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Mickey Jo (Theatre Critic)
So fear not, it is still just a jump to the left and then a step to the right. Only this time around, when they sing let's do the Time Warp again, what they really mean is no, no, let us do the time Warp. You just sit there quietly and watch. And in truth, this new Broadway revival of the Rocky Horror show has only really one big problem and it has nothing to do with what's happening on stage. I saw the show last month and I'm about to tell you finally exactly what I thought of it. But just before I do, a quick introduction to me for those of you who may be meeting me for the very first time. Oh my God. Hey, I hope you shivered with anticipation. Wasn't quite the same, was it? My name is Mickey Jo and I am obsessed with all things theatre inclusive. Within that, I am quite obsessed with the Rocky Horror Show. But more on that in just a moment. I am a full time theatre critic and a content creator here on social media and if you're doing a double take right now, don't worry, it is just a themed apron. A little Frank N. Furter number going on. I mean you should see the fishnets that I've got happening down here on the lower portion. Look at those. Hopefully that's put you somewhat at ease if anyone was anywhere on the spectrum between aroused and alarmed. Anyway, the costuming had to be a little bit out there because today we are talking about Sam Pinkleton's wild, vibrant new production of Richard O' Brien's The Rocky Horror show, currently playing at Studio 54 on Broadway, which is a really exciting piece of programming. Like, for the most part it doesn't tend to matter where these shows end up in terms of the history of that space. But to have Rocky Horror playing at Studio 54 feels like a massive invitation to a vibrant, queer, colorful party, it having been this hugely iconic nightclub. And yet though the show's characters arrive to something of a party, the audience doesn't necessarily. And that is because as we are going to go on to discuss in detail, this production, though it has figured out everything that's happening on stage, hasn't really determined its relationship to its audience, and the culture of callbacks and heckles that at this point go hand in hand with the Rocky Horror Show. Plenty to say about that while I share all of my other thoughts about the production. As always, I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments section down below, but particularly on this topic. Have you seen this production of Rocky Horror on Broadway? What was your audience experience like and do you wish that it had been different? Also, not for nothing, what has your previous experience with the Rocky Horror show been? And as always, if you enjoy listening to my thoughts and would like to hear more of them, as well as more of my broad reviews, then there are more coming soon. I have a few more shows to tell you about before this year's Tony Awards. Make sure that you're subscribed here on YouTube so you don't miss any or following me on podcast platforms. But in the meantime, let us do the time warp once again and talk about the Rocky Horror Show. So it would be helpful, I think, to clarify a little bit of the history of this show, which started its life, believe it or not, as a stage musical at the Royal Court Theatre in London In, I think, 1973, a couple of years before the film adaptation happened in 1975. A lot of people falsely assume that this was yet another movie that has made its way to the stage subsequently. And it always started its life on stage first, though at the very beginning of its time as a stage musical, it wasn't getting spontaneously heckled by the audience. That culture emerged with showings of the film. And it didn't come out of nowhere because the show, and by extension the film created Wholly by Richard O', Brien, paid homage to, like early to mid 20th century B movies, science fiction, horror. O' Brien describes himself as a pimple faced teen who would go along to these films and was deeply inspired by them. And on a deeper level, if indeed one is to be found within the anarchy and madness and structureless vibes of the Rocky Horror show, it's also something of a call to action for rebels and bohemians and punks and queers and anyone who wants to live a free, countercultural, subversive existence. We may begin with science fiction double feature, but we eventually make our way to Don't Dream It Be It. And I don't think there's much merit in me trying to lay out the exact plot for you here. Does anyone need a plot synopsis for Rocky Horror? Could I even provide one? Would it even make sense? Is there any benefit to it? The material and its characters are at this point, pretty iconic and beloved. I do wonder sometimes if there isn't a little bit of revision that we could do, if only to actually expand the book of the Rocky Horror Show. One of the things you'll notice if you go and see this in person is that the musical itself is incredibly short. And while many new