Directed by Allison Austin
Choreographed by Lindsey Glick
Featuring Kelly Devoto, Carey Embry, Troy Guthrie, Adia Joelle, Jessica Kiper, Molly Laurel, Alexei Ryan, Max Maven, Peter Tucci
Reviewed by Matthew C. Funk
There are few plays as kinetically freakish as Rocky Horror Show. Even the movie has inspired a cult of bread-chucking, squirt-gun-firing transvestites to pack art houses for midnight fits of acting out the film as it runs onscreen. It has to be busy, sexy, crazy, weird and cheesy, just like the 50’s Americana that it lampoons with a lyrical gumbo of Science Fiction and kinky sex. The new theater production of Rocky Horror Show, running from June 3 to July 10 at the Los Angeles Underground Theater on Wilton under the direction of Allison Austin, mainlines these themes right into the audience’s eyes and eardrums...
It isn’t an easy feat. Rocky Horror is high-intensity strangeness and can easily devolve into a mish-mash of lace-and-latex that will leave an audience numb and shrugging. Austin also has only about eleven feet of stage space to block out the frenetic dance numbers and carnal chaos. She not only achieves this, but does so with flair. Austin has seen that each of her actors imbue their roles with a personality that makes the story deepen no matter where you’re looking—spotlight or stage left.
This makes Big Brit Production’s Rocky Horror Show a fully fleshed experience—no pun intended—rather than just a rehash of a play so hammy it could be canned. Stripped as the actors are, Austin and her players slapped layers of pathos, lust and humor onto their characters. It’s as much fun following one character than it is just staring at where the spotlights fall.
Having some outstanding talents brings this bang-on drama in a big way. Carey Embry is no reheated Frank-N-Furter, discarding the sultry mold standard to that lead and cranking up his strengths—energy, presence and vocal power. Embry’s Dr. Frank strides the stage like a magnificent raptor, commanding the cast’s dynamic with a coked-out queen’s jackhammer mincing and dinosaur’s raw force. As Magenta, Jessica “Sugar” Kiper has to cultivate and close the energy of the show with the number “Science Fiction/Double Feature,” and she does so with spot-on acting and studio-quality voicing. There isn’t an emotional note Kiper doesn’t deliver with timing and distinction that’s as explosive as it is seemingly effortless. And a startling highlight was Kelly Devoto, Columbia, who inhabits her role so completely that watching her too long hits the reset button on your reality and sends you into Rocky world. We meet Columbia as if for the first time from her, and enjoy every winking, crooning, tap-dancing moment.
Underground Rocky Horror Show isn’t without its sour spots. For all the cast’s dynamic clicks when it comes to drama, some of the more powerful voices dogpile the others when they all try to get in tune. Molly Laurel sings some parts fit to make angels’ toes curl, but her Janet’s crucial pathos doesn’t have the emotional range of her vocal range, coming off a touch-too-much Wonder Bread. Underground Rocky Horror can mire in high camp and lose its sophisticated stride sometimes, until one of the powerhouses takes the stage and shoves it back into top gear.
The Allison Austin Rocky Horror Show can seize you and sweep you away despite a few seams. It crams sophistication and sheer power into the expected Rocky Horror tropes—smirking innuendo, depraved poetry and sleaze strong enough to smell. Any fan of theater or film will find tasty veins in the deep performances for their teeth to sink into. Underground Rocky Horror is no tired, old tranny pacing Tim Curry’s footsteps. It’s a take that feels fresh as a first time, laser vivid and as wild as Sci-Fi wants to be.
'Rocky Horror Show' continues through July 10 2010 at the Los Angeles Underground Theater, 1312 N. Wilton Place, Los Angeles; (323) 960-4433, www.rockyhorrorunderground.com
Rating: (4 out of 5):
