After a bit of a time warp, Monday evening at Rocky Horror was the lucky third time our trio had seen our favourite cult show which ranks in the top 10 of all-time nice-and-naughty musicals.
We were a foursome at the Bristol Hippodrome with our plus one being a Rocky Horror virgin and all approached the city centre theatre with some trepidation.
We wondered would the show be as good as we had ‘bigged’ it up to the newbie and would the cast be as good as past performers.
No worries, it was wickedly wonderful and the response from the enthusiast and raucous first night audience wearing the usual over-the-top, dressed-to-kill weird and wacky outfits was overwhelmingly f-a-b-u-l-o-u-s, dahling.
The story follows squeaky-clean college sweethearts Brad (Ore Oduba) and Janet (Haley Flaherty) on a kooky and spooky road trip which comes to a halt at a seemingly haunted castle full of oddball inhabitants.
Granddaughters Renée Butler and Erin Silvester came dressed as French maids and were dance and word perfect as the show progressed on stage.
Renée said: “The narrator (Philip Franks) was so good, with contemporary political references about Brexit, Priti Patel and chipolatas he even threatened friendly hecklers with deportation to Rwanda, all done in the best possible taste (not)!
“It gets better every time you go.
“Columbia (Lauren Ingram) did a tap solo which was so funny with a Matrix move and her opera singing was unreal.”
Erin said: “It wasn’t clear why people were being killed – was it because they were undercover spies?
“And the band overpowered the singing in parts but it was really, really good.”
Renée added: “You don’t necessarily go for the plot or the story, you go for the overall experience.”
Friend Hannah Clarke wore her lab coat from university days.
She said: “I was told you will have no idea what is going on so just dress up and go with the flow which I did and really enjoyed it.
“It is like a very explicit pantomime performed by people tripping out.
“I had watched the dance moves on YouTube and managed to stand and do a good impression of a person who knows what to do.
“Completely different to anything I have ever seen before.”
The girls agreed the science fiction part was underplayed in this version and the hilarious reference to Peter Andre had Janet smirking and finding it difficult to stay in character, in fact the whole theatre was in fits of laughter.
Magenta (Suzie McAdam) also doubled magnificently as the candyfloss usherette with pink beehive who introduces the show.
We loved Frank (Stephen Webb) in his fishnets and seduction scene, Riff Raff (Kristian Lavercombe) who was the standout performance in the first half until the Columbia’s dance, and the gym bunny without brains but plenty of brawn, pretty boy Rocky (Ben Westhead) and all the dancers please take an extra bow.
Oh and the timeless classic sounds especially Sweet Transvestite, Damn It Janet and, of course, the pelvic-thrusting Time Warp the evening went so quickly, we all decided we are going to have to go again…
Rocky Horror plays Bristol Hippodrome until Saturday, June 4.
Tickets from £13 plus transaction fee £3.65 online here:

Carol Deacon