Rosie O’Donnell on Returning to Broadway After 20 Years in The Rocky Horror Show: ‘I Got All Choked Up’

Rosie O’Donnell is back where she belongs. The 12-time Emmy Award-winning comedian and talk show host assumes the role of the Narrator in Broadway’s extraterrestrial romp The Rocky Horror Show. Stepping in for Rachel Dratch, O'Donnell will hold court at Studio 54 through October 18.

“I could not be more thrilled,” O’Donnell told Broadway.com Editor-in-Chief Paul Wontorek. “In all my career, the only place that lives up to the dream of showbiz is Broadway. It's where I originally wanted to be. When people were saying, ‘You should go try stand up,’ I'm like, ‘I'm going to be on Broadway.’ That was my goal, the destination. It wasn't movies, it wasn't TV, it was right here in the heart of the city.”

O’Donnell—whose previous Broadway credits include Grease, Seussical and Fiddler on the Roof—is returning after more than two decades away. Her comeback in Rocky Horror was met with a rapturous reception. “I had never seen anyone get a standing ovation before they speak as they enter the stage. So when it happened, I almost didn't know what to do, and then I got all choked up," she recalls. "And then I thought, 'Don't cry because you're going to forget your lines.'"

“When I was a young kid, I would see it and I didn't fully understand it,” she says of going to late-night showings of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. “It was just a fun thing to do at midnight. When you're in high school, that feels very naughty.” She now recognizes its significance in the queer community, which has carried into its latest Broadway mounting. “The whole cast is a big mishmash of the queer community. The production crew and the people, the actors in it. It's just so beautiful,” adds O’Donnell, who publicly came out as a lesbian in 2002. “Sherie Rene Scott is such a Broadway star. Jake Shears is absolutely fantastic as Frank-N-Furter. There's just talent everywhere you look on that stage.”

Throughout her career, O’Donnell has been a champion of theater, regularly featuring Broadway performers on her long-running daytime talk show. “Just today, one of the women who works here had a jacket on from The Rosie O'Donnell Show that she kept clean for 30 years. She told me that she grew up in Maine in a tiny little town and she only got introduced to Broadway on my show. And now here she is working in the Broadway community. It moves me so much,” shares O’Donnell. “I can't wait until somebody wins a Tony and says, ‘I want to thank The Rosie O'Donnell Show show because that's where I first saw Ragtime or Kristin Chenoweth or Patti LuPone.' You know, all of the legends.”

The Rosie O’Donnell Show had a one-night only return in 2020 on Broadway.com, benefiting The Actors Fund in order to provide aid during the COVID-19 pandemic. Speaking to her sustained commitment to the arts, O’Donnell says, “The reason Broadway is so meaningful to me is the sense of community is real. In Hollywood, it's very spread out. It's centralized here. I was a kid growing up on Long Island. I didn't know how you got to a TV studio in Los Angeles, but I knew how to get to Broadway.”

On the heels of a four-night guest-hosting stint on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, the once-named Queen of Nice reveals she might return to television. “I really would like to do a show similar to the one I did, only not so celebrity focused. We would have Broadway and human interest and games and trivia and prizes to give away and free stuff. It would be an hour of relaxation and hope and joy, which we need in this country right now.”

For now, she’s enjoying her time at the Frankenstein Place. “Anything with Broadway in it, I'm drawn to. There are very few shows I can do. I'm not a singer, but I love musicals. I can sing enough to be in the chorus with real singers around me but I don't need to do a ballad for people who paid a couple hundred bucks to come see a Broadway show. Sherie Rene needs to do the ballad, not me,” O’Donnell jokes. “But whenever there is a show that I could possibly do, like Rocky Horror, I’m thrilled, absolutely thrilled to get to be a part of it.” Judging from the audience response, the feeling is mutual.

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