Oh What A Night… Last night (Monday 8th) Ella and I managed to sneak out way into the London Production of another Richard O’Brien Musical, The Stripper. As some of you may have noticed we ran a competition for the production company of the show to help promote it and they were kind enough to give us a tickets – I even got to take my family with me.
The setting was perfect, they built the stageset directly in the bar, making it feel like we were in the Club Extravaganza itself, it was a seductive experience and it was only through careful observation that we noticed some of the people milling around the bar whilst the band played were wearing microphones, subtly placed.
Suddenly the lights go out, and a spotlight is focused on Lt. Al Wheeler (Sebastian Torkia) our iconic gum shoe who introduces us to a piece of classic pulp noir by Carter Brown (aka. Alan Geoffrey Yates). The tongue is firmly in the cheek, but the mystery remains sleazy but compelling. The songs are timeless, even if the sexual politics remain firmly in the time the play is set. However, that blatant, almost carry-on style, naughtiness acted as a perfect counter-point to the criminal context; making the whole thing hilarious. There is a self-knowing quality to the way that Torkia seduced the crowd (which was particularly hilarious when it was focused on Ella – who couldn’t stop laughing!) or when Gloria Onitiri, as the titular stripper Deadpan Delores Keller, decided to find a new way to use my hat…
The whole cast are supremely talented, switching flawlessly between multiple characters – there are only 5 of them playing 12 roles with Marc Peckering, Hannah Glover and Michael Steedon completing Benji Sperring’s cast. Sperring also directed last years smash version of Rocky (s)equal, Shock Treatment (which O’Brien also co-wrote with Richard Hartley).
It was a great moment in our journey making The Rocky Horror Show: Touch Me to be able to get a taste of another Richard O’Brien classic
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