Science Fiction/Double Feature

Went to the 5pm show of The Rocky Horror Show at the new Fareham Live venue. 75% of the audience, like me, were in civvies; there were just a few superfans in this time. Jason Donovan was hilarious as Frank N Furter. Nathan Caton as the Narrator had a fine line in ad libs and dry wit. His asides included “as likely as running out of baby oil at P Diddy’s mansion” and, in reply to an off-colour heckle, “Must be from Gosport”. Nathan then asked “Anyone here from Gosport?” I and others waved and he replied “I thought we’d priced you out”.

There was one small section of superfans all sitting together in a section of the stalls; they did the call-outs and Nathan interacted with them. When Janet was first introduced, he replied to their “Slut!” with “Hey, come on, that’s someone’s daughter!” Natasha Hoeberigs doubled up as the Usherette, giving her book-ending songs a suitably wistful tone, and as Magenta, playing the latter part oozing with sensuality. When we reached the Time Warp early in Act I, only a handful of people got up and did the dance, but when it was performed again for the curtain call the whole audience was doing it.

As we filed out, we passed people waiting to go in for the 8pm show. They were all dressed in full Rocky Horror rigout.