Review: THE ROCKY HORROR SHOW, Dominion Theatre

Featuring a press night appearance from creator Richard O’Brien and Jason Donovan as Transylvanian transsexual Frank N. Furter, The Rocky Horror Show returns to the West End. Despite being over half a century old, this pansexual homage to the sci-fi films and rock 'n' roll music of the 1950s lays a claim to being the UK’s most popular musical.

I came to this show the long way round. I received the soundtrack as a random gift from a penpal for my 18th birthday. At university, I watched the 1975 film version on a VHS tape which was dodgy in every sense and downloaded the decidedly NSFW audience participation script. In 2016, I had the chance to interview O’Brien from his New Zealand home shortly after the abysmal US remake of the movie was released (his view: “badly misconceived and miscast”). Last year, in the same week as its 50th anniversary, I made a deliberate pilgrimage of sorts to the same Royal Court Upstairs space where the stage show was first performed. And now, finally, I come to the musical with wide eyes and no little anticipation.

There’s plenty of period charm on stage. Hugh Durrant’s set is basic by modern standards but is a cheeky pastiche of the cardboard B-movie sets. The castle doesn’t take off in the finale but the atmospheric effects more than make up for that. The costuming from Sue Blane (who designed the outfits for the original theatrical run and film) is likewise easy on the eye and full of colourful touches. Director Christopher Luscombe makes plenty of room for those who are new and not so new, allowing for pauses so the long term fans can shout out their bon mots.

Let’s get the obvious downsides out of the way. After seeing the wholesome Brad (Connor Carson) and Janet (Lauren Chia) get engaged and bump into Furter’s curious crew, there’s a whole heap of clunky expositioning as we are introduced to Frank’s lab and his musclebound creation Rocky (a Morgan Jackson).

Carpaccio characters and songs which not-so-mysteriously didn’t make the soundtrack pad out a middle section which - appropriately enough given all the cross-dressing - drags. The star turns of the film (Tim Curry, Susan Sarandon, Meat Loaf and O’Brien as a louche Riff Raff) aren’t matched here even if an almost unrecognisable O’Donovan is a dazzling sight throughout.

All that criticism is almost irrelevant given its power, even after all these years, to draw together an audience in something like a religious reverence. Andrew Lloyd Webber is a fine composer but has he ever birthed something that has become so much more than its tiny origins? Something that has been not just embraced but enhanced by its legion of cult followers? A recent BBC report proclaimed that this show had been performed in 20 different languages to 30 million people around the globe, a testament to a phenomenon which is more than a piece of intentionally schlocky drama.

Like Happy Days and Grease, Rocky Horror was one of the many 1970s shows that peered at the post-war era through rose-tinted glasses. Its success is in part because of how it colours outside the lines and treads its own path, eschewing macho caricatures like The Fonz or Danny Zuko and putting us in the hands of the effete Furter, a charismatic Pied Piper figure that leads the audience and his ragbag followers in song.

And sing the audience did. They stood, shouted and shimmied to the “Time Warp”, held aloft a variety of illuminations (from phone torches to fairy lights) to "Over at the Frankenstein Place", threw shapes to “Sweet Transvestite” and you could hear a pin drop when Frank sang "Don't Dream It, Be It".

Mawaan Rizwan’s camp Narrator rolls with the crowd as they throw in filthy interjections that provide as much humour as the original script. The many knowing winks and asides from the stage all add to the sense that this is less a stage show and more a piece of community service, a sermon on non-conformity that speaks volumes about the human spirit to challenge the establishment.

At the last, O’Brien pops up from behind an LGBT flag to the loudest applause of the night; when one fan shouts out “we love you, Richard!”, he coyly replies “that’s terribly good-natured of you” before inviting us to join him in a final singsong. Its a fitting end to a show which still, shock horror, is sheer magic.

The Rocky Horror Show continues at Dominion Theatre until 20 September.

Photo credit: David Freeman