‘The Rocky Horror Show’ Makes a Welcome Return To Provide Exuberant Eccentricity on Broadway

As a couple of recently unveiled Broadway productions have reminded us, it’s very difficult to build a full-length show on a foundation of camp. What’s harder still is to sustain such a show through a tonal shift that ultimately gives it more emotional punch, which is what Richard O’Brien did more than 50 years ago with “The Rocky Horror Show.”Since opening in London in 1973, Mr. O’Brien’s musical, a sendup of cheap, tacky sci-fi films from the mid-20th century with a glam rock-inspired score, has remained an international favorite; the 1975 film adaptation, “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” was an even bigger sensation and is still in limited release, drawing fans who dress up as its motley crew of characters and greet their lines with memorized replies and comments.There had nonetheless been only one Broadway revival of the stage musical since its short-lived first run there, also in 1975. Happily, Frank-N-Furter’s glittering spaceship has returned, with the perfect captain steering it: director Sam Pinkleton, who demonstrated his flair for giddy irreverence with last season’s “Oh, Mary!,” now shaping up to be an enduring hit in its own right.Mr. Pinkleton’s “Rocky Horror,” a Roundabout Theatre Company production which has opened at Studio 54, is even more of a party, with a more moving denouement. The festive atmosphere is established from the start by lights strung throughout the theater. Film veteran Juliette Lewis, making her Broadway debut as part of an eclectic, starry cast, greets us with “Science Fiction Double Feature,” one of several cult standards the show introduced. We then meet straight-laced sweethearts Brad and Janet, played here by Andrew Durand, a rising musical theater star, and Stephanie Hsu, appearing on Broadway for the first time since earning an Oscar nomination for 2022’s “Everything Everywhere All at Once.” For those unfamiliar with the story, Brad and Janet are left stranded by a flat tire and soon land in what seems to be a mysterious castle, whose inhabitants have names like Magenta, Ms. Lewis’s character, and Riff Raff, her brother. The latter role proves a delicious showcase for Amber Gray, whose gifts as a singer and actress have accommodated a wide variety of roles; here she’s piquant and vaguely malicious, whether belting out “The Time Warp” or lurking in the background.The siblings are servants, or so it would seem, of Frank-N-Furter, that mad scientist and self-described “sweet transvestite from transsexual Transylvania,” presented here dressed to the nines by David I. Reynoso and played to the hilt by Luke Evans. Mr. Evans cut his teeth on the London stage before finding fame as a screen actor, but “Rocky Horror” marks his first Broadway performance, and it’s a smashing one: hilarious, darkly sexy, and, when that late twist demands it, poignant, not to mention gorgeously sung.Mr. Durand, who in his last Broadway gig, “Dead Outlaw,” spent half his time onstage playing a corpse, brings a droller stiffness to Brad, who has to play protector before the terrified, uptight Janet slowly lets down her guard, a process that Ms. Hsu makes funny and charming. Other standouts include “Saturday Night Live” alumna Rachel Dratch, who brings expert comic timing to the dry narrator, and Michaela Jaé Rodriguez, exuberant and touching as Columbia, one of Frank-N-Furter’s numerous lovers and most devoted admirers.Mr. Reynoso’s gloriously gaudy, bawdy costumes are matched by the playful wit of the scenic design, done by the multi-disciplinary collective dots, which in addition to an elaborate monster-making machine includes a traveling, neon-green replica of the castle and silver robots who seem to double as background vocalists. At the preview I attended, some audience members arrived determined to shout back at the actors, as they would if watching the movie version; the cast members took it in stride, occasionally ad-libbing responses, though it was a guy sitting back of me who had the best retort to a particularly loud woman: “Are you part of the show?”By the musical’s end, when dreams of liberation are dashed, the crowd was silent, though the players had no trouble getting everyone on their feet for a brief encore of “Time Warp.” It’s not often you leave a theater both slightly shaken and bursting with joy, but “The Rocky Horror Show,” in this fresh, fine incarnation, continues to offer that experience.

‘The Rocky Horror Show’ Makes a Welcome Return To Provide Exuberant Eccentricity on Broadway

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