STAGE WEST: "Richard O'Brien's The Rocky Horror Show" at Cygnet Theatre

Nathan Madden as Dr. Frank 'N' Furter in "Richard O'Brien's The Rocky Horror Show."   Karli Cadel Photography

            I’ve seen “Richard O’Brien’s The Rocky Horror Show” so many times now, including twice at Cygnet Theatre, that I find myself looking at the crowd as much as I watch the action onstage. It’s fascinating. There are the longtime, diehard “Rocky Horror” fans who dress in drag and glitter. There are the longtime, diehard “Rocky Horror” fans who shout out “asshole” when Brad is mentioned or “slut” when Janet is mentioned – as well as other lines, some of which I can’t repeat here. Then there are the “virgins,” as narrator Linda Libby called them at Cygnet: folks seeing this show for the first time who sit there, arms folded, heads cocked, eyes glazed, unable to process what they’re seeing and hearing.
            If “Rocky Horror” was ever shocking – maybe it was 50 years ago when it premiered – it certainly isn’t shocking now. Guys in leather, in teddies, in high heels? Been there, seen that. Simulated sex? Even puppets and cartoons went there a long time ago. Audience participation? Today they call it “immersive.”
            None of this is to suggest that “Richard O'Brien's The Rocky Horror Show,” back at Cygnet in Old Town, is anything less than silly, nostalgic fun. For those longtime diehards, neither the characters nor the music-filled story will ever get old. For people like me who’ve seen the show a couple of times and don’t care if I ever see it again, I have to admit that there’s a lot to laugh and smile about with “Rocky Horror” and that the costumes alone (bravo, Jennifer Brawn Gittings!) are worth paying to see. (Full disclosure: I didn’t have to pay the other night.) Plus O’Brien’s catchy songs don’t get the respect they really deserve. “Rocky Horror’s” is a damned fine score. Most remember only the dance-along “Time Warp” ditty, but there are several well-crafted tunes, from the cleva “Dammit Janet” to “Science Fiction/Double Feature” that opens and closes the show.
            Are there any of you reading this who don’t know the “Rocky Horror Show” story line? That two goody two shoeses, Brad (Drew Bradford, in nerdy glasses) and Janet (Audrey Deubig, she of the darling Dorothy Hamill haircut), run out of gas and wander unknowingly into the castle of the omnipotent tranny from another planet, Frank ‘N’ Further (Nathan Madden, who’s terrific)? That they witness the high-heeled, corseted mad scientist bringing to life his own version of Frankenstein’s monster – the buff, golden-locked Rocky (Josh Bradford)? That B & J get lessons in pleasure (how’s that for a PG euphemism?) from Frank?
              There. That’s about it.
            Cygnet, which stylishly staged “Rocky Horror” a few years ago with Artistic Director Sean Murray as Frank ‘N’ Furter, does so stylishly again, this time with Murray directing. The cast is horribly good: Besides Madden, Bradfords Drew and Josh, and Deubig, Jasmine January, Shanyeyah White and Allen Lucky Weaver are aces as Frank’s lackeys Columbia, Magenta and Riff Raff. Jacob Caltrider rolls into the action late in the going as the wheelchaired scientist Dr. Scott, and Libby narrates/presides with a twinkle in her eyes.
            Nods also to Luke H. Jacobs’ choreography and the projection design by Blake McCarty that recalls those beloved sci-fi flicks from the ‘50s. I get a wistful charge out of seeing a glimpse of Robby the Robot from “Forbidden Planet” or Gort from “The Day the Earth Stood Still” or Gene Barry and Ann Robinson shocked by a Martian in “The War of the Worlds.”
            See? I have a soft spot for sci-fi. Drag, not so much, but there’s just enough sci-fi in “Richard O’Brien’s The Rocky Horror Show” that I keep going to see it even after I’ve told myself the previous time “Enough already.”
            “Richard O’Brien’s The Rocky Horror Show” runs through Nov. 2 at Cygnet Theatre in Old Town.