Review – Richard O’Brien’s Rocky Horror Show
Transvestites on stage, transvestites in the crowd, transvestites as a drink – the Rocky Horror Show has bought out Adelaide’s best. There were men in stockings and towering platform heels, sensual ladies with big hair and delicious moves, and Craig McLachlan sassing across the stage with the muscles of a professional athlete and an ass-shake that brings the happiest of tears to my eyes. Step inside the theatre and leave your sexual orientation at the door!
From the first line of “Science Fiction/Double Feature” the show will draw you in, although hardly against your will. Hugh Durrant’s set designs are functional and deceptively simplistic. The vivid colours, well-placed details and charming brashness perfectly support the extraordinary acting talent that make up the cast. And the lighting effects were stunning! Neon beams of light projecting around the theatre and across the faces of the crowd added a certain excited eagerness to the performance. I thought at first that it was just me feeling so excited, but thankfully I was very wrong – I have never seen an Adelaide crowd come to life and interact with a show as much as they did that night. There was no embarrassment, there was no hiding. It was all cheers and singing and perfect use of The Virgin’s Guide for Audience Participation Etiquette, allowing McLachlan to integrate the crowd and their reactions into the show beautifully. There was just such a feeling of togetherness; sensual, titillating togetherness.
The loudest cheer of the evening came early in the production when the Narrator of the night revealed himself to be none other than Richard O’Brien, father of The Rocky Horror Show and the original Riff Raff. In a well-tailored suit, O’Brien’s somewhat sinister storyteller guides us through his creation with regal decorum. No one has ever looked more noble while wearing a sparkling party hat and trusting his hips towards a room full of people than he.
Everyone knows the plot and, as such, the appearance of O’Brien was the early dessert in a cross-dressing multi-course dinner. When Brad and Janet enter the castle at Riff Raff’s invitation we all know that Frank is coming. Craig McLachlan was delicious when he played the role of Frank N. Furter in 1992, but what about now? Will the product of McLachlan + suspenders + twenty-two years equal something bedazzling?
Oh. My. Yes.
If anything he’s more alluring now than he was then. I personally feel that age suits Frank N. Furter, and McLachlan slipped back into the role as easily as he appears that have slipped into his three-inch heels. Devious, scandalous, stimulating. It’s hot stuff. Beyond the physical, McLachlan seems to be having more fun than anyone else. He successful breaks the wall, interacting and reacting to the crowd, playing on their responses and flirting with them as much as with anyone else. The scene where he beds Brad and Janet separately has to be the most perfect scene in the whole show. A vertical bed allows the audience a perfect view of the goings-on. Sounds perverted, and it probably is, but if any member of the audience said they wouldn’t want to trade places with either Janet or Brad or both in that scene they’d be lying through their teeth.
The rest of the cast is equally as adept. Tim Maddren and Christie Whelan Browne are absolutely gorgeous as Brad and Janet. Behind the nasal tones of their characters are spectacular soaring voices that wrap around you and lift their musical numbers into every corner of the room. Kristian Lavercombe’s Riff Raff was a little surprising at first, his version being slightly higher pitched than I’ve previously seen and initially less sinister. But it all comes out in the wash as the old cliché goes, and Lavercombe’s performance demonstrated why he’s been invited to play Riff Raff in three different countries. Erica Hynatz is perfectly cast as sensual Magenta, although I felt she didn’t get enough opportunities to be filthy, which is very upsetting. Columbia, played by Ashle Pyke, was feisty and glittered more than the top hat on her beautiful head, and Brendan Irving is as perfectly sculpted a Rocky as you’ll ever see. Plus the leopard print underwear really brings out the… uh… colour of his eyes.
The end of the show allowed for a sing along, with the entire crowd getting up to dance and croon along to “Time Warp” and “Sweet Transvestite” with the show’s ensemble. This was the final release from a night drowned in sexual tension and desire. Everyone knows that dancing with an alien transvestite will cure all that ails ya.
The Rocky Horror Show plays in Adelaide until the 13th of April. Any good doctor would prescribe a strong dose of madness, sexual deviance and thrusting for a boost to general health, and far be it for any of us to ignore such sound medical advice. So I suggestively suggest do yourself a service and see this show.