musicals tend to arrive on stage with plenty of material that could possibly be cut, the Rocky Horror show actually has plenty of little corners and junctions in its narrative that could be expanded on and afforded a greater sense of meaning. But then, meaning is not necessarily something that we go to the Rocky Horror show for. No, what we tend to seek from this show and what I tend to seek from this show is a certain quality of nostalgic queer chaos Now I have been going to see the Rocky Horror show perhaps every couple of years since 2013. All but one of those productions have been the same perennial ongoing UK tour. This was my first exposure to a different creative vision. I was very excited to see that. What I was surprised by was that, like I said in the introduction, it hasn't really figured out its relationship to the audience. We're going to talk more about that, but let me tell you first of all, credit where it's due about the overall aesthetic of this production and how much has changed and how much remains the same. And the show begins before you even reach the auditorium. When you arrive into the gorgeous mirror lined entrance hallway of the historic Studio 54, the whole thing is washed out in green lighting. There is Rocky Horror messaging and there is a black blackboard of instructions being held up by a skeleton dressed as an usher. There's plenty of camp and wacky decorations, like a single rubber glove draped over the staircase. As you continue around the theater, there are a lot of sort of like chrome mannequins on the back of some of the chairs. They've been covered with tin foil in order to give them a sort of a metallic appearance. It doesn't all immediately connect to specific references, but the overall vibe is there. And from the director who brought Omari to the stage, this is pretty much what I had been expecting. And I very much trusted Sam Pinkleton to do a great job with this. And it delivered, I think, what I was expecting, but also what I was hoping for from a different interpretation of Rocky Horror, one that was decidedly queer. I know there was a whole conversation about a trans or non binary Frank N. Furter, and for so many reasons that I've already detailed, I don't think that's actually a good thing, especially in the current social moment. The show does feature plenty of queer performances and offers characterizations and aesthetics, aesthetics that are instantly recognizable and familiar of their iconic screen counterparts, but also feel fresh and original. One great example of this is the gender flipped casting of Amber Gray as riff Raff, a character whom you could still immediately identify in a police lineup, but who at the same time feels nothing like Richard o' Brien's version. The same goes for Andrew Durand and Stephanie Shue's nervous conservative Brad and Janet. And you know what? In a Broadway landscape in which revivals in particular seem to be moving towards high concept productions, this feels like it scores a win by just getting really comfortable with the idea of doing a fun new little bit different, but not Reinventing the wheel. Rocky Horror. This is not Rocky Horror with cameras. This is not Rocky Horror recontextualized in a completely different setting. This is not Rocky Horror on an epic scale. This is just let's do the show again in a fun way and let's put in all of these little wacky, playful creative touches. One early moment of those is these two sort of Cyclops showgirl ensemble figures who are sort of otherworldly esque, walking down the aisles of the theater and then parading across the stage. There are also a bunch of little models of Frankenstein castles lit up in parts of the auditorium when they're singing There's a Light over at the Frankenstein Place. Oh, here's one of my favorite touches. This one really lets you know the kind of whimsical evening that you are in for and really kind of acquaints you with what feels like Sam Pinkleton's sense of humor. The band are split across two balconies on either side of the proscenium, and on one side there are a bunch of these sort of chrome mannequins that are puppeteered and sing the backing vocals of over at the Frankenstein Place. It's a lovely little bit. At least I think those are the backing vocals. They sing some sort of backing vocals early in the show. And it's cute. And cute is one thing that Rocky Horror can successfully be. This also edges its way into the territory of sexy and a little bit dangerous, but not necessarily as much as the last Broadway revival that was seen about a quarter of a century ago. Certainly, though, and this is very welcome. It's a little more rough around the edges than the current UK touring production that we've seen so many times, which is at this point safe and maybe a little stale. But to its credit, that production at least knows what it's doing with its audience interactions. And this one, for some strange reason,
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Mickey Jo (Theatre Critic)
