Rocky Horror Show

 Review by: Paul Towers, 10/1/22

Richard O’Brien’s Rocky Horror Show

Directed by Christopher Luscombe

Produced by Trafalgar Theatre Productions and Hill Street productions

At Curve: 10 – 15 January 2022

 “the original party night in a theatre”

 I first saw The Rocky Horror Show way back in 1973 when Tim Curry and Richard O’Brien were still in the cast. Back then it had found a home in the Kings Road Theatre, an old cinema appropriately enough.

In the intervening almost 50 years productions have circled the globe continuously, Every few years the show is tweaked to bring it up-to-date. But the basic story has always stayed the same. Why mess with cult perfection?

As the Narrator (Philip Franks) intones:

It seemed a fairly ordinary night when Brad Majors and his fiancée 

Janet Weiss, two young, ordinary, healthy kids, left Denton that 

late November evening, to visit a Dr. Everett Scott, ex-tutor, and

now friend to both of them.  It's true there were dark storm 

clouds, heavy, black, and pendulous, towards which they were 

driving.  It's true, also, that the spare tire they were carrying 

was badly in need of some air, but, uh, they being normal kids and, 

on a night out... well, they were not going to let a storm 

spoil the events of their evening, were they?...  On a night out... 

it was a night out they were going to remember... for a very long 

time.

As lightening flashes and thunder crashes the extraordinary night unfolds. Stumbling across an eerie castle in the middle of nowhere the young couple are dragged (pun intended) into a horror show of epic proportions.

A very talented cast sing and dance up a storm (another intended pun) while the Narrator attempts to push the story along, all the while batting back the encouraged catcalls from the audience. Philip Franks obviously has a battery of ad libs at his fingertips and relishes every one of them. Kristian Lavercombe’s Riff Raff is lascivious and menacing as the butler of the house but it is Stephen Webb as Frank N Furter who owns the stage as he struts, pouts, grinds and stomps across the set. As the innocent (for now) young couple who stumble across this den of iniquity, Ore Oduba (Brad) and Haley Flaherty (Janet) show fine comic timing and great singing voices.  Ben Westhead as muscle-bound hunk Rocky gives great naivety as his first day out of the lab progresses.

This iteration of the cult classic retains all the elements that have made it so popular but the soundtrack has been brought bang up to date and the choreography is slick and energetic.

Rocky Horror Show is the original party night in a theatre. Virgins should be warned there are some naughty bits so leave your snowflakes at home.

Rocky Horror Show runs til Saturday 15 January before continuing on its 2022 national tour

 

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