The Rocky Horror Show

Although it is due to hang up its heels and end its four year tour, Christopher Luscombe’s flawless production of Richard O’Brien’s Rocky Horror Show is still theatre’s most excitingly monstrous musical.

It’s the classic American love story: boy meets girl and falls in love; boy and girl set off to celebrate their engagement, their car tyre explodes and they are forced to take shelter in the arms of a dark Transylvanian transvestite master.

David Bedella’s Frank N. Furter is scintillating. In the sorry history of star turns, only Bedella has earned his place as a true rival to Tim Curry’s original, vocally oozing a rich, American sex appeal whilst finding an often overlooked vulnerability in the role.

Janet Bird‘s witty set design is an acutely observed homage to b-movies of the era, subtle yet inventive in its execution, cleverly using the low-fi technologies of early cinema in its shadow play and tricks of perspective.

Luscombe’s production is a triumphant return to Rocky’s roots. With nostalgic costuming by film designer Sue Blane, it finds the crazed spirit of a film which has been playing midnight shows for nearly forty years, filtering it through a comic prism of colour and creating, as Frank did, an entirely new Monster.

– Scott Purvis

The Glasgow run of the tour is dedicated by the producers and the cast to the memory of Gerard Kelly, who died suddenly last month. Kelly was due to play the part of The Narrator and has been replaced by fellow Scots actor and friend, Andy Gray. The programme was reprinted to include a special photograph of of Gerard Kelly along with a dedication.

Kelly was a King’s Theatre favourite appearing there in many pantomimes and plays. He had been due to return again in Snow White in December.

Gerard Kelly‘s funeral will take place in the city on Friday, 12 November and the cortege will slowly drive past the theatre, where the actor had many of his greatest successes.

– Keith Paterson