BWW Reviews: ROCKY HORROR SHOW Delights Sydney Audiences With The Iconic Music and Craig McLachlan's Sass.

Tuesday 14th April, 2015, Lyric Theatre, Sydney

Cult Classic ROCKY HORROR SHOW returns to Sydney to thrill audiences with Craig McLachlan slipping back into the fishnets and suspenders. Whilst this production has been touring the country for over a year, it is finally Sydney's turn to join the hedonistic party.

The audience is greeted by the 1950's Usherette (Jayde Westaby) who sets the premise of the show with Science Fiction, drawing the audience into the world of the B-Grade science fiction and horror movies as she draws back the partially burnt satin curtain to reveal a cartoonish, set with two dimensional candy colored set reminiscent of something out of Pleasantville. The young 'All American' couple, Brad and Janet (Stephen Mahy and Amy Lehpamer) match this saccharine set with pink swing dress and blue lurex suit as the story unfolds as Narrator, Bert Newton, details the unfolding challenge as he reads from a large book. As the lovebirds find themselves stranded and seeking assistance at the old castle the set transforms to the 'Frankenstein Place' and its strange inhabitants are introduced.

As the rest of the characters are other worldly, Director Christopher Luscombe has opted for Dr Frank-N-Furter (Craig McLachlan), and the Narrator to retain Australian accents to show a contrast with Brad and Janet's American drawl, further cementing the idea that they are not surrounded with their 'own kind'. McLachlan's Dr Frank-N-Furter has a sassy attitude and handles the audience participation beautifully, and even though he's been playing this role for a while, first in 1992, then in 2014, he still the fun in the role and the little breaks in character show he is enjoying the performance and the interaction. McLachlan is still in fabulous shape at almost 50, with his toned muscles providing a visual feast as the contradiction between the masculine body and feminine attire is made more evident.

Newton as the Narrator, pretty much is himself but it is fun to see him ham it up in the company song and dance numbers. Lahpamer and Mahy carry off the caricature of the innocent high school sweethearts well with Lehpamer's focus on Janet's new engagement ring in Damn It, Janet echoing the single mindedness on the shiny things that some young women get when newly betrothed. Angelique Cassimatis' presents Columbia with energy and an element of innocence and loyalty that Riff Raff (Kristian Lavercombe) and Magenta (Westaby) are naturally not meant to have which becomes clear as the story unfolds. Brendan Irving's Rocky is presented with innocence and confusion as a stereotypical pretty boy, with lots of muscles and not many brains.

Set Designer Hugh Durrant has kept the set simple, and utilized corny set design to convey the image of Brad and Janet's car, the bed and laboratory, all in keeping with the B-Grade movies that inspired Richard O'Brien (Book, Music, Lyrics), when he wrote the show. The singed corner of the curtain and the winding film banners that top the set don't really convey the message that this is meant to be a take of a movie in a run-down cinema. Sue Blane's costumes employ simple lines to keep the character recognition (both who and what they are) easy and definitive differences between the Brad and Janet's neat and prim world and Frank-N-Furter and his staff's dark debauched world.

The set and the performance are however a little too 'bright and shiny' which tones down the provocative shock value that the show originally intended to have and the grunge factor that garnered its cult following. Whilst Frank-N-Furter has some fabulous physical comedy as he toys with his sex toy creation Rocky and enlightens Brad and Janet, it all seems Luscombe has opted for a more sedate, toned down, depiction, meeting the mainstream audience sensibilities rather than utilizing the opportunity for sensuality and shock value. ROCKY HORROR SHOW used to make conservative people squirm as they questioned their own desire and sexuality as they were secretly titillated by corseted Frank-N-Furter or simply had their jaws drop at the hedonistic display.

Given that the publicity bills this performance of ROCKY HORROR SHOW as the "Party Production", this show does deliver on that. It is a fun night out for fans of the show and movie to get to hear their favorite songs live, interact a little with Frank-N-Furter, dress up, and dance in the aisles as three key numbers are performed again at the end of the show with the whole cast.

ROCKY HORROR SHOW

Sydney Lyric Theatre, The Star, Sydney

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