The Rocky Horror Show, Sunderland Empire

WHEN it comes to theatre it is often said that people know what they like and they like what they know, and few shows can have become as familiar to its theatre audience as Richard O’Brien’s Rocky Horror Show.

On their way home, one dark and stormy night, Brad and Janet’s car bursts a tyre. Seeking refuge and a telephone at a nearby dark and gloomy house the door opens on a world of Transylvanian Transsexuality where corsets, suspenders and high heels are de rigueur. Little do naïve Brad (Ben Freeman) and equally innocent Janet (Diana Vickers) suspect the transsexual awakening that awaits them.

In Christopher Luscombe’s perennial production Liam Tamne breathes lascivious energy into the sexually anarchic Fran-N-Furter, as well as new life into his perfectly proportioned creation, Rocky – a demonstration from Dominic Andersen of just what a dedicated use of gym membership can achieve.

The audience maintains the tradition of repartee that it has carved out for itself, although some members seemed to struggle with the finer points. Luckily, the more-than-capable Steve Punt was on hand as Narrator to provide the ripostes to the out-of-step hecklers – and to be quite honest he was a lot funnier than they were.

A subtler touch to the volume control would have made the lyrics of the gentler numbers easier to follow, but leaping from their seats at the finale to Time Warp again, this Sunderland audience clearly knew what it liked.

* Runs until Saturday. Box Office: 0844-871-3022 or ATGtickets.com/Sunderland

*Then: York Grand Opera House, April 11to16. Box Office: 0844-871-3024 or ATGtickets.com/York

Laurence Sach