The Rocky Horror Show UK Tour With Jason Donovan Theatre Royal Bath
The cult classic is in Bath this week
The Rocky Horror Show is at the Theatre Royal Bath this week. As always, it’s a proper banger.
I took my 14-year-old to see it for the first time after they discovered the classic movie earlier on this year, becoming a fully committed fan.
Following the show, I asked them what they thought of it. Had it been everything they hoped for? Their answer didn’t come as a surprise.
They absolutely loved the stage show, but found the vibe of the audience at complete odds to what they were expecting. This was an accurate analysis.
The cast is fantastic, really. Every one of them understood the assignment. The show was slick, its staging cleverly bringing together what we want from the original show, the original movie as well as a live show now.
This touring production was perfectly staged and a lot of fun in all the right places.
Nathan Caton was the Narrator for this show, bringing a proper fresh and contemporary vibe to the role. We loved this.
Jason Donovan plays Frank N Furter
Having seen the show for the first time in the early nineties onwards, it’s always been a chaotic bundle of fun, bringing together 50 per cent musical with 50 per cent audience interaction.
The Monday night performance in Bath shows how much audiences for it have changed over the years. Where once you would get 2000 people turning up each night to one of the bigger theatres fully decked out as one of the show’s flamboyant characters, this has gradually fallen right back at the performances early on in the week.
A handful of people were dressed up, with a few call-backs early on. Very little in the way of light appeared during Over at the Frankenstein Place. And, perhaps 15 per cent of the audience stood up for the Time Warp.
I recall the Time Warp to a 1994 performance at the Bristol Hippodrome making the entire upper circle shake in an alarming way such was the enthusiasm of the audience.
The other 85 per cent of the Bath theatre-going crowd radiated utter bemusement at the participating audience members. It made the sign outside banning rice, confetti, KitKats, water pistols, flour, and toilet rolls look positively quaint.
It’s ironic considering at every other show in the country, theatres are struggling to manage audience behaviour.
Come the encore, the entire audience were up doing the Time Warp, as the cast once again thrilled with the famous song. Following this, Jason Donovan made a reappearance with Sweet Transvestite.
A lesson is really learnt with this experience. If you want a full-on authentic Rocky Horror Show experience, go for the Friday and Saturday night performances.
If you want a chilled out Classic FM vibe, Monday is your night.
The Rocky Horror Show, which is still utterly brilliant, continues its UK tour into next year: https://rockyhorror.co.uk
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