sunday, and Jake Shears, who is set to step into the fishnets in September.
Together, the trio of Frank-N-Furters performed a special rendition of “I’m Going Home,” which is the final song sung by the mad scientist in the show.
In the footage, Evans, who was nominated for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical at the 2026 Tonys, can be seen leading the tribute performance while surrounded by the rest of the cast. Watch the video below.
Elsewhere in the tribute, Soileau took a moment to say a few words about Curry, praising him for the “beautiful” impact he had on the iconic role.
“Frank-N-Furter is a marvelous beast and Frank-N-Furter inhabits spaces and sneaks in spaces and places and old theater houses, like this, movie theaters, teenagers’ bedrooms,” he said. “The way Frank-N-Furter survives is that he finds vessels and he goes into them and takes over and he keeps moving and moving and moving all around.”
He added: “And many people in this room on this stage have been a vessel for Frank-N-Furter, and over the years. But if you trace it all back, 53 years ago, there’s one home and one vessel, one mothership, that Frank-N-Furter could actually call home and it’s Tim Curry. It’s truly beautiful.”
While Soileau credited the show’s creator Richard O’Brien for the invention of Frank-N-Furter, Soileau acknowledged that Curry took the ingredients he was given “and he created this beast that everyone found something within it, and could see a piece of themselves inside of it.”
“Tim Curry created Frank-N-Furter to express and find something deeper about himself,” he continued. “And somehow it resonated for this long with this many people in this room here right now.”
Curry, a legendary actor known for iconic roles in classics such as “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” “Annie,” “Clue” and “It,” died Tuesday night at his home in the Toluca Lake neighborhood of Los Angeles, 14 years after he suffered a paralyzing stroke.
As word broke of his death on Wednesday morning, many of his famous friends and fans took to social media to pay tribute to him, including “Rocky Horror” co-star Susan Sarandon, who wrote, “What a funny, sexy, original he was.”
“But what I loved about him most was his heart,” she added. “Even wheelchair bound he continued to be so sweet and generous with his fans. Thank you Tim for meaning so much to so many people.”