Posted: 4/24/26 at 5:01am
It does seem Shaw and some of the other newer critics either have a different standard for awarding the pick or are just enthused about almost everything.
Posted: 4/24/26 at 6:29am
SteveSanders said: "It does seem Shaw and some of the other newer critics either have a different standard for awarding the pick or are just enthused about almost everything."
And Jesse was fired from the job for presumably giving out too many Critic's Picks.
Posted: 4/24/26 at 11:24am
I'd say overall these are decent reviews, and even that flat out bad ones aren't really terrible. I'm not sure this is a show that needs raves to begin with.
Really wanting to see photos that give a better overall impression of the set (s?).
Posted: 4/24/26 at 11:38am
Owen22 said: "SteveSanders said: "It does seem Shaw and some of the other newer critics either have a different standard for awarding the pick or are just enthused about almost everything."
And Jesse was fired from the job for presumably giving out too many Critic's Picks."
Is that real or speculation? Was it actually too many or too many outliners?
Posted: 4/24/26 at 3:14pm
69 on Broadway Scorecard, worth seeing. Good, with reservations.
“This revival at Studio 54 earns praise for Luke Evans' performance and Sam Pinkleton's exuberant direction, but critics question whether the show's transgressive edge still shocks in today's cultural landscape.”
https://broadwayscorecard.com/show/the-rocky-horror-show
Posted: 4/24/26 at 5:12pm
EDSOSLO858 said: "69on Broadway Scorecard,worth seeing. Good, with reservations.
“This revival at Studio 54 earns praise for Luke Evans' performance and Sam Pinkleton's exuberant direction, but critics question whether the show's transgressive edge still shocks in today's cultural landscape.”
https://broadwayscorecard.com/show/the-rocky-horror-show"
I feel like this is a lame summary, mostly because anything borne out of the 1970s era of transgression has entered the mainstream or softened with age. This came from an era where queer people were still criminalized and/or pathologized. A show like this is not going to always provide the shock treatment (pun intended) for a mainstream audience, especially given the subscriber base for Roundabout.
If anything, it’s modern transgressive edge is the fact that this is a true mixture of queer and trans people taking to the world’s most well-known stage and asserting their queerness as a right and not something requiring permission. In an era where the community is under attack, innstead of trying to win you over, the show dares you right to your face.
Posted: 4/24/26 at 7:39pm
quizking101 said: "EDSOSLO858 said: "69on Broadway Scorecard,worth seeing. Good, with reservations.
“This revival at Studio 54 earns praise for Luke Evans' performance and Sam Pinkleton's exuberant direction, but critics question whether the show's transgressive edge still shocks in today's cultural landscape.”
https://broadwayscorecard.com/show/the-rocky-horror-show"
I feel like this is a lame summary, mostly because anything borne out of the 1970s era of transgression has entered the mainstream or softened with age. This came from an era where queer people were still criminalized and/or pathologized. A show like this is not going to always provide the shock treatment (pun intended) for a mainstream audience, especially given the subscriber base for Roundabout.
If anything, it’s modern transgressive edge is the fact that this is a true mixture of queer and trans people taking to the world’s most well-known stage and asserting their queerness as a right and not something requiring permission. In an era where the community is under attack, innstead of trying to win you over, the show dares you right to your face."
I don’t know… I think a revival of Let My People Come would absolutely still shock today. 🤣
Posted: 4/24/26 at 10:46pm
Highlight of the show tonight. Luke Evan’s singing I’m going home and after many, many disruptions from this loud drunk lady shouting at him he stops the show and yells “SHUTUP”. The audience went crazy. Then she got escorted out of the theater.
