Theatre Royal, Newcastle – until 19th November 2022
Reviewed by Alex Sykes
5*****
There are few occasions in life where you can go out in a tutu and be one of the most normally dressed people in the venue but when seeing Rocky Horror Show it seems almost compulsory, as more people were dressed up than were not, even on a wet Tuesday night.
The opening number, Science Fiction/Double Feature is sung by Suzie McAdam, in her role as the Usherette, and the audience sang along, although a little hesitant at first. McAdam also deserves a mention for how quickly she managed to get changed at the end of the show from the Usherette outfit back into the Magenta outfit. Jackie Clune is brilliant in her role as the narrator as she receives the most heckles from from the audience but responds to them brilliantly, whether or not these replies are scripted remains unknown but the timings and the responses are spot on, especially when Clune informed the audience that she was the 4th best Liz Truss impersonator in the country.
Sweet and innocent Brad and Janet are played by Richard Meek and Haley Flaherty who have amazing on stage chemistry. The pair also take the heckles well, although at times you could tell the pair were trying not to laugh, especially during the scene with the cocktail shaker. Joe Allen brings both Eddie and Dr. Scott to life and performs both parts well. Ben Westhead is wonderful in his role of Rocky and Darcy Finden tap dances her way into the role of Columbia, although the role should be bigger as her talents are not used as well as they should be. Stars of the show though are Stephen Webb and Kristian Lavercombe who play Frank N. Furter and Riff Raff respectively. The pair have a brilliant connection and use each other to work out how to play the scene, and Lavercombe has racked up over 2000 performances as Riff Raff, more than any other actor in the role
All in all a brilliant night out which will make Richard O’Brien proud and will make fans of the Rocky Horror Show keep coming back to do the Time Warp again and again.