"Richard O' Brien's Rocky Horror Show"

Nottingham Royal Concert Hall.

Now in its' 52nd year The Rocky Horror Show is sexier and as funny as ever with costumes which are more revealing than a Coldplay kiss cam!

For anyone who is either not old enough or has been living under a stone for the last 52 years, the story is thus. Two squeaky clean college kids – Brad and his fiancée Janet's car breaks down outside a creepy mansion whilst on their way to visit their former college professor, they meet the charismatic Dr Frank’n’Furter, who invites them to stay, where they meet many interesting characters throughout the night. A night filled with fun, frolics, frocks, and frivolity.

The show starts with Natasha Hoeberigs as The Usherette, immediately setting the tone and feel of a 1950's cheesy schlock horror, with a side order of sauce. Natasha also plays the role of Magenta, the maid over at the Frankenstein place (as the song goes).

Brad and Janet are played by Connor Carson and Lauren Chia and are suitably naive and cartoonish with plenty of wide-eyed disbelief at the situation that they had found themselves in.... well, that was until they discovered the attraction of Mr N Furter, who gave a new meaning to the phrase "tongue lashing"! Both Connor and Lauren have very strong voices, and both spot on for the characters that they play.

Job Greuter has possibly the hardest shoes to fill playing Riff Raff as I am so used to seeing Kristian Lavercombe play this iconic part, but Job did an  excellent... err, job of recreating this slightly manic character, described in song as Frank N Furter's "faithful handyman", while retaining everything that Richard O' Brien initiated. Riff Raff, if you didn't know, is the character who leads "The Timewarp", and quite literally gets the party started. Riff Raff is a dark one, along with his sister, as you soon discover towards the end of the show.

Playing Riff Raff's sister, Columbia, is Jayme-Lee Zanoncelli. We have to wait until the second act, which comes around incredibly quickly, to hear Jayme-Lee's voice, and it's worth the wait!

Eddie, the role made famous in the film, and the early stage version by Meatloaf, is played here by Edward Bullingham who explodes onto the stage with the power packed rock track "Hot Patootie". No wonder that after all that storming around the stage and being chased by Frank N Furter he had to sit down. Which was ideal because Edward also played the wheelchair bound Dr Scott, with the dodgiest wig I've ever seen on stage.

Rocky, the muscle-bound creature created by Frank N Furter to "relieve his master's pressures", is played on opening night by the understudy Arthur Janes. It's obvious that Arthur looks after himself, but maybe the shops were a bit short of muscles when Frank went shopping for his creation. That said Arthur gave a strong performance and did his best flexing and posing, which did not go unnoticed by the women in the audience.

I must admit that I had not heard of Nathan Caton, who played The Narrator, but Nathan is an award winning stand up comedian, which definitely comes in handy for responding to the audience participation bits with "ad-libs", which seemed to all be around the myths of what black men have in their pants.

And so we come to the sweet transvestite himself, all the way from transexual Transylvania, Frank N Furter, played deliciously and lasciviously by Jason Donovan. Over the years I have seen many Franks, including the legendary David Bedella. Each one is played slightly differently, and again with Jason we get another, slightly different Frank. He plays this version of Frank like a dirty old uncle at a party; thankfully the party that Frank's guests were at were not as naive as they first appeared, and that is where the naughty fun comes from. That said, Jason controls the stage as soon as he materialises from the smoke-filled doors, and doesn't stop being enigmatic throughout. And if you're wondering, his voice is as good as it ever was.

The Phantoms are played by Ryan Carter-Wilson, Hollie Nelson and Erica Wild with Alex Hetherington and Stacey Monahan.

Directed by Christopher Luscombe, this is fast, frantic, frothy, fleshy and filthy and I loved it.

Choreographed brilliantly and with such energy by Nathan M Wright.

The set, which was brilliantly sci-fi influenced, was designed by Hugh Durrant with a lovely gothic feel creating just the right amount of cartoon creepiness.

Of course, the costumes really make this show as iconic as it is. The audiences take great pride in peppering the auditorium with medical coats, stockings, suspenders, basques, glittery jackets and usherette outfits. Some of the women dress up as well! On stage is no different and Costume Designer Sue Blane has provided everything that you love and expect from the Rocky Horror cast outfits, although the original shiny gold pants for Rocky are now a leopard skin design.

A brilliant lighting design, which at times created a rock show atmosphere, was by Nick Richings.

The Sound designer is Gareth Owen. The Royal Concert Hall is often hit and miss where sound is concerned and there were times where the music slightly drowned out some of the vocals, mainly on Brad's mic, because Janet's was lovely and balanced. When the balance was done right, it was a brilliant sound with just the perfect volume balance.

Musical Director is Josh Sood, and it was great to see the live band on stage above the action. Let's face it, the soundtrack is packed with songs that the whole audience knows, as ably as they know the audience participation call and responses.

When you've seen as many productions of this show, you start making comparisons and, on a personal level, this is not the best version I've seen, but it's still brilliantly funny and as saucy as ever, and it's great to see Jason Donovan and his tongue perform this role. And I don't know if it's just me but this show seemed slightly shorter than past productions, or maybe I was just enjoying myself too much and the time flew without my noticing.

"The Rocky Horror Show" is at the Nottingham Royal Centre until Saturday 9 August.