Get ready to rock as Horror show hits town

HAMILTON HOME: Nick Wilkinson, pictured with the Riff Raff statue, will play the part next month. (MARK TAYLOR/Waikato Times)

Source: http://stuff.co.nz/stuff/waikatotimes/0,2106,3415397a6579,00.html

19 September 2005 

Hamilton will do the Timewarp again when the Rocky Horror Show opens next month at the Founders Theatre.

The Hamilton Operatic Society show comes 30 years after the making of the movie. Executive producer Paul Mitchell believed it was the first time the show had been performed in Hamilton and promised it would be a blast. "The fact that we are doing the show is going to be a piece of Hamilton history. It's stunning."

Writer Richard O'Brien is due to arrive in New Zealand early next month and is likely to sit through production week before the show opens on October 8 for a three-week season.

The only big change since the cast was announced in April is that Claire Stanley will play the role of Janet after Morgan Fairhead was forced to withdraw. Her departure left director David Sidwell trawling agents' listings for someone who could sing and dance.

Mitchell said Stanley was wonderfully suited to the role. She will take the stage with 16 other actors, including Ginette McDonald as the narrator, former Shortland Street nurse Roy Snow as Frank 'n' Furter and Mike Edward, from the TV series The Strip, as Rocky.

"I think that it's just going to be a visual and aural feast," Mitchell said. "It will have every aspect that people expect of the Rocky Horror Show."

Mitchell said the production was building on Hamilton's Rocky heritage and the challenge would be to keep it going.