Time Warp

Hey Zoo Freaks, it's your starry-eyed Zoo Crew tuning in from the velvet-draped cabaret of THE ZOO, where the chandeliers swing low and the fog rolls thick as a midnight masquerade. We're jumping to the left with Little Nell's "Time Warp" from that timeless scream-fest The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and oh boy, does this number still twist the night away like a full-moon frenzy. Picture this: back in '73, Richard O'Brien—our Riff Raff wizard—whipped it up as a cheeky spoof on those hokey dance crazes like the Twist, complete with step-by-step spells in the lyrics so even the wallflowers could join the jig: "It's just a jump to the left, and then a step to the right." Little Nell, all tap-dancing fire as Columbia, steals the spotlight with her solo whirl, while Patricia Quinn's Magenta and O'Brien's gravelly growl lead the chorus chant that'd make a gargoyle grin. In a USA Today yarn, Barry Bostwick—Brad himself—quips he only remembers the pelvic thrust, calling it the real driver of the insane, and Patricia Quinn spills how its genius was spelling out the moves like the Hokey Pokey on steroids. Dropped as the film's fourth tune, it bombed at first in '75—hell, the whole flick flopped till those midnight madness screenings turned it into a cult cauldron, with fans tossing toast and toilet paper while warping the floorboards worldwide. Fast-forward to '20 quarantine clips on X, where dads and daughters conga through the chaos at home, or that 2020 virtual bash stitching pols like Elizabeth Warren with Phoebe Bridgers for a pelvic-thrust pandemic party. And get this: O'Brien's kid Linus, in the doc Strange Journey, laughs how it sneaks into elementary Halloween playlists, leaving parents gobsmacked at the "silly spoof" that's outlasted every fad. It's bohemian bedlam in a bottle, Zoo Freaks—like a corset laced with lightning.

Now let's hitch a ride back to the sun-kissed shores of Sydney where a ballet-bound firecracker first leaped into the limelight, 'cause Little Nell—born Laura Elizabeth Campbell in '53 to journalist dad Ross and mum Ruth—didn't just stumble onto the stage; she pirouetted through it like a comet in fishnets. Knee-high in the land down under, she's dubbed "Little Nell" in her pops' cheeky family column after Dickens' tragic tot, but by ten, hepatitis hits hard, so doc orders dance to keep the spark alive—ballet, tap, modern, the works, turning frailty into fire. High school at posh Abbotsleigh has her waitressing tables by day, dreaming big by night, till the family's '70s hop across the pond lands her in London's electric haze. Auditions bite back—rejects galore—but fate fangs when she nails a chorus girl gig in Hair, that nude-revue revolution, shaking her stuff amid the flower-power fray. Word whispers to Richard O'Brien's wild script for The Rocky Horror Show, and boom—Nell's cast as Columbia, the tap-happy groupie, belting "Time Warp" in the '73 West End debut that runs like a fever dream. The '75 film seals her as the pint-sized punk with the powerhouse pipes, launching a whirlwind: A&M singles like "Do the Swim" that splash with saucy slips on telly, her NYC nightclub Nell's pulsing with '80s glitterati, even a dramatic turn in The Killing Fields earning BAFTA bows. Through it all—mum to Tilly in '98, journo gigs, stage revivals—she's the eternal ingenue, proving one Down Under dancer could warp her way to forever fabulous.

If the warp's whisking you away, Zoo Freaks, hop over to the official Little Nell site for stage scrolls, single spins, and that fresh cabaret calendar that'll tickle your toes. Swing by the Facebook page where devoted dazzlers swap Rocky reels and Nell's nightclub nostalgia, a digital dive bar for the faithful. No fresh Instagram or X haunts in the spotlight these days, but kindred cabaret cats gather on the Rocky Horror Appreciation Society group, a midnight madness of 50k souls trading Time Warp tales and transylvanian toasts. Unearth gems at the Rocky Horror Wiki's Nell nook, a fan-forged vault of Columbia confessions, or haunt IMDb's bio bay for film flickers and family whispers. Light the footlights, cue the chorus, and let's thrust till the roosters revolt, my twilight tangoers.