Leeds Grand Theatre – until 1st July 2023
Reviewed by Alex Sykes
5*****
There are few occasions in life where you can go to the theatre in fancy dress and heckle the cast but when seeing Rocky Horror Show it seems almost compulsory. It might have been cold and wet outside but in the theatre it was warm and the people in costume outnumbered those not in costume.
The opening number, Science Fiction/Double Feature is sung by Suzi McAdam, in her role as the Usherette, who deserves a special mention as she also plays Magenta and her quick changes are amazing. Reece Budin is brilliant in his role as the narrator as he 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, Budin is possibly the best narrator I have seen.
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 Meek was trying not to laugh, especially during the scene with the cocktail shaker. Joe Allen brings both Eddie and Dr. Scott to life but is better in the role as Eddie as Dr. Scott has a strange accent that isn’t the same from one line to the next. Ben Westhead is wonderful in his role of Rocky, using his looks to charm the audience. Stefania Du Toit 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.
All in all a brilliant night out which would 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.