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Rocky Horror: David Bedella, who plays the wickedly seductive Frank `N` Furter, has made the part his own
By Andy Batten-Foster
The Rocky Horror experience began for me on the bus going into the city centre. Sure enough, there were lots of fans on board wearing mascara, corsets, suspenders and fishnets (most of them men) and all were in black. Some, I discovered later, were packing water pistols. None of the other passengers cared or even seemed to notice. I just thought “Good, at least I’m on time.”
The latest production of Rocky, at Bristol’s Hippodrome, comes 37 years after this kitsch and camp-fest first opened in London – that makes it nearly a Mousetrap of a musical – and, as we’re all invited to Do the Time Warp once again, it has to be said some bits of the show are showing their age.
Luckily they’re not the best bits. There are two genuine stars of the Hippodrome show; David Bedella, who’s played the wickedly seductive Frank `N` Furter many times before and arrives with a huge reputation for making the part his own, (he calls F`N`F “The Hamlet” of musical theatre, but then he is an actor), and Michael Starke as The Narrator.
Starke’s television work – 15 years as Sinbad in Brookie, six years as Ken Hopkins in The Royal and most recently Jerry Morton in Corrie – does nothing to prepare you for just how sharp he is here as the chubby old queen who guides us through the story and commentates on the action.
Nowadays The Narrator’s role is quite a challenging one, because while you’ve probably seen the show or its movie spin-off before, you might not be aware of just how sophisticated an interactive theatrical experience Rocky has become as a result of its audience “Call Backs”.
Lots of the crowd know the script so well that they interject their own (usually obscene) comments into the action – they also bring along various props to enhance the show, like those water pistols to help the storm scene. This makes the show different every night – and often highly competitive. The Narrator has to deflect the majority of these Call Backs and Starke was great on opening night.
“It’s over…” he declaimed at one point. “Like your career!” shot back an audience wiseass. “You’re not the producer of Coronation Street are you?” replied Starke, quick as a flash.
And to be fair Bedella was every bit as smart. Another Call Back literally stopped the show. Just before the final scene, the script called for Frank to shout “Wait…” and an audience wag completed the sentence with “I haven’t come yet!” to a huge laugh. Everyone knew it was funnier than the next line in the script – the whole cast on stage were laughing – so Bedella stopped in his tracks, looked over his shoulder and delivered a cool, “You twat!” before continuing.
There’s lots to praise here. The live band is proper rock show loud, the choreography is tight as a drum, Richard Meek and Haley Flaherty terrific as sappy teenagers Brad and Janet. And to a huge degree the story still works. Not even writer Richard O’Brien would pretend Rocky is high art, but when Frank `N`Furter is finally betrayed (I can’t believe I’m spoiling anything for anyone here) you have to care a bit.
Best of all are the songs. They’re really lovingly crafted pastiches of rock `n` roll and fifties love-songs and have survived the intervening years wonderfully.
But the moments where the show really looks its age are where we are supposed to believe in F`N`F’s “message” of free love and the surrender to absolute pleasure. This is – if you’ll excuse me – frankly nothing more than a 70s embarrassment. There’s even a stylised orgy where everyone on stage just looks like they’re hoping to get it over with quickly before the audience notices.
Rocky is a period piece, written not so long after Hair and Jesus Christ Superstar and we’ve all come a long way from then. So here’s the thing. Maybe The Rocky Horror show is stuck in something of a Time Warp of its own, but it is still a riot of a night out, even more so if you are prepared to enter into the spirit and bring something of yourself to the show.
But don’t expect to find anything even vaguely shocking or subversive. Nothing dates as quickly as shock tactics and you could take your granny to this version without fear of embarrassment. You could even dress her up and go on the bus.
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