Grand Opera House, York. Reviewed by Marcus Richardson
The ‘Rocky Horror Show’ at York Grand Opera House was outstandingly orgasmic, with its sensual songs, sexy cast and strange audience (with rude remarks about the character)
Frank-N-Furter an out of this world scientist played by Liam Tamne, his two loyal servants Riff Raff (Kristian Lavercombe) a hunchback with an eerie nature and his sister Magenta (Kay Murphy) a flexible maid. Not forgetting his own little groupie Columbia (Sophie Linder-Lee) who also happens to be madly in love with Eddie (Richard Meek) a tough nut biker.
They all performed very well and the relationship between the characters are comical and slightly melodramatic. By god they all had great singing voices combining for a perfect show.
Our two lovers Brad (Ben Freeman but understudied by Ben Kerr) and Janet (Diana Vickers) were helplessly in love when the meet the sweet transvestite Frank-N-Furter.
The staging was fairly sparse besides the sides/walls of the stage, but I wasn’t looking at that since I was distracted but the rippling abs of Rocky (Dominic Anderson), all that aside I found the set to be very effective as it made for great dances with the team of phantoms and the crew.
I think alot of the plays success comes from the script by Richard O’Brian as it is both sexy and funny, the film version also made the play a much more mainstream play also this also sparked the audience participation that the show is famous for.
The cult classic blew me… Away, I found that it made for an enjoyable night with the whole audience giving a standing ovation. I have to give great credit to the actors for their confidence and amazing acting, Lavercombe is in fact a RHS veteran and has performed in the play nearly 1000 times!
The audience made the performance for me, and great compliments to the narrator (Steve Punt) for putting up with such lunacy. This chaotic relationship between the cast and audience will and forever always be a RHS necessity. With the whole audience joining in the time warp it was clear that the play please eager fan and newcomers alike. Especially for my RHS virgin partner to which they found it very shocking. I fully recommend any one to go and see this as its one of the greatest plays to ever land on this earth