Updated On: 4/24/26 at 10:46 PM
Posted: 4/25/26 at 2:13pm
Positive review @Cote Notices
Richard O’Brien’s opus shagnus—horny and scruffy by design—could never and should never be a slick Broadway property. Pinkleton and his shrewd crew of designers understood the assignment, crafting an ingenious trash-vaudeville aesthetic at Studio 54, queerly evoking a burlesque and downtown vibe, part sex club, part Halloween haunted house.
https://davidcote1.substack.com/p/the-rocky-horror-show-our-lust-is
Posted: 4/25/26 at 2:47pm
Seafarer2 said: "Positive review @Cote Notices
Richard O’Brien’s opus shagnus—horny and scruffy by design—could never and should never be a slick Broadway property. Pinkleton and his shrewd crew of designers understood the assignment, crafting an ingenious trash-vaudeville aesthetic at Studio 54, queerly evoking a burlesque and downtown vibe, part sex club, part Halloween haunted house.
https://davidcote1.substack.com/p/the-rocky-horror-show-our-lust-is"
The only issue is it is a Broadway property. Do people like paying over $200 for such a cheap looking affair? I think the design and costumes are lacking. I get he may be trying to create a downtown vibe but this isn’t some basement theatre and the audience policing reeks of uptown privilege.
Posted: 4/25/26 at 10:06pm
I went to see "Strange Journey" the new documentary about Rocky Horror, with a live Q&A afterward, hosted by the unavoidable Paul Wontorek from Broadway.com, with Linus O'Brien (the director Richards's son) and the doc's producer. When the question of audience participation with this new revival came up, Linus said they shouldn't try to curtail it, and Paul said one of the early previews he saw where there was a ton of audience participation and he loved it and wish they kept it.
I'll admit it, I don't get the feeling that the show is better the more audience interruption there is. I went to the last preview and while there was some, it seemed to be only a few people insisting on doing as many as they could, despite diminishing audience reaction.
Posted: 4/26/26 at 10:04am
For me, this was just awful. I’m sure my reaction was exacerbated by the people sitting around me who, despite the signage about this being live theater, thought they were in their living room with a running commentary about what they were liking about the production. The call outs seemed sad - a few random boomers trying to relive their teen years. The score - which I do enjoy - never sounded good. Juliette Lewis’s rock and roll voice is a total mismatch with Science Fiction. And the sets over-relied on what seemed black plastic garbage bags.
Posted: 4/26/26 at 4:07pm
Caught this on Wednesday and truly had a blast.
I went into the show Rocky Horror “aware” (I know “Time Warp,” I know there are callbacks, etc.) but not overly familiar, and I hadn’t seen or engaged with any of the chatter about the production, early previews, audience behavior, etc. here or online. More on that at the end of this write-up.
Have to start by saying Luke Evans is just delicious as Frank-N-Furter. His pipes, the body, those LEGS, and just oozing with dangerous charisma, all while not being one-note or overly droll, which I could see happening in less capable hands. I also kind of thought he looked like Kate Winslet in the wig and makeup, which is not a critique, just an observation I couldn’t keep to myself any longer. Another standout was Stephanie Hsu, who, as the kids would say, understood the assignment. She nailed the humor, the campiness, the ’50s send-up, and she sounded great. Josh Rivera: the body is tea, the dancing is incredible, and he has the vocals to back it all up. Also, my crush for Harvey Guillén lives on.
Also: sets. Multiple, big sets. On Broadway. Really nice to see again. I will say it felt like the design team may have lost a bit of steam for the final sequence because it was a bit bare, and the show itself also felt a little less focused at the end. That may be the material, maybe the direction, but certainly not the performers, who are all fully game to get weird.
To bring it back to my note at the top: only after the fact did I learn that there’s been a touch of ~discourse~ (ugh) about callbacks. I gotta say, sometimes it’s great to just go in blind to all that and experience the show for what it is. There were callbacks here and there, I didn’t find them disruptive, and I understood they’re part of the DNA of the show. And if people were bothered by them… the world continues to turn, and within two hours they’ll be free from the torture and able to go on with their lives.
Go, don’t overthink it, and just have fun.
Posted: 4/26/26 at 4:42pm
Are people throwing cards or toilet paper, or we keepin it calm ?
Posted: 4/26/26 at 4:48pm
WldKingdomHM said: "Are people throwing cards or toilet paper, or we keepin it calm ?"
No, there’s none of that.
Posted: 4/26/26 at 5:08pm
Jordan Catalano said: "WldKingdomHM said: "Are people throwing cards or toilet paper, or we keepin it calm ?"
