The Rocky Horror Show announces Perth season for 50th anniversary celebrations

The 50th Anniversary production of legendary rock ‘n’ roll musical The Rocky Horror Show is coming to Perth’s Crown Theatre from Sunday, August 6.

This week the cast has been revealed for the shows, with a dazzling line-up of national and international stars set to light up the stage.

Joining the cast as Frank N Furter is three-time Olivier Award winning performer, David Bedella who returns to Australia for the first time since recreating his starring role in the critically acclaimed Jerry Springer: The Opera which played at Sydney Opera House in 2009. Australian audiences may remember him as the lead in Oh, What A Night! where he performed alongside Marcia Hines and Gary Sweet, or his roles in Smokey Joe’s Cafe, The Producers, Chicago and In the Heights. 

Presenting the story on stage as The Narrator will be show business great, Nicholas Hammond, presenting the mayhem that ensues on stage, when the inhabitants of far-off Galaxy Transylvania descend to earth with the insatiable desire to party.

They join principal cast Stellar Perry as Magenta (X Factor, The Voice, Bell Shakespeare’s The Lovers), Ellis Dolan as Eddie/Dr Scott, Darcey Eagle as Columbia, Ethan Jones as Brad, Deirdre Khoo as Janet, Loredo Malcolm as Rocky and Henry Rollo as Riff Raff.

Starring alongside them on stage as The Phantoms will be Josh Gates, Catty Hamilton, Jackson Reedman and Erica Wild, while Keane Fletcher and Kristina McNamara round out the cast as the Swings.

“I am thrilled to be returning to Australia after so many years and to return to a show that is forever linked to my heart,” said David Bedella. “This Fiftieth Anniversary production promises to be the best yet and I’m gonna do my part to see that it is! I hope everyone will come along to help us celebrate a show that has undeniably become the greatest cult sensation musical theatre has ever seen and has meant so much to so many for fifty years!”

Written and created by Richard O’Brien, The Rocky Horror Show has become one of the world’s favourite musicals and is currently the only contemporary rock musical to celebrate 50 years on stage. Since it first opened in London in 1973 at the Royal Court’s Theatre Upstairs, The Rocky Horror Show has been continuously on stage somewhere in the world and has paved its way into history as one of the classics of musical theatre.

In 1975 it was transformed into a film called The Rocky Horror Picture Show, which took over $135 million at the Box Office and is still shown in cinemas around the world nearly 50 years after its premiere, making it the longest running theatrical release in cinema history. Many stars of the stage and screen including Russell Crowe, Tim Curry, Susan Sarandon, Meat Loaf, Jerry Springer, Adam Lambert, Emma Bunton, Stephen Fry, Reg Livermore, Bert Newton, Gretel Killeen, Derryn Hinch, and Shane Jacobsen have appeared in The Rocky Horror Show over the past 50 years. This iconic brand holds a unique place in theatre history, a show which has defied the decades and continued to grow in popularity.

The Rocky Horror Show hits Crown Theatre from Sunday, August 6, 2023. Tickets are on sale now at rockyhorror.com.au