doesn't. Now this conversation has been ongoing since this production's first preview performance. Performance took place weeks ago when, astonishingly, they didn't seem to be anticipating a audible, vocal audience response in spite of the culture that has arisen alongside the show. And perhaps there is some transatlantic difference here because I hear a lot of people talking about the fact that that is only something they expect people to do at screenings. If you don't know, there is this shadow cast culture that exists alongside screenings of the Rocky Horror Movie and people will act it out on a stage in front film and people will throw popcorn and toilet paper and people will get pulled up to simulate erotic acts. All of this alongside a chorus of various heckled fan responses to the film, which allegedly arose organically decades back at a handful of late night screenings. At this point there is a sort of an unofficial fan script that accompanies the film, but also the stage production. And they aren't exactly identical, the stage script and the screenplay. But if you have seen the production in the uk, you will know that the culture exists with the stage production over here as well. In the U.S. rocky Horror is produced often around like Halloween time regionally. I don't know to what extent audience members show up there and shout things alongside the live stage version, but here in the UK it is what's done. And at the first preview on Broadway, that's what audience members, you have to imagine, many of them Die Hard fans, were prepared to do. The actors, however, did not seem to be prepared. And some of them, certainly the more popular ones, slot in pretty neatly into the show's dialogue. For the most part, they occur within these extended narrated sections presented by the narrator in this production, currently portrayed by Tony Award nominee Rachel Dratch. And these ones, to my mind, really work because it feels like this narrator character enters into a sort of a back and forth banter with the audience and they can come up with witty responses to the preordained audience responses to their lines. One example of this taking place almost immediately, in which the narrator says, I would like if I may. And the crowd then yells back, you may. The narrator then having the choice to simply continue or reply, thank you. And as it happens, there are other moments of the narrator's dialogue that seem to almost explicitly require the audience to shout back. I've often wondered about what would happen with the UK tour, especially as we get, you know, further and further on from the years of peak fandom for Rocky Horror. And I've wondered about certain parts of the country that this tour goes to. And I've thought like on a midweek matinee, are enough people in the know? Because I've been to very loud performances and I've been to performances where it feels like only a few dozen people know the callbacks and I have to participate as well, but no one around me is doing it. Certainly I think there are probably times when almost nobody in the audience is doing them, even where it is done here in the uk. But back to the Broadway production, there are for Die Hard fans, some more niche areas where you can make interjections. Or for the particularly brave, which many Rocky Horror fans tend to be, you can add in your own new ones. And sometimes people decide to do this during more emotional moments or during songs. And when you're heckling Brad and Janet it at the beginning, that again feels sort of traditional for the show. But when you're trying to get a laugh for your own witty joke, when Frank is singing I'm going home or something to that effect towards the end, that I think is unsports person like. And evidently first preview was chaos. All sorts of things were being shouted. Some audience members weren't expecting this, didn't anticipate this. They thought this was just the movie culture. The actors didn't seem to be anticipating it or know how to navigate it it and it became cacophony, apparently. So subsequently, the messaging that they have been putting out both online and in the theater via that little blackboard that I told you about, as well as in a pre show message sort of implies that they don't want people to do the callbacks, only they don't say it that explicitly. What they've chosen to do instead is to distribute this kind of a confusing message that suggests people ought to do it at their own discretion and use their judgment. And unfortunately, when you gather hundreds of people in Manhattan and expect them to all have the same judgment, that isn't going to work. Because for some people that means, cool, I will shout everything I want to. For others, it seems to suggest, oh, they don't want us to say anything. When really the only instructions that they're explicitly giving out are don't be a dick. And here is where all of this becomes a problem, because you might say, well, if the show is so great, why does it even need the audience to heckle it? You know, every other great show on Broadway gets