Fifty years is a long time to be a rebel and this lovingly spoofy musical is a bit creaky these days – but this cast is fun enough to keep the audience cheeringmade its stage debut upstairs at London’s Royal Court Theatre in 1973, but here in Australia, there’s a sense of national pride in its stubborn, decades-long success: we claim it as our own.
But 50 years is a long time to be a rebel, and our old girl, which lovingly spoofs B-movies to tell the story of a conservative couple crashing a sexy, Frankenstein-y party has some creaky bones. We’re so far now from midnight musical showtimes, once stacked with lively, raunchy audiences of repeat attenders: this 50th anniversary tour, directed by Christopher Luscombe, kicked off its opening night in Sydney at a downright sensible 7pm.
The show’s narrator is a critical part of setting the tone: they encourage the audience to scream and clap, and must volley with the, which started at cult film screenings and crossed over to the stage. When a narrator can rev up the energy, it can jolt the show with new life.
Henry Rollo just about walks away with the show as Riff-Raff – putting the rock back into a musical that can’t stop singing about rock’n’roll. Richard Hartley’s original musical arrangements sound bombastic here and, coupled with Nick Richings’ lighting design, keeps the party going.And then there’s Jason Donovan.
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