Michaela Jaé Rodriguez Talks Rocky Horror, Representation and Her Broadway Moment

Best known for her work on the television show Pose, Michaela Jaé Rodriguez has finally made it to the Broadway stage as Columbia in Sam Pinkleton's revival of Richard O’Brien’s The Rocky Horror Show. Rodriguez sat down with Broadway.com Editor-in-Chief Paul Wontorek to speak about the “loop around the sun” that got her there and the safe space that is Rocky Horror.

This extraordinary collaboration between Rodriguez and The Rocky Horror Show was almost too good to be true, surprising even Rodriguez herself. “I never thought in a million years me and Sam would be circling the sun again,” she says. “I'm so thankful it's happening, because his brain alone is outstanding,” she adds of the Oh, Mary! director.

Above all, Rodriguez believes in the power of Rocky Horror and the importance of her representation on stage. Speaking to her fans and potential audience members, she says, “I encourage them to come and see what it feels like to finally step on stage and get a moment—and know that they can have that moment too.” Rodriguez became the first transgender actress to win a Golden Globe for her work in Pose, which revolved around Ball culture in the 1980s. Between her presence in Rocky Horror and Cats: The Jellicle Ball playing just ten blocks away at the Broadhurst Theatre, Ball culture and underrepresented groups are finally getting their moment on Broadway.

Representation goes a very long way, and it certainly did for Rodriguez after she first watched The Rocky Horror Picture Show as a young child. “My father and my mom were like, ‘Come over, watch this,” recalls Rodriguez. Upon viewing it, Rodriguez shares that it “revolutionized my whole experience as a young queer kid, and the rest was history.”

Many others feel that way about Rocky Horror; so much so that there is a longstanding tradition of midnight showings and it is still part of the conversation around queer culture today. Beyond the drama and the fabulous hair, makeup and costumes, the film spoke to Rodriguez on a deeper level. “I saw it as this love letter to the queer community that you're never alone,” she shares. “There's always someone by your side even when you think there's no one.”

With such a sentimental undercurrent, the universality of the plot invites everyone in. The “love,” “horror” and “campness” might seem contradictory, but Rodriguez sees it as a metaphor for her community. “We're wonderfully different in so many different ways,” she says. “I encourage every single person outside of the LGBTQIA+ community who has already done so to come again and just be invigorated, be liberated and be revolutionized.”

The Rocky Horror Show began performances on March 26 at Studio 54 and runs through June 21.

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