{"id":602892,"date":"2026-04-24T03:52:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T03:52:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/602892\/"},"modified":"2026-04-24T03:52:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T03:52:08","slug":"a-much-welcome-time-warp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/602892\/","title":{"rendered":"A Much Welcome Time Warp"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tThe Rocky Horror Show<\/a> opens on Broadway<\/a> tonight amidst a cultural landscape much changed \u2013 or maybe not so much \u2013 from the \u201970s midnight movie circuit era that gave asshole (audience says so, not me) Brad, Janet (damn it!) and Dr. Frank-N-Furter, the sweet transvestite from Transexual, Transylvania, a landing place in the world. A celebration of LGBTQ+ vivacity long before those letters were strung together, Rocky Horror was an outrageous and necessary tonic in a world unwelcoming to cross-dressing rice-tossers who shouted vulgar quips at big screen images of Tim Curry, Susan Sarandon, Barry Bostwick, Meat Loaf, all playing various assorted misfits.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe new musical revival from Oh, Mary! director Sam Pinkleton does no less \u2013 even if patrons are encouraged to lay off the pelted objects and too-many-interruptions with a pre-show warning \u201cDon\u2019t be an asshole.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWith immensely appealing performances from Luke Evans<\/a> (yes, he most certainly can sing) as the sinister Frank-N-Furter, Rachel Dratch<\/a> as the droll narrator quick with the audience repartee, the always excellent Andrew Durand<\/a> as uptight (until he\u2019s not) Brad and Stephanie Hsu<\/a> as timid (until she\u2019s not) Janet, this Roundabout-produced Rocky Horror revival is a first-rate presentation of a property that, along with John Waters\u2019 early work, pretty much defined a certain strain of \u201970s counter-culture fare.<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd despite some early online grumbling and worrying about acceptable levels of the audience participation that has long defined the film experience, the live production (and the cast, especially Dratch) find a very satisfying medium, with the audience at the reviewed performance tossing out an occasional call-and-response line and cast members swatting them back with nonchalance. No objects, rice, toilet paper, toast or otherwise, were tossed at the living, breathing actors, as it should be.<\/p>\n

\n\tCreator Richard O\u2019Brien\u2019s story remains as pliable and oddly charming as ever: An homage to all those cheesy sci-fi drive-in movies of the 1950s and \u201960s, Rocky Horror, which began on stage in 1973 two years prior to the film version, begins on a dark and stormy night as the just-engaged, squeaky clean and very-sheltered couple Brad Majors (Durand, continuing his Shucked and Dead Outlaw winning streak) and Janet Weiss (Everything Everywhere All at Once\u2018s captivating Hsu) seek shelter in a spooky castle where resides a collection of out-of-this-world (hint, hint) loons who feign a politeness that doesn\u2019t begin to conceal some darker goings-on.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

Juliette Lewis<\/a>, Andrew Durand, Stephanie Hsu, Amber Gray<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJoan Marcus<\/p>\n

\n\tFirst there are the servants Riff Raff (Amber Gray, the gorgeously voiced Hadestown star barely recognizable under some serious zombie-style make-up), Magenta (Yellowjackets\u2018 Juliette Lewis in a spirited Broadway debut) and, in another impressive Broadway bow, Michaela Ja\u00e9 Rodriguez, the Pose star here playing the heartsick Columbia, she of an impossibly wide vocal range.<\/p>\n

\n\tDominating all \u2013 in more ways than one \u2013 is Dr. Frank-N-Furter, the libidinous mad scientist in leather corset-and-fishnet stockings (or, when needed, a nurses uniform all fetishized) whose sexual tastes are as loosely defined as the smears of garish make-up on his face. He sings, by way of hello, one of Rocky\u2018s signature songs \u2013 \u201cSweet Transvestite,\u201d with its butter-wouldn\u2019t-melt introduction, \u201cI\u2019m just a sweet transvestite from Transexual, Transylvanaaaanyaaaa.\u201d He\u2019s not all that sweet, of course \u2013 witness that dismembered dude in the bloody sack \u2013 but whatever he wants from both Janet and Brad \u2013 besides, of course, them \u2013 is the mystery that fuels the show.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe sci-fi twists and turns mount up and best not to spend an inordinate amount of time trying to make logical sense of anything. Better to just enjoy the castle\u2019s liberating effects on the prudish Brad and Janet, or luxuriate in the the louche, dangerous decadence of Frank-N-Furter (original star Tim Curry\u2019s DNA remains cooked into this crazy recipe, with the muscled action hero Evans adding a beguiling blend of machismo and coquetry), and a roster of musical numbers that never disappoints and often thrills, most notably the crowd-pleasing \u201cSweet Transvestite,\u201d the retro \u201cScience Fiction Double Feature\u201d (Juliette Lewis\u2019 delightful spotlight number), and, of course, \u201cThe Time Warp,\u201d in which choreographer Ani Taj adheres to the familiar in-lyric instructions (\u201cIt\u2019s just a jump to the left\/And then a step to the right\u201d) while pumping up the energy.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe creepy, B-movie set design by dots is exactly what the vision calls for, the David I. Reynoso costumes and wig-and-hair design by Alberto \u201cAlbee\u201d Alvarado are splendid and Jane Cox\u2019s lighting design sets the proper bump-in-the-night mood.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tRachel Dratch<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJoan Marcus<\/p>\n

\n\tDirector Pinkleton, who helped make Cole Escola\u2019s Oh, Mary! one of the funniest Broadway comedies of its generation, brings a similar effervescence to a stage show that\u2019s been around since Nixon was scandalizing the nation and plummeting in the polls, an unpopular war of choice seemed endless, oil was a crisis and bigots were still insisting sexual and gender differences were signs of mental illness.<\/p>\n

\n\tOk, so maybe the times haven\u2019t changed all that much. More\u2019s the reason we need a little jump to the left and a step to the right and, most of all, a pelvic thrust that really drives you insaaa-yaa-yaane. Roundabout has gifted us a wonderful time warp, and we\u2019d be assholes not to stay for the night.<\/p>\n

\n\tTitle: The Rocky Horror Show
Venue: Broadway\u2019s Studio 54
Director: Sam Pinkleton
Book, Music & Lyrics: Richard O\u2019Brien
Cast: Luke Evans, Rachel Dratch, Andrew Durand, Amber Gray, Harvey Guill\u00e9n, Stephanie Hsu, Juliette Lewis, Josh Rivera, Michaela Ja\u00e9 Rodriguez, and Ren\u00e9e Albulario, Anania, Boy Radio, Caleb Quezon, Andres Quintero, Larkin Reilly, Paul Soileau, John Yi.
Running time: 1 Hr 50 min (including intermission)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Rocky Horror Show opens on Broadway tonight amidst a cultural landscape much changed \u2013 or maybe not…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":602893,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[262313,262314,21540,110469,88,115682,262315,262316,262317,262318],"class_list":{"0":"post-602892","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-amber-gray","9":"tag-andrew-durand","10":"tag-broadway","11":"tag-broadway-review","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-juliette-lewis","14":"tag-luke-evans","15":"tag-rachel-dratch","16":"tag-stephanie-hsu","17":"tag-the-rocky-horror-show"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602892","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=602892"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602892\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/602893"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=602892"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=602892"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=602892"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}