Despite being set at an drag ballroom contest, the new “Cats: The Jellicle Ball” never really comes off as anything more than a PG-rated version of the annual “Broadway Bares” fundraiser.
I was ready to write the same about the new revival of “Rocky Horror Show” that opened Thursday at Studio 54 — and then something happened that I’ve never seen before on the stage.
Two guys perform anilingus.
Let me explain in as graphic detail as I can and still be published: after Frank-N-Furter (Luke Evans) has seduced both Janet (Stephanie Hsu) and Brad (Andrew Durand) in rapid succession, it appears that Brad wants more – so much more that he’s tied up spread-eagle, and on his knees in front of that waiting rear-end, Frank turns his tongue into a working vibrator.
This revival, directed by Sam Pinkleton of “Oh, Mary!” fame, has already created controversy for warning its audiences that this show is “not a movie.” Apparently, kids who grew up with “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” on the midnight circuit were getting a little too rambunctious in previews at Studio 54. All those canned epithets they learned in school and now shouted out in the theater have been getting in the way of the live actors’ performances. No doubt, it’s a pretty rowdy crowd, but all those memorized lines fall a bit flat outside a movie theater at midnight. In a real theater, they sound deeply contrived in 2026.
Frank rimming Brad, however, creates a whole other sound from that audience. The shock, the thrill and the joy registers as the very real thing.
Back in 1975, I was a member of the rock press here in New York City, and publicists for the Broadway debut of “The Rocky Horror Show,” starring Tim Curry, did something unusual: they invited us rock journalists to a preview. It backfired bigtime. We had no interest in Richard O’Brien’s diluted-down brand of hard rock. Back then, the city was also a far edgier, dirtier and gayer place than it is today. Frank’s back-to-back banging of Janet and Brad probably raises more eyebrows today with Broadway’s tourist crowd than it did half a century ago with resident New Yorkers. I don’t even remember how the two seduction scenes were staged back then.
What I do remember is Tim Curry. He was so indelible that he owns Frank-N-Furter as much as Marlon Brando does Stanley Kowalski in “A Streetcar Named Desire.” Both performances are immeasurably helped there by being immortalized on film. I’ve seen many Stanleys over the years, and more than a few of them attempt to distinguish themselves from the original.
Not so with Frank-N-Furter. Tom Hewitt in the 2000 Broadway revival and Luke Evans now – they basically recycle Curry’s Frank right down to the black-lace stockings. Could this transsexual from Transylvania be into Latex or, maybe, gingham instead?
It’s sweet, and more than a little daring, that the new revival keeps the word “transsexual.” The cast from David Lindsay-Abaire’s new comedy “The Balusters” would have something to complain about there.
Beyond that anilingus scene, the new “Rocky Horror” is different in other ways, fortunately. For the record, it is by far the most lavish production of the show ever to play Broadway. Dots scenic design provides multiple sets, and especially creepy is the sticky “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” pod for the birth of Rocky (the very buff Josh Rivera). The wittily grotesque sets are in complete sync with David I. Reynoso’s costumes, Alberto “Albee” Alvarado’s hair and wigs, and Sterling Tull’s makeup.
All those visual accoutrements help to deliver Rachel Dratch’s absolutely riveting narrator, a vast improvement on Dick Cavett’s from the 2000 Broadway revival. Dratch even manages to have some fun with all those old, tired and lame audience-delivered epithets.
Magenta, as played by Juliette Lewis in her Broadway debut, is an Edward Gorey illustration come to life. Lewis’ voice still hypnotizes the way it did back in her teenage years onscreen in “Cape Fear” and “Natural Born Killers.” It’s as if James Earl Jones swallowed helium.
Best of all is Andrew Durand, fresh from being a corpse onstage in “Dead Outlaw.” It’s inspired casting because Brad acts like such a prig. With Durand in the role, we know from the get-go that he’s really just one of those kids in middle school who dreamed one day of playing Frank-N-Furter.
Now that’s a “Rocky Horror Show” I’d really like to see.