No, there’s none of that."
However, in a confounding moment, the cast (other than Frank) throws playing cards at "cards for sorrow" during I'm Going Home. Why? Why do the characters have playing cards tucked into their costumes that they throw at that point? One of the many baffling elements of this production.
Posted: 4/26/26 at 5:18pm
Jordan Catalano said: "WldKingdomHM said: "Are people throwing cards or toilet paper, or we keepin it calm ?"
No, there’s none of that."
Oh man I remember during the last revival we got to throw it. Going Wednesday this should be …fun…
Posted: 4/27/26 at 6:45am
WldKingdomHM said: "Are people throwing cards or toilet paper, or we keepin it calm ?"
Not that I could see from up in the mezzanine.
However, in a confounding moment, the cast (other than Frank) throws playing cards at "cards for sorrow" during I'm Going Home. Why? Why do the characters have playing cards tucked into their costumes that they throw at that point? One of the many baffling elements of this production.
As someone who is, like I said, Rocky Horror aware but not fluent, I did not notice nor was I confounded by this
Updated On: 4/27/26 at 06:45 AM
Posted: 4/28/26 at 1:20pm
Boy Radio is Rocky tonight and Wednesday shows.
Updated On: 4/28/26 at 01:20 PM
Posted: 4/28/26 at 1:36pm
Late-night TV debut scheduled for May 4, performance from the cast on Jimmy Fallon.
Posted: 4/28/26 at 6:17pm
Well they put out some footage and it's well... well trash footage. Don't know why you're trying to play coy with Rocky Horror as if it's something people are unfamiliar with...
Posted: 4/28/26 at 11:04pm
WldKingdomHM said: "Jordan Catalano said: "WldKingdomHM said: "Are people throwing cards or toilet paper, or we keepin it calm ?"
No, there’s none of that."
Oh man I remember during the last revival we got to throw it. Going Wednesday this should be …fun…"
Yes! They sold those bags with all the props. Bring that awesome revival back :(
Posted: 4/30/26 at 12:26am
ColorTheHours048 said: "I think it’llget pretty mixed reviews. Luke Evans is genuinely a bit of a revelation in this, and Amber Gray is menacing and bizarre in all the right ways, but I found almost everything else about it a little community theatre. And not really in a way I think they intended. (Oh, how I wish Harvey Guillen were replaced by a drag king.)"
It supposed to be basic. in the interviews they have mentioned it. They wanted to create messy and trashy elements of the show in coordination with what Studio 54 was. They are purposefully not trying to recreate the commerically-clean previous Broadway revival
Updated On: 4/30/26 at 12:26 AM
Posted: 4/30/26 at 12:39am
CoffeeBreak said: "ColorTheHours048 said: "I think it’llget pretty mixed reviews. Luke Evans is genuinely a bit of a revelation in this, and Amber Gray is menacing and bizarre in all the right ways, but I found almost everything else about it a little community theatre. And not really in a way I think they intended. (Oh, how I wish Harvey Guillen were replaced by a drag king.)"
It supposed to bebasic. The interviews they have mentioned it - and the correlation they wanted to create to the messy and trashy elements of the show andin coordination withwhat Studio 54 was. They were purposefully not trying to recreate Broadway-cleanprevious revival"
This is one of the issues a Broadway Rocky Horror will always deal with. You either glam it up for the venune and are accused of losing the trashy spirit, or you go intentionally ramshackle and are accused of looking amateurish. It's a no-win situation.
Posted: 4/30/26 at 5:15am
This is probably the most middle-of-the-road production I have seen so far this season. Everything is “fine” and nothing is egregiously bad, but it’s all so… bland? Which is surprising for a show like this.
The direction is just not exciting at all. It all feels so incredibly safe, and at times even stale, with no bold choices at all.
The cast is decent enough. Luke Evans walks away with the entire show. The design elements are a mixed bag - great lighting, but the scenic design teeters between lavish in some scenes and just plain cheap in others. Inconsistent.
A pretty big shrug for me on this one. Not egregiously bad by any means, but I found myself more bored than entertained.
Updated On: 4/30/26 at 05:15 AM
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