The Rocky Horror Show: Christin Wright, Nicholas Miles, and Meghan Gosse – Photo: Teresa Castracane
The Rocky Horror Show is alive and kicking at Baltimore’s Iron Crow Theatre, which has made an annual tradition of presenting the legendary rock musical featuring book, music, and lyrics by Richard O’Brien.
Christening the company’s new permanent space in Charm City’s hipster Remington neighborhood, artistic director Sean Elias stages a lively, liberated (and liberating) production that definitely feels at home in this voluminous black box.
Elias unleashes the show’s rowdy creatures of the night on an in-the-round stage equipped with a nifty casket trap door embedded in the checkerboard floor. Bruce Kaplin’s goth scenic design, gorgeously complemented by Thomas P. Gardner’s lighting, conjures an atmosphere somewhere between rock bar and sex castle.
Dive bar is the sound the show’s band is serving, though. Muffled in the sound mix, the outfit, led by music director Stacey Antoine on keys, is not the tightest we’ve heard at a musical lately — and that includes the sharp-as-nails band that played Monumental Theatre’s scintillating Rocky Horror Show earlier this fall.
Still, there are some powerhouse singers in this production, plus an infectiously upbeat attitude bubbling through the entire cast, and a striking femme top Dr. Frank-N-Furter, portrayed by Nicholas Miles, to focus our attention.
Less “androgynous alien” and more “bitchy madam,” this Frank practically demands submission from pent-up visitors Brad (Brett Klock) and Janet (Jay’Na Johnson). The plucky pair wander into Frank’s castle looking for a phone and instead find the self- proclaimed “sweet transvestite from Transsexual, Transylvania” intent on seduction.
The Rocky Horror Show: Benjamin Eisenhour (center) – Photo: Teresa Castracane
Of course, every soul inside the castle — handyman Riff-Raff (Benjamin Eisenhour), maid Magenta (Christin Wright), servant Columbia (Meghan Gosse), and the bevy of satin-and-lace-clad Phantoms — encourages the couple to just go with it.
Leaving one’s inhibitions at the door is also highly, and famously, encouraged for the audience, who are provided a script for callouts, and a bag of props to play along as the plot grows more and more twisted. The audience the night we attended, a majority of them in costume, was absolutely up for games and shenanigans.
Per Klock’s performance, Brad likewise arrives seemingly ready to play, blunting the character’s straitlaced-to-just-lace evolution. But Klock packs his slightly naughty Brad with loads of puppy-dog personality, as in his bouncy “Damn It Janet” and sweet “Once in a While.”
The Janet in question rounds a wider turn from startled innocent to seductress in lingerie, thanks to Johnson. Although, even when she dives into debauchery with abandon, this Janet still doesn’t feel totally unbound. “Touch-A Touch-A Touch Me” turns out a tad tepid — as does Kobe Morrison’s Rocky, by the way.
Not tepid at all are the shredding rock vocals of Eisenhour’s full-throated Riff-Raff, and Geradan Ward in a hilarious double-play as doomed ex Eddie and wheelchair-bound Dr. Scott.
Miles, reprising the role of Frank-N-Furter for a fifth time at Iron Crow, brings both knockout vocals and swift comic timing, plus undeniable presence, as the master/mistress of all of us creatures of the night.
Xorlali Plange’s lush costumes add amply to Frank’s commanding Mother of the House aura, and, again, so does the dynamic lighting, which perfectly frames Frank’s big finish in “I’m Going Home,” a musical and emotional highlight of a fun and fabulous show.
★★★☆☆
The Rocky Horror Show plays through Nov. 7 at Iron Crow Theatre, 2600 N. Howard St., Baltimore, Md. Tickets are $65 to $89. Visit ironcrowtheatre.org.
The stage packed with band instruments, amid lamps and candles arranged on coffeehouse rugs, sends a strong signal before Keegan Theatre’s Hundred Days has even started that we’re in for a good hang.
Especially for anyone partial to the Mumford-y sounds of stomp-and-clap folk rock, the show, with music and lyrics by The Bengsons, has much to offer, from the first song to the last. And the cast of performer-musicians assembled by director Christina A. Coakley rips into every number with gusto.
The self-described folk-punk score is the standout feature of married couple Abigail and Shaun Bengson’s autobiographical odyssey into their love story and life leading their family band. Originally performed by the Bengsons themselves -- who co-wrote the show book with Sarah Gancher -- Hundred Days evolved over several productions before becoming a hit in its 2017 Off-Broadway run at New York Theatre Workshop.
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Betrayal -- Harold Pinter turns a seven-year affair inside out, beginning with its aftermath and moving backward to its tentative start. As Emma, her husband Robert, and his best friend Jerry revisit the lies binding them together, what remains unspoken proves as revealing as what is confessed. Directed by Alex Levy (10/8-10/25)
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THE ALDEN THEATRE
There's a lot of talking, posturing, and jostling over who's the boss in August Wilson's Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, now at Round House Theatre in a solid co-production with Olney Theatre Center.
Set during a testy 1920s studio recording session with blues queen Ma Rainey (Nicole Michelle Haskins) and her four-man band, the play pointedly, and often hilariously, illustrates how the work and/or good spirits come grinding to a halt due to disputes over who's running things 'round here.
Mel Sturdyvant (Chris Genebach) is the white man running this Chicago record company. Irv (Michael Glenn), also white, is the guy managing Ma and the band, charged by Sturdyvant with keeping Ma in line so they cut this record. Trombonist Cutler (Craig Wallace) is the bandleader, in charge of corralling the musicians. But, unquestionably, nobody's in charge of Ma.
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