The Rocky Horror Show: Luke Evans and Josh Rivera — Photo: Joan Marcus
The freaks are back. Over fifty years ago, an unemployed British-born actor named Richard O’Brien was putting together a show just to “occupy himself.” The busywork paid off. The Rocky Horror Show eventually took flight in London in 1973, grabbed hold of Americans at Los Angeles’ Roxy Theater, and then transferred to Broadway, where it folded after a mere 45 performances. Apparently, New Yorkers didn’t care about the slab in the lab.
When the now iconic movie, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, premiered in 1975, the reception was equally as limp. Critic Roger Ebert wrote that it was “ignored by pretty much everyone, including the future fanatics who would eventually count the hundreds of times they’d seen it.”
But what a difference showtime makes. When movie theaters moved their screenings to midnight, lines formed. People dressed as the characters, shouted back at the screen, and hurled rice and toilet paper. And they are still doing today, as the film remains the longest-running theatrical movie in history.
Meanwhile, Roundabout Theatre has decided to bring the musical back to the stage with an all-star cast directed by Sam Pinkleton, who won a Tony award last season for Oh, Mary!
It makes sense to house the new production in Studio 54, a building where hedonism was once heralded and cocaine was its own special blizzard. Thematically, Rocky Horror strikes the right tone for a show about social outcasts, sexual exploration, and freedom to be who and what you are, especially with this mostly queer cast.
Having only ever been to two interactive screenings and seeing this current production, I must confess that I’m not an aficionado. While I do give myself over to absolute pleasure and suspend disbelief over the show’s content, it is fair to say that I am an admirer but not a mega-fan. Which begs the question: “Will die-hard devotees of Rocky Horror love what Pinkleton has done?”
I’m not convinced they will, as the result doesn’t really feel like the edgy, shocking Broadway spectacle this production could be. It’s a lot of heavy petting without ever reaching orgasmic heights.
Juliette Lewis, making her Broadway debut as Magenta, opens the show with a slowed-down version of “Science Fiction Double Feature” that mimics the film version’s tempo and orchestrations. Near the song’s end, supporting ensemble members carry signs stating, “This is live theater. Don’t Be An Asshole,” a nod to the popular call–back for Brad, as well as a plea to audience members to more restrained than they might be in a movie theater.
Rocky Horror Show: Stephanie Hsu, Paul Soileau, Harvey Guillén, Caleb Quezon, and Larkin Reilly – Photo: Joan Marcus
Audience participation proves to be a fine line for the cast and its director to tow, but the website offers some helpful advice: “We are returning to the roots of the stage show while embracing the culture of Rocky Horror. The call-outs that many people know are part of the culture, but we also want to balance the experience for the audience members who want to hear the musical and give respect to the live human actors who are onstage performing.”
At my performance, the audience was, for the most part, polite and demure. Rachel Dratch, masterful as the Narrator, was quick on her feet and navigated various comments thrown at her with improvisational skill. After an inaudible shout from the mezzanine, she responded with a wry, “Never heard that one before.”
Amber Gray is terrific as Riff Raff, the Igor-like butler who greets Brad (Andrew Durand) and Janet (Stephanie Hsu), a straight-laced, recently engaged couple to the mansion after a flat-tire strands them. Both deliver reliable performances.
It is really Luke Evans who grounds the production as the domineering “sweet transvestite” mad scientist Frank N’ Furter. Confident and self-assured, Evans channels the originator of the role, Tim Curry, but manages to still carve out his own interpretation.
Harvey Guillen (Eddie/Dr. Scott), Michaela Jae Rodriguez (Columbia), and Josh Rivera (Rocky), round out this tribe of misfits, each bringing serviceable justice to their parts, but nothing of great uniqueness or inspiration.
Like the movie, one wishes that Pinkleton had leaned further into the provocative nature of the material. Still, it’s a testament to O’Brien that his creation — with its infectiously hummable tunes — has endured all these years later. The community and kinship formed through it is a coming-of-age experience that knits together those who never fit in but found solace through those who also felt “othered.” The odd, irreverent ones are now sharing the spotlight on the world’s biggest theatrical stage of Broadway. That alone is cause for cele…..bration.
The Rocky Horror Show (★★★☆☆) is playing through July 19 at Studio 54, 254 W. 54th St. in New York City. Tickets are $72 to $269. Visit roundabouttheatre.org.
Oh! If only we could trade in real-world troubles for the confectionery town of Schmigadoon. Granted, we're not sure exactly where it is, nor do we have a clue as to why everyone is dressed in prairie dresses, Edwardian suits, or chore coats. And sure, it's problematic that there will be an auction at the social where women are auctioned off for a date. "Somehow we're ok with this," the townspeople sing in winking fashion. There is so much mystery around this fantastical place that has just landed on Broadway.
What we do know is that most of the residents in the town are cheerful, jaunty, squeaky clean, and they can't stop singing about, well, anything and everything. And by the final curtain, even cynics who loathe musicals will exit the Nederlander Theatre with elation, humming the tunes and buzzing with joy.
The second one-person show to grace The Shakespeare Theatre this season, Suzy Eddie Izzard's The Tragedy of Hamlet is quite a different beast from Bill Irwin's On Beckett. Right out of the gate, this has the feel of a celebrity offering, where the cult of Izzard is so integral to the concept -- and indeed the performance -- it's hard to tell where one begins and the other ends.
This isn't necessarily a bad thing, because, frankly, there has to be a pretty good reason to watch someone do all the parts in a play, especially something as inherently crowded and complex as Shakespeare. Izzard, with her versatile, high-profile career (encompassing standup, theater, television, and film) has developed just that kind of persona along with the ambition to master this particular skillset (she previously performed Dickens' Great Expectations).
In an already storied career on stage and screen, Claybourne Elder has earned Grammy, SAG, and Drama Desk Award nominations, sung with symphony orchestras and Broadway divas, and soloed at Carnegie Hall.
Yet, the performer, known for theater roles on and off Broadway, and as the ill-fated John Adams on HBO's The Gilded Age, had never released a solo album, until now, with his sparkling debut If the Stars Were Mine. The question for some might be, if not necessarily what took so long, why now?
"I think that there have been several times I'd thought about doing it," Elder tells me during a relaxed chat over Zoom. "And I was like, 'Oh, no. I mean, who wants to listen to it?' The kind of imposter syndrome gets to you, and you're like, 'Well, I don't want to.'" There's also the challenge, he acknowledges, of working out what you might want to say over an album's worth of songs.
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