The Rocky Horror Show heads to Eastbourne

“This really has been one of the most fantastic highlights of my career,” he says. And he’s back in harness now, playing Frank-N-Furter again as the tour resumes with dates going right through until October 2023 including the Congress Theatre, Eastbourne from June 13-17. It is Stephen’s third stint in the show – and he’s helping to celebrate the show's 50th anniversary.

“I did it in 2018 and I came back to it last year. I did a year on tour and now I'm back again. I just can't leave it and I just completely love it and playing Frank-N-Furter is just one of the most iconic roles to play in musical theatre. It is certainly a challenge! I've never done anything like that before, but the lovely thing is that every single day is different with this show. You just don't know what is going to happen from one day to the next. You get all the shout-outs but this time round we're attracting a younger audience and you're getting different shout-outs and this time the show just feels very current, the way that it is very gender fluid and the fact that it is all about being whoever you want to be. The first time I did it I was quite nervous because I didn't know what people were going to think of me. I don't do an impersonation of Tim Curry. My director said if you start to do an impersonation of Tim Curry then people are going to end up judging you as mimicking him so I like to think I have found my own flavour to it. I make him a bit more rough around the edges. I'm not pristine. I've got hairy legs and I look like a bloke! I've got a flavour with the character that I'm comfortable with. My make-up is not perfect. He has stolen his mother’s purse and put on her make-up and has cut up clothes to make him feel how he wants to feel. It is a great challenge. He is very liberated and I absolutely love it. I've been in this game for more than 20 years and when I auditioned for the role I thought what on earth am I going to do. I went in and had to sing Sweet Transvestite and I just flirted with the panel and it seemed to do the trick! Every single week we have the hard-core fans coming along and they are great. You could never wish to meet nicer people than they are. They feel that they are part of the show and you really feel what it means to them.

“We were one of the first shows to get back on the road after the pandemic and we did it at a time when it was still social distancing. We were playing theatres that were something like a thousand-seater capacity in which they allowed only half the people in and we were wondering what on earth it was going to be like but it just felt that people were loving it better than ever. They were just wanting to get back to it. The sad thing was that we weren't allowed to meet people after the show and that's always such a big part of it. People spend such a lot of time dressing up and meeting them afterwards is so important.”