If you’ve never been to The Rocky Horror Show before, consider this your warning: go in with your eyes wide open. This is not a musical in the polite, sit on your hands sense. It’s a riotous celebration of camp, erotica and gleeful counterculture that still feels cheekily transgressive in 2025. Given it first hit stages in 1973, that’s saying something.
Before the lights even dim, the audience sets the tone. Think middle aged men in suspenders and heels, women in fishnets and corsets, and a healthy number of people who clearly know exactly what they’ve signed up for. This is as much a communal event as it is a show.
The plot, such as it is, follows squeaky clean American couple Brad and Janet, whose engagement road trip derails spectacularly when their car breaks down near a mysterious castle. Brad is played with wide eyed earnestness by James Bisp, while Janet, portrayed by Lucy Aiston, charts one of the evening’s most entertaining journeys, moving from buttoned up innocence to full blown awakening over the course of a single chaotic night.
Presiding over the madness is Frank N Furter, played by Stephen Webb, who absolutely owns the stage. Webb finds the sweet spot between dominance and camp, delivering a performance that is vocally powerful, knowingly mischievous and just threatening enough to keep things deliciously unsteady.
The supporting cast are equally strong. Nathan Zach Johnson brings a brilliantly twitchy menace to Riff Raff, anchoring the chaos with real precision, while Nathan Caton clearly relishes his role as the Narrator, sparring with an audience that knows every cue, every interruption and every filthy shout by heart.
Musically, it’s relentless. Sweet Transvestite, Science Fiction Double Feature and, of course, The Time Warp land with infectious energy, the pace rarely letting up. The call and response element is constant, often crude, and absolutely not for kids or the faint hearted.
Is it silly? Of course. Is it stupid? Frequently. Is it for everyone? Definitely not. But Rocky Horror knows exactly what it is and leans into it hard. Its tongue is firmly in its cheek and probably somewhere else besides.
If you’re open minded, happy to leave your inhibitions at the door and don’t mind the fourth wall being obliterated before the first chorus, you’ll have an outrageous time. For everyone else, there’s always the matinee of something sensible next door.
The Rocky Horror Picture Show runs at The Lyceum theatre until 17 January. Tickets available here.