along just fine without the audience shouting things, with the exception of every brilliant thing. You thought you were going to get me with that one in the comments, but I was ready. And honestly, it doesn't need it. I think this is a strong production. There are moments in the script that I would argue almost explicitly call for it. Not, not just the narrator moments, but when Janet runs down the aisle and finds herself alone on stage and has this extended sort of half a monologue that goes absolutely nowhere and she's kind of looking around like a tragic silver screen heroine and saying, where am I? What's going on? All of these things. And without the audience shouting back at her, you're in a play. Brad's over there, Woohoo. Without doing all of those fun things. Then she's just talking to herself for no reason for 45 seconds. But more than that. And I have had the joy of briefly getting to speak to Richard o' Brien about this and how he feels about the culture that has come up alongside the show. And he views it as this sort of a countercultural alternative church in which we aren't all politely replying amen and singing along with hymns, but we are doing the time warp and we are screaming and shouting back at these beloved iconic characters, only Right now, on Broadway, we're not doing all of that. And it's the Time Warp in particular that really gets me, because I get not doing the callbacks. But I was stunned that people didn't instinctively get up. And I was at a Wednesday matinee, so maybe this is happening a little differently from one show to the next. But they didn't seem to encourage us to get up and do the Time Warp. And it's a very easy dance to do in your seat. I have done it at enough theaters around the UK to know this. The placeholder they have for it in this production is they bring up two audience members on stage for them to do it. But it's just not nearly as fun as a theater full of people doing the Time Warp together. And the upshot of all of this, especially if you've been to a different production of Rocky Horror previously, is this feels like one where the audience energy is sort of weirdly conservative. It's surreal right now to go and see casual Cats on Broadway. Cats, the Jellicle Ball, of course. And for that to be a euphoric party. Riot energy in the auditorium. It is so giddy and gleeful. And then you go see Rocky Horror and it feels like you're in church and you're thinking to yourself, why have I put on this much eyeliner to sit here quietly? I think connectivity in the theater is one of the most special and powerful tools at its disposal. There are few shows that have the opportunity to do what Rocky Horror does, and I think it ought to, given the chance. I don't know exactly how you figure that out, because it wouldn't be quite as organic to distribute a list of, like, suggested audience responses. And I don't want people to, as they are doing at every brilliant thing, sit there looking at their piece of paper and not really engaging with the great visuals that are happening on stage because they're too concerned about saying the right thing at the right time. But I would also contend that what they're doing right now isn't working either, because it's sucking a certain amount of the energy out of the performance. And yet I still had a great time. Let me tell you a little bit more about
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Mickey Jo (Theatre Critic)
Why. So to comment on this production strengths, let's talk more about the individuals involved, that is the creative team as well as this company, led by Luke Evans as Dr. Frank N. Furter. And I think you still need a certain amount of inherent and obvious masculinity in this role, combined with a sort of a quaint theatrical femininity that British actors have always just done very well. There's something almost pseudo Shakespearean about Frank N. Furter mixed in with panto dame and panto villain a little bit and classic drag queen. But there's also, in the best interpretations, a bit of a danger to him. He is obviously motivated by lust and by jealousy, and Luke Evans manages to pull off the impossible here, which is to allow you to forget Tim Curry's iconic, peerless performance in the role for the duration of these two acts. He is quintessential Frank N. Furter, so recognizable once again, but also putting his own new spin on it, with vocal affectations that seem to pay a little bit of homage to Tim Curry, but also feel familiar of like Sir Ian McKellen. Luke, if you don't know, because he's become very well known for his screen work, actually began his career, I believe, in West End musical theater and it's lovely to see how he's graduating from the young, naive everyman outsider in Taboo to the reigning monarch of this mysterious and unusual world. He has such utter command over the stage and over the audience. He manages chemistry with absolutely everybody. He really delivers the goods vocally with just a little bit of edge in there, which I like. It should be that little