The Regent theatre was buzzing last night with people excited to watch The Rocky Horror Show. Myself included, this happens to be one of my favourite shows and this was my third time seeing it at the Regent. Now the people of Stoke are usually more dressed up than not when this cult classic hits the Regent stage but last night this wasn’t the case. There were a few who’d gone to town in their costume but most were just normally dressed. It was apparent from the get go that there were some diehard fans in the audience anyway. Why do I mention this? Well if you’re a stranger to The Rocky Horror Picture show, it’s all about the audience interaction.
This Audience interaction was perfectly greeted by our narrator for the night Steve Punt, this man could do no wrong on the stage last night. He had me in absolute hysterics and he dealt with the audience calls perfectly. As much as he probably gets them every night his gags were fresh and seemed like effortless improvisations, he shared jokes with us about it all. He had perfect command over the stage both physically and vocally. He held us as in an audience in his hands and he was simply just brilliant.
The show opened with Kay Murphy as Magenta/ the cinema worker. She added a lot of extra emotion in to Science Fiction/Double feature which was a nice change as an audience as usually it’s just sang through. However, her Magenta was really good but I really missed the traditional Magenta accent, she did this towards the end of the second half and when she did it was perfect. I’m not sure if this was a direction choice though as Paul Cattermole didn’t have an accent as Dr. Scott either which again was greatly missed. This truthfully could be because of how often I watch the film and that in every other production of the show I’ve seen they use the accents. However this isn’t a deal breaker for me as both acted the show perfectly.
Paul Cattermole, was brilliant as Eddie. He sang Hot Patootie brilliantly, he had that traditional rocker sound to his voice which was a huge change from his S Club 7 days. He and Sophie Linder-Lee were the perfect Eddie and Columbia. I loved Sophie’s Columbia she somehow stuck to the film character, but made her more emotive at the same time she was brilliant. Her comic timing was second to none.
One of my favourite performances of the entire show came from Kristian Lavercombe, he was the embodiment of Riff Raff from the second he appeared in There’s a Light he had me hook line and sinker. He was a joy to watch in this role, honestly I simply can’t put into words how brilliant he is. Whenever he was on stage I couldn’t stop watching him his stage presence was just electric.
Ben Freeman and Diana Vickers took on the roles of Brad and Janet and were both brilliant. These I feel are two of the hardest roles in musical theatre and both actors did them nothing but justice, they worked perfectly with each other and with everyone else on the stage. They were just two really brilliantly casted actors which I think really says a lot in these two roles. Vickers worked brilliantly alongside Dominic Anderson as Rocky who played the naivety of Rocky perfectly my only gripe is he wasn’t blonde! They’d even changed the lyrics in sweet transvestite for this, again this wasn’t a deal breaker though.
Have I saved the best until last? Yes, Liam Tamne as Frank-N-Furter. He was just insane, he changed the role to make it his own and boy did he do that. He was stunning in this role. The entire audience cheered when he entered the stage and rightly so. He caught the hilarity of Frank brilliantly. One minute could have you crying with laughter and the next just crying. He rendition of I’m going home was in a word stunning. He was born for musical theatre and to play Frank. Vocally stunning, visually stunning just perfection.
The audience loved the show from everyone getting up and doing the Time warp to the standing ovation before the walk downs had even started, this show is a must see and so is this cast. There’s a reason it’s a cult classic and last night and the audiences reactions to the show just proves it.
Reviewer: Leanne Ashworth
Reviewed: 23rd May 2016
