Review- Whatever Happened to Saturday Night? – The Rocky Horror Picture Show – New Theatre Oxford
Last Saturday I went to see The Rocky Horror Picture Show at the New Theatre Oxford, as part of their 2019 world tour.
The stage show is based on the cult 1975 film of the same name, created by Richard O’Brien. The film was quite groundbreaking for the time especially for its portrayal of sexuality and gender identity.
This was my first time seeing the show live. Previously I had scene the original film and a live show streamed at the cinema in 2015. The live stream was very good, but I knew it would not be as fun as attending an ACTUAL live screening!
As soon as we got off the bus in Oxford we were surrounded by people dressed in obvious rocky horror attire, maids, people wearing clothing emblazoned with rocky horror quotes and of course fishnets!
The show did not disappoint. The cast included Joanne Clifton (Janet), Ben Adams (Brad), Philip Francis (Narrator) and Duncan James (from ‘Blue’) in the iconic role of Frank N Furter. The cast did a great job with Duncan James and Philip Francis being the standouts for me. I also enjoyed Laura Harrison’s (Usherette) renditions of “Science Fiction, Double Feature” which book end the show.
The best part of the show had to be the audience participation, which is a major part of the Rocky Horror experience! Audience Participation originally started in certain showings of the movie, this then moved on to the stage show and has become an integral part ever since! Most of the participation comes in the form of shout out responses to The Narrator eg whenever he says “Brad” the audience responds with “A**SEHOLE!”. The audience responses often change from show to show and often reflect current pop culture, this makes every show unique in its own way!
The audience in our show was very on form for this particular showing, with the members of the front row never missing their cue!
It was fun experience overall and I have to say I slightly regret not dressing up…There’s always next time though!