bit rocky. And he has aided in his efforts via eye catching costume design from David Irenosa. And I love the aesthetics of the costume design throughout this production and the inspirations that it finds in punk, in retro punk, in contemporary queer and trans aesthetics. It pulls a little from like classic burlesque. It also pulls from like vintage fetish. All things which to my mind should end up on your Rocky Horror mood board. While we're talking about design, the scenic designer for this production is Dot, not unlike O Mary. We have a lot of curtain work and ruched curtains and things being pulled in and out to affect scene changes. You aren't going to see the biggest set pieces moving in and out of this production. We have a cute little car set up and then we have a large staircase as we enter into Frank N. Furter's lair home laboratory entrance way. One of my favorite details of the set design is the number of different entrances and exits that it has. I love that they spill out into the audience and use the aisles. I love that Rachel Dratch as the narrator has her own sort of little, little side portal on stage right. Hers has actually been one of the most acclaimed performances in the production and she effortlessly does it very, very well. I am intrigued about this becoming a long running show and whether they could bring in very easily. I think different narrators. But she's set a pretty solid standard for them to all keep up with. Rachel is one of a handful of hilarious ladies from Saturday Night Live currently gracing Broadway. And the combination of her like arched eyebrow and faux serious delivery in this smoking jacket, get up on this wheelie chair with the kind of squeaky voice that she has and pretending to take it seriously in a way that's a little familiar of her. Debbie Downer character is just perfect. But we've skipped a little hastily past our romantic lead characters, Brad and Janet, played by Andrew Durand and Stephanie Hsu. They are both hugely charming. We meet them as stuck up preppy college kids who by the end of the show have been sexually emancipated via their physical and emotional encounters with Frank N. Furter and his staff. By which I meant the people working for him, by the way, didn't mean well, if the shoe fits. Stephanie in particular, going back to her Broadway musical theatre roots, is is fantastic as Janet. She exhibits such wild abandon as we head into the second act singing Touch a touch a touch Me. But throughout the first, her hyper nervous facial expression, looking like a pet hamster that's been turned into a human for one magical day, is so hysterically brilliant. She so utterly satirizes the character that she is playing. She's like a children's TV cartoon who finds herself in porn and simply has to roll with it. I love everything about this performance. And speaking of Frank N. Furter's staff, which is a sentence I now can't take seriously, we have Amber Gray as Riff Raff, a role that she has apparently been pining for for some years and that emerges through the performance as well. What you forget about these characters about Riff Raff, Columbia and Magenta is they are deceptively small roles and you kind of want more of each of them on stage, especially when they're played this well. Amber, I thought was just, just fantastic. It's interesting the implication of gender flipping Riff Raff kind of spills over into what is usually Magenta territory. Magenta in this production is played by the Academy Award nominated screen actress, Juliet Lewis, unbelievably making her Broadway debut. And she brings a little less to the stage perhaps than the status of her name brings to the marquee. And that's sort of a hallmark of Rocky Horror. And as well, when it was last on Broadway again, there were a bunch of random celebrities. I think Joan Jett was in that production, Lea Delaria was in that production. And what Juliet Lewis brings to this is a certain amount of actual like punk rock energy as she's singing the opening number, but also queer status, as does MJ Rodriguez as Colombia. Now this is the character. You really truly forget how little material she has. And MJ is doing this very high pitched, sort of Minnie Mouse esque character voice choice which I think works. But had she more material, it may become grating again though, after the success that she has found on screen, thrilled that she is returning substantially to musical theatre. And there is a cumulative quality that I think is achieved by this company. There is just enough traditional versus slightly unexpected casting that it all works and it all feels fresh and brilliantly diverse, but it also feels like its own sort of vibrant, offbeat community on stage. Stage. Two more performers I need to tell you about. Harvey Guillen is playing Eddie Dr. Scott. I enjoy him thoroughly as Dr. Scott. I don't know that his Eddie gets all the way there necessarily, but once he turns up in the second act comedy brilliance. Josh Rivera is playing the role of Rocky, the job description of