PALACE THEATRE, MANCHESTER – UNTIL 22ND JANUARY 2022
REVIEWED BY MIA BOWEN
5*****
Since the first time I watched the movie, I have been a huge fan. So when the opportunity came to see the stage performance, I was elated to be at the Palace Theatre for an encore and standing ovation production!
The Rocky Horror Show is the story of a squeaky clean couple, Brad (Ore Oduba, winner of Strictly Come Dancing) and his fiancé Janet (Haley Flaherty, Mollie in The Mousetrap), who after suffering a flat tyre stumbles across the castle of a mad transsexual Frank-N-Furter, (Stephen Webb), his crew of servants Riff Raff (Kristian Lavercombe), Magenta (Suzie McAdam), Columbia (Lauren Ingram); and ensemble of strange phantom inhabitants. It is an adventure they’ll never forget, a new world of sexual fluidity and gender bending freedom.
For the audience, many of them dressed like their favourite character, this was much more then watching a musical, they were here to be a part of the show! As well as dressing up, audience participation is actively encouraged as fans can interrupt by shouting out smut and innuendos at various parts. Being a ‘Rocky Horror Show’ virgin and never attended a musical with audience participation before, I was not sure of what to expect. But the ever-talented cast of the show bounced off the audience’s good-natured heckling and banter, perfectly. For me the standout among the cast was Philip Franks, as the Narrator, who was able to engage with fans via call and response with well observed topical references to amongst other things, Novak Djokovic and the governments approach to, well, everything.
The real draw for the audience is always going to be the musical set-pieces. They were shining their lights during ‘Over at the Frankenstein Place’, on their feet ecstatically doing the pelvic thrusting, show stopping ‘Time Warp’, myself included and cheering for Frank-N-Furter’s emerge in ‘Sweet Transvestite’.
The cast have an enormous amount of fun as well as the loyal fans who will no doubt return again and again to see their beloved show for many years to come.