The Rocky Horror Show opens on Broadway tonight amidst a cultural landscape much changed – or maybe not so much – from the ’70s midnight movie circuit era that gave asshole (audience says so, not me) Brad, Janet (damn it!) and Dr. Frank-N-Furter, the sweet transvestite from Transexual, Transylvania, a landing place in the world. A celebration of LGBTQ+ vivacity long before those letters were strung together, Rocky Horror was an outrageous and necessary tonic in a world unwelcoming to cross-dressing rice-tossers who shouted vulgar quips at big screen images of Tim Curry, Susan Sarandon, Barry Bostwick, Meat Loaf, all playing various assorted misfits.
The new musical revival from Oh, Mary! director Sam Pinkleton does no less – even if patrons are encouraged to lay off the pelted objects and too-many-interruptions with a pre-show warning “Don’t be an asshole.”
With immensely appealing performances from Luke Evans (yes, he most certainly can sing) as the sinister Frank-N-Furter, Rachel Dratch as the droll narrator quick with the audience repartee, the always excellent Andrew Durand as uptight (until he’s not) Brad and Stephanie Hsu as timid (until she’s not) Janet, this Roundabout-produced Rocky Horror revival is a first-rate presentation of a property that, along with John Waters’ early work, pretty much defined a certain strain of ’70s counter-culture fare.
And despite some early online grumbling and worrying about acceptable levels of the audience participation that has long defined the film experience, the live production (and the cast, especially Dratch) find a very satisfying medium, with the audience at the reviewed performance tossing out an occasional call-and-response line and cast members swatting them back with nonchalance. No objects, rice, toilet paper, toast or otherwise, were tossed at the living, breathing actors, as it should be.
Creator Richard O’Brien’s story remains as pliable and oddly charming as ever: An homage to all those cheesy sci-fi drive-in movies of the 1950s and ’60s, Rocky Horror, which began on stage in 1973 two years prior to the film version, begins on a dark and stormy night as the just-engaged, squeaky clean and very-sheltered couple Brad Majors (Durand, continuing his Shucked and Dead Outlaw winning streak) and Janet Weiss (Everything Everywhere All at Once‘s captivating Hsu) seek shelter in a spooky castle where resides a collection of out-of-this-world (hint, hint) loons who feign a politeness that doesn’t begin to conceal some darker goings-on.
Juliette Lewis, Andrew Durand, Stephanie Hsu, Amber Gray
Joan Marcus
First there are the servants Riff Raff (Amber Gray, the gorgeously voiced Hadestown star barely recognizable under some serious zombie-style make-up), Magenta (Yellowjackets‘ Juliette Lewis in a spirited Broadway debut) and, in another impressive Broadway bow, Michaela Jaé Rodriguez, the Pose star here playing the heartsick Columbia, she of an impossibly wide vocal range.
Dominating all – in more ways than one – is Dr. Frank-N-Furter, the libidinous mad scientist in leather corset-and-fishnet stockings (or, when needed, a nurses uniform all fetishized) whose sexual tastes are as loosely defined as the smears of garish make-up on his face. He sings, by way of hello, one of Rocky‘s signature songs – “Sweet Transvestite,” with its butter-wouldn’t-melt introduction, “I’m just a sweet transvestite from Transexual, Transylvanaaaanyaaaa.” He’s not all that sweet, of course – witness that dismembered dude in the bloody sack – but whatever he wants from both Janet and Brad – besides, of course, them – is the mystery that fuels the show.
The sci-fi twists and turns mount up and best not to spend an inordinate amount of time trying to make logical sense of anything. Better to just enjoy the castle’s liberating effects on the prudish Brad and Janet, or luxuriate in the the louche, dangerous decadence of Frank-N-Furter (original star Tim Curry’s DNA remains cooked into this crazy recipe, with the muscled action hero Evans adding a beguiling blend of machismo and coquetry), and a roster of musical numbers that never disappoints and often thrills, most notably the crowd-pleasing “Sweet Transvestite,” the retro “Science Fiction Double Feature” (Juliette Lewis’ delightful spotlight number), and, of course, “The Time Warp,” in which choreographer Ani Taj adheres to the familiar in-lyric instructions (“It’s just a jump to the left/And then a step to the right”) while pumping up the energy.
The creepy, B-movie set design by dots is exactly what the vision calls for, the David I. Reynoso costumes and wig-and-hair design by Alberto “Albee” Alvarado are splendid and Jane Cox’s lighting design sets the proper bump-in-the-night mood.
Rachel Dratch
Joan Marcus
Director Pinkleton, who helped make Cole Escola’s Oh, Mary! one of the funniest Broadway comedies of its generation, brings a similar effervescence to a stage show that’s been around since Nixon was scandalizing the nation and plummeting in the polls, an unpopular war of choice seemed endless, oil was a crisis and bigots were still insisting sexual and gender differences were signs of mental illness.
Ok, so maybe the times haven’t changed all that much. More’s the reason we need a little jump to the left and a step to the right and, most of all, a pelvic thrust that really drives you insaaa-yaa-yaane. Roundabout has gifted us a wonderful time warp, and we’d be assholes not to stay for the night.
Title: The Rocky Horror Show
Venue: Broadway’s Studio 54
Director: Sam Pinkleton
Book, Music & Lyrics: Richard O’Brien
Cast: Luke Evans, Rachel Dratch, Andrew Durand, Amber Gray, Harvey Guillén, Stephanie Hsu, Juliette Lewis, Josh Rivera, Michaela Jaé Rodriguez, and Renée Albulario, Anania, Boy Radio, Caleb Quezon, Andres Quintero, Larkin Reilly, Paul Soileau, John Yi.
Running time: 1 Hr 50 min (including intermission)