whom is to basically turn up, look sexy and ponder the implications of your creation as a sexual object and the fluctuations of your own physical desire. And I would say all three boxes thoroughly ticked. So don't get me wrong, I enjoyed this production of Rocky Horror. It really met my expectations. I do think it could become something that little bit more extraordinary and more unique and special if it were to truly embrace the culture that it has access to and the fans who are already walking through the door and really allow them to be a part of the show in a way that they traditionally have been. It's a complex conversation, I know, especially as we talk so often these days about disruptive Broadway audience members and, you know, everyone being entitled to an uninterrupted experience. I just think there is something in the context of it having happened previously that begins to feel a little restrained or a little inhibited about a Rocky Horror where they want you to just kind of sit there quietly and watch it. Admittedly, even if that is all you can do, there is plenty there to watch. Go and check this out for yourself on Broadway. And if you already have, I would love to know all of your thoughts in the comments section down below. Thank you for listening to mine. I hope you enjoyed if you did. And if you would like to hear more of my reviews and more of my reviews reviews about this season's Broadway shows, then make sure to subscribe right here on YouTube with the notifications turned on so you don't miss any new videos. You can also find these reviews and all of my other conversations on podcast platforms or you can sign up to my free weekly email substack newsletter. For now, that is everything I have to say. Thank you for listening. I have been Mickey Jo and as always, I hope that everyone is staying safe and that you have a stagey day. Patience. Wait. I didn't do it. I didn't. I didn't set it up. Well then that makes no sense. For 10 more seconds, I'm Mickey Jo Theatre. Oh my God. Hey, thanks for watching. Have a stagey day. Subscribe
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Mickey Jo (Theatre Critic)
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Mickey Jo (Theatre Critic)
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Podcast: MickeyJoTheatre
Host: Mickey Jo
Episode: The Rocky Horror Show (Studio 54, Broadway) - ★★★★ REVIEW
Date: May 29, 2026
Mickey Jo, a leading theatre critic and content creator, reviews the latest Broadway revival of The Rocky Horror Show at Studio 54. Through an engaging, in-depth discussion, he explores the production’s creative team, cast performances, design choices, and—most critically—the show’s uniquely fraught relationship with its famously interactive audience culture. The episode both celebrates the revival’s strengths and thoughtfully critiques its struggles with audience participation, ultimately awarding the production a strong four-star rating.
(Starts at 02:03)
(03:50)
(08:50, 13:53)
“As you continue around the theater, there are…chrome mannequins on the back of some of the chairs…It doesn't all immediately connect to specific references, but the overall vibe is there.”
— Mickey Jo (07:09)
(23:40)
“Luke Evans manages to pull off the impossible…to allow you to forget Tim Curry’s iconic, peerless performance…for the duration of these two acts.”
— Mickey Jo (24:04)
(Presence throughout, especially 06:00-10:30, 24:40)
(13:53, 19:30)
“I was stunned that people didn’t instinctively get up. And I was at a Wednesday matinee…They didn’t seem to encourage us to get up and do the Time Warp.”
— Mickey Jo (20:53)
On the show’s unique needs:
“I do think it could become something that little bit more extraordinary and more unique and special if it were to truly embrace the culture that it has access to and the fans who are already walking through the door and really allow them to be a part of the show.”
— Mickey Jo (31:54)
On the current Broadway experience:
“You go see Rocky Horror and it feels like you’re in church and you’re thinking to yourself, why have I put on this much eyeliner to sit here quietly?”
— Mickey Jo (20:40)
On balancing innovation and legacy:
“This is just let’s do the show again in a fun way and let’s put in all of these little wacky, playful creative touches. One early moment…two sort of Cyclops showgirl ensemble figures...It's cute. And cute is one thing that Rocky Horror can successfully be.”
— Mickey Jo (09:36)
Mickey Jo delivers a thorough, impassioned, and witty review. He lauds the creativity and casting of the current Broadway production, but strongly feels that the spirit of Rocky Horror is dampened by muddled and inconsistent policies around audience participation—a core part of its legacy and queer communal identity. The episode is a must-listen for fans and newcomers alike, both entertaining and illuminating on the complexities of reviving an interactive cult classic in modern Broadway.
For full review, Broadway analysis, and more, follow MickeyJoTheatre on YouTube and podcast platforms.