REVIEW: The Rocky Horror Show
“You’ve arrived on a rather special night - the master is having one of his affairs”
By Gary Murray, volunteer theatre reviewer
From its beginnings as a three-week filler written by Richard O’Brien in the Royal Court Upstairs in London in 1973, Rocky is all grown up and has become a worldwide phenomenon over the past 50 years.
Loved by millions, fans know the lines, the songs and even dress as their favourite characters to attend performances. The latest Rocky tour comes to the Congress Theatre this week, starring former Neighbours actor and 1980s pop star Jason Donovan as Frank-N-Furter.
Jason Donovan is actually only appearing at “selected venues” on this tour, Eastbourne being one of them.
For the uninitiated, The Rocky Horror Show is a pastiche of 1950s B-movies and science-fiction. An all-American couple, Brad and Janet, are out on a drive (below) when their car breaks down in an inopportune place – the middle of nowhere. Their only hope of salvation is a lonely house which turns out to contain some, shall we say, oddball characters.
Setting the scene for us is the Narrator, here played by comedian Nathan Caton. He deals with heckles from the audience (for which the show has become known) deftly – not an easy job. It does lead to some genuinely funny interaction as he works the room and stops it becoming too much of an indulgence.
It’s all powered through with high energy, and song and dance routines which have become so familiar to fans. There’s a live band too, on a high platform at the back of the stage.
I loved the live band being there. However, the volume sometimes overwhelms and you can’t hear the lyrics.
The Master, presiding over the mayhem, is transvestite Frank-N-Furter. Jason Donovan plays him like someone’s seedy louche uncle. This is fine most of the time, but can seem a bit underpowered overall, and means that Frank doesn’t dominate his ‘underlings’ quite as much as he should.
The funniest scenes among so many favourites are possibly when both Brad and Janet (James Bisp and Hayley Flaherty) are seduced, separately, by Frank.
The previously mentioned oddballs number among them butler Riff Raff, (originally played by O’Brien and deftly handled here by Ryan Carter-Wilson), maid Magenta (Laura Bird) and Columbia (Daisy Steere). All have good rock voices and handle the songs really well.
But in the end, no-one in this household is quite what they seem….
After more than 50 years, The Rocky Horror Show still seems fresh.
It’s an evening of high energy and the usual anarchic Rocky experience. Die-hard fans come to commune, and this is a tour worthy of continuing its incredible legacy.
For Rocky fans, there’ll always be “a light over at the Frankenstein place”.
:: The Rocky Horror Show runs until Saturday 23 May at the Congress Theatre. Tickets here
:: Gary Murray was a professional actor for 14 years in theatre, radio, TV and even a couple of operas. After many years on the tech side of the ticketing industry, he now works at Tech Resort and is a volunteer reviewer for Eastbourne Reporter
