Header Image: Kristian Lavercombe, Stephen Mahy and Amy Lehpamer | Photo Credit: Brian Geach
After enjoying forty years of success on theatre stages worldwide, an incredibly successful film adaptation in the 1970’s which is still no stranger to cinema screens and a loyal fanbase who have kept supporting it for all these years; Richard O’Brien’s Rocky Horror Show is showing no signs of stopping anytime soon. For the past two years, an Australian tour of the Rocky Horror Show has been travelling around the country, visiting Melbourne, Perth, Adelaide and Melbourne in 2014 and both Sydney and Melboune in 2015. Having unfortunately missed its run in Brisbane last year, I took myself down to Melboune last weekend to see the show – and a slight curiosity about why Melboune justified an encore season.
With no additional tour legs announced and the clock ticking for what could be its final run before concluding, this may be your last chance to watch this current cast and crew take on this classic work. But the question is… if you were to head to the theatre and watch it… would it be worth your time? Read on for my opinion!
A Brief Storyline Overview For The Rocky Horror Show “Virgins”
The Rocky Horror Show follows a young engaged couple by the names of Brad Majors and Janet Weiss. Following a proposal after the wedding of a shared friend, the two decide to visit their old science professor whose class they first met in. But after making a wrong turn and finding themselves in the rain with a flat tyre, the two visit a nearby castle hoping to borrow a phone. That night they spent in the residence of Dr Frank ‘n’ Furter turns out to be a very sexual and quirky one – especially when it is the night one of his experiments is set to begin.
Classic Songs Creatively Recreated on Stage
Quite a few of the stage musicals I have reviewed in recent months such as The Lion King, Dirty Dancing: The Classic Story on Stage and Strictly Ballroom the Musical (Review coming very soon) have been based on classic films that many have watched. The benefit of going to see musical adaptations of these films are that you usually get a good mixture of songs from the source material and new songs created specifically for the stage musical. Rocky Horror Show is different in that the 1975 film was based on Richard O’Brien’s stage musical from years back.
This meant the stage musical shares an almost (but not completely exact) track listing to the film that many people my age would have been introduced to Rocky Horror with. This is not a negative comment to make per ce, but it is important to realize that the musical ultimately doesn’t come with brand new songs from what many fans would already be familiar with. Therefore, it falls on the creative team and cast alike to make the songs and dialogue as memorable as possible.
That being said, the Rocky Horror Show comes with the regular assortment of renown and highly entertaining songs including opening/closing song Science Fiction, The Time Warp, Sweet Transvestite, I Can Make You a Man, Touch-a Touch-a Touch Me and Rose Tint My World among many others. The only “new” song compared to The Rocky Horror Picture Show in that list is “Once in a While” performed by Brad, which was cut from the film adaptation. Each of these songs were performed with enthusiasm by the cast.
The band also provided some great musical backing for all these songs, however it could be argued that the instrumentals on more than one occasion were too loud and considerably overpowered the cast’s lyrics. While the lyrics to songs such as The Time Warp can be recited by many Rocky Horror fans, it took away from the experience when more than a few isolated lines were incomprehensible.
Craig McLachlan Was Star of the Show By A Considerable Margin
The Rocky Horror Show contains a small cast, comprising of all the expected main roles and four “Phantoms” (Ensemble members / understudies). Amy Lehpamer and Stephen Mahy take on the lead roles of Janet and Brad respectively, fulfilling their roles as the young, innocent and (later) sexually curious new couple well. They were joined on-stage by Kristian Lavercombe (Who played the role of Riff Raff almost perfectly), Jayde Westaby (Magenta), Angelique Cassimatis (Columbia), Nicholas Christo (Eddie / Dr Scott) and Brendan Irving (Rocky). All these cast members presented their roles to a high standard, and generally suited their respective characters. There are no complaints from myself about the casting of these roles or how they handled themselves on stage.
For the 2015 season of the Rocky Horror Show’s Australian tour, TV personality Bert Newton was drafted to take on the role of the Narrator. Although he did handle the role well, despite his low on-stage time as the character, it did feel like he was reading from his narrator’s book a little too much at times, rather than looking at the audience/characters. This may have been a trifle on my part however, given I was explicitly interested in how he would take on the role.
However, the true star of the stage was Craig McLachlan as the “sweet transvestite” Dr Frank n Furter. Although in the back of your mind you know he has been entertaining crowds in the role for more than a year now, I was left with the continual impression that he was having the time of his life responding to the events happening on stage and brief interactions with the crowd (including ad libs on multiple occasions). Although delivering a high level of enthusiasm and playfulness to some of the more comical and sexual scenes in the show (Especially the one which occurs at the beginning of Act 2), he also delivers the more traditional role of Frank n Furter with talent and gusto.
Audience Participation or the Lack Thereof
One of the things I was expecting when I attended Rocky Horror Show was audience participation, with the show’s official website going so far as to offer a “Virgins Guide” for new attendees. Perhaps it was just the crowd I was with (several weeks into Melbourne’s encore season I might add), but ultimately there was very little participation from the audience at any time. Nobody shouted talk-back lines, there was very few people dressing up and when the show’s encore performance of Time War took place – only three or four people got up and begun doing the show. While I am not going to hold this against the show at all, and appreciate that the cast did “break the fourth wall” and occasionally interact with the audience, it would have been nice to experienced the full Rocky Horror experience that other people I know have talked about.
The Set and Costuming
Perhaps it was because I had seen Strictly Ballroom the Musical less than 24 hours prior which made heavy use of its set, but the set of Rocky Horror Show was just “okay” for me. The set gives off an impression that it is taking place in a “picture show”, with the set framed by rolls of film. While there were a number of props used during the show (Most notably a bed which gives the impression you are viewing it from a top-down position), the remainder of the stage is fairly static and only changed significantly on the odd occasion. Costuming however was just as one would expect from the Rocky Horror Show: sexualised, distinct and memorable.
Final Words on Rocky Horror Show
As someone who was a “virgin” to theatrical productions of the Rocky Horror Show until last weekend, I cannot vouch for the quality of this particular production when compared against numerous others which have been performed in Australia and around the world since the 1970’s. All being said however, I personally enjoyed seeing this latest Australian production while I still had the chance. Granted there were moments that felt a tad rushed, a lack of audience participation in my session and music that almost completely drowned out sizable chunks of select songs; but my two hours with the Rocky Horror Show delivered a great experience filled with laughter and enjoyable songs. Judging from the buzz I heard from the crowds I walked past when leaving the venue, this was an experience shared by others as well.
