The Rocky Horror Show
3 stars
Book, music and lyrics by Richard O鈥橞rien. Directed and choreographed by Donna Feore. Until Oct. 31 at the Avon Theatre, 99 Downie St., Stratford. or 1-800-567-1600.
This production of The Rocky Horror Show represents yet another improbable landmark in the twisted history of this famous title.
What started in the 1970s as the pet project of the English actor Richard O鈥橞rien became a surprise hit stage musical and cult classic film. The movie developed its own live performance following in the form of midnight screenings with fans lip-synching the dialogue and the audience heckling and throwing objects at the screen. The stage musical has become a favourite of amateur and semi-pro companies around the world including in Canada.
And now, it鈥檚 being produced by the country鈥檚 bastion of establishment theatrical prestige, the Stratford Festival, complete with a program note that reassures newbies not to 鈥済et too strung out鈥 by the way their fellow audience members might dress or behave (but also scolding those tempted to throw things).
The familiarity of Rocky Horror is what now defines it, and that鈥檚 something any production must contend with. The original musical was driven by O鈥橞rien鈥檚 nostalgia for mid-20th-century sci-fi, Hammer horror, and bodybuilder movies (the latter full of homoerotic subtext), all delivered through the gender-ambiguous aesthetic of glam rock. Many Gen-Xers and younger Boomers fondly remember sharpening their teenage edge by participating in the movie鈥檚 rituals (I found I know nearly all the lyrics by heart).
Director/choreographer Donna Feore鈥檚 production plays directly into this layered nostalgia, which makes for an entertaining evening (with a lot more f-bombs and double entendre than we鈥檙e used to at Stratford) but one that sidesteps real engagement with the material鈥檚 queer sensibility.
Feore鈥檚 production brings top-notch musical theatre talent to the plate. The movie鈥檚 not necessarily remembered for its musical excellence, but every member of the cast here is a great singer (though at times it feels like they鈥檙e competing with Laura Burton鈥檚 orchestra). Feore further signs the performance with sexy choreography performed by a pleasingly androgynous six-person chorus dressed in tight black leather with conveniently located gaps exposing washboard abs.
And speaking of ripped, Canadian musical theatre icon Dan Chameroy gives us a Dr. Frank N. Furter straight out of the weight room: the initial sight of him with his shoulders and biceps bulging above the iconic reverse garter rather takes the breath away. Like his fellow cast members, Chameroy looks amazing in Dana Osborne鈥檚 costumes, and his vocal performance in the signature numbers 鈥淪weet Transvestite鈥 and 鈥淚 Can Make You a Man鈥 is superb.
But there鈥檚 a limitation to Chameroy鈥檚 performance that also speaks to my concerns about the production overall: he plays Frank N. Furter with ironic distance, when it鈥檚 the character鈥檚 deranged conviction 鈥 and exceptional powers of seduction 鈥 that define him. He embraces Frank鈥檚 butch qualities at the expense of the femme, not yet strutting confidently in his high heels and fishnets.
By contrast, Robert Markus as Riff Raff (the character originally played by creator O鈥橞rien), Erica Peck as Magenta, and Kimberly-Ann Truong as Columbia come across as demonically committed, and that鈥檚 what makes the show funny 鈥 because the material is so ludicrously implausible.
Their foils are the na茂ve hero and heroine Brad and Janet, who chance on Frank N. Furter鈥檚 castle when their car breaks down. Feore and actor Jennifer Rider-Shaw are attempting some post-feminist revision to Janet as a dumb-blonde stereotype. She鈥檚 less interested in Sayer Roberts鈥檚 Brad than on the big rock he puts on her finger, and the couple don鈥檛 really spark sexually. This makes sense of them being drawn into Frank鈥檚 seductive web. His world unlocks taboo pleasures that their cookie-cutter heterosexual lives don鈥檛 provide.
George Krissa had his work cut out in topping the physical perfection already on display as Frank鈥檚 mad-science creation Rocky but really does look like some kind of god in his teeny gold lam茅 trunks and blond wig, and plays the character鈥檚 dopiness plausibly. Trevor Patt camps it up appropriately as both the half-dead rocker Eddie (played by Meatloaf in the film) and closet Nazi Dr. Scott.
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The red velvet setting of the Avon Theatre suits the material in that it feels a lot like an old-time movie house, underlined by having Peck sing the opening number 鈥淪cience Fiction鈥 in the guise of a 鈥50s usherette 鈥 a welcoming introduction, but less unsettling than the delivery of this song in the film by a disembodied mouth.
While the production is less lavish than one might have expected (it鈥檚 with Feore鈥檚 production of The Music Man over in the Festival Theatre that Stratford is pulling out all the musical theatre stops this season), the design team create a physical environment full of kitschy visual pleasures. The scene in which Riff Raff, Magenta, and Frank鈥檚 true identities are revealed is appropriately orgasmic. Osborne outdoes herself with chrome space warrior costumes, set designer Michael Gianfrancesco and lighting designer Michael Walton crank up the pink neon, and the back wall of the theatre blasts open (or projection designer Jamie Nesbitt makes it look that way).
Steve Ross, bookending a season of great comic performances (he鈥檚 also The Music Man鈥檚 long-suffering mayor), plays the Narrator, who pops on and off stage to tell the story and endure the audience鈥檚 abuse 鈥 booing him is a beloved fan convention.
On opening night the heckling came thick and fast, some of it presumably coming from audience plants but some seemingly also off the cuff (and so filthy!). Seeing Ross (and at points, Chameroy) process the hit and send it back out in the form of a raised eyebrow or middle finger brought some of the purest entertainment, a sense of the live and spontaneous in an environment of licensed, framed, and not-very-transgressive transgression from Transsexual Transylvania.
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