Richard O'Brien's Rocky Horror Show (03/11/10, The Grand)

The Rocky Horror Show was an experience, I'll say that much. Distinctly unmoved but intrigued by the movie version, I thought it would be worth seeing the original stage show when it came to Leeds last week. Watching this bizarre 1950's sci-fi pastiche, featuring a transvestite from Transylvania and his creepy, lascivious ways as a stage musical didn't enamour the whole premise to me any more, but it didn't make me dislike it. 

What I disliked was the pantomime element where the audience shouted at the actors, sang (or spoke) along with the lyrics, and generally behaved liked drunks on a bus. I understand that the show's a bit of cult hit (and I saw many 'cults', both male and female, dressed in basques, high heels and fishnets) but if I hadn't sort of expected this I think I would have been very pissed off. Unfortunately, to counteract the shouting, the mics were turned up VERY LOUD and as a result I could barely tell what a couple of the characters were singing, and since I've seen the film once and can't recite every word, I wanted to hear what was going on. 

Part of me thinks I was being a bit miserable - I have to say, watching the entire population in the stalls stand up and do the Time Warp was quite breathtaking! - but actually, the other part of me felt that I'd paid £21 to watch the actors perform, not the audience. I found it a bit disrespectful to the actors, although you know they were expecting it, and they did have some amusing come backs, particularly narrator Michael Starke, who reacted to shouts of 'Sinbad' (from Brookside, not the Sailor) with a hearty 'Fuck off!' You got the feeling from the over-reactions from the crowd that they'd love it whatever the cast were like, which if I was in the cast, found feel it devalued my performance somewhat.

As it is the cast were uniformly brilliant, with special mention for Frank 'N' Furter played by David Bedella - he had a killer voice and strutted around in the outrageous outfits incredibly comfortably. The constantly-in-pants Rocky, played by Julian Essex-Spurrier was incredibly buff and fantastically fit, though I actually thought he looked hotter with his drag on! Overall, I liked most of the songs, though some were forgettable, and the cast were great, but the story's just off somehow - like the movie, I found the musical Rocky Horror to be less than the sum of its parts.