Jason Donovan returns to Rocky Horror role for UK Tour
By Kerri-Ann Roper, PA Entertainment Editor
Australian actor and singer Jason Donovan has spoken about the sentimental value The Rocky Horror Show has for him after meeting his wife Angela in 1998 on the production.
Former Neighbours star Donovan, 55, will reprise the role of suspender-clad Frank ‘N’ Furter in the 2024-2025 UK tour of Richard O’Brien’s musical.
The show will hit the road from August this year, and the new West End production of The Rocky Horror show also includes a two-week run at London’s Dominion Theatre from September 6 2024.
Donovan, who has been playing the role in Sydney and Melbourne as the show celebrated 50 years, told the PA News Agency: “It’s also special for me because I met my wife on the show in 1998. She was working on the show.
“So it has another very sort of sentimental value to me. I’m looking forward to bringing my interpretation of this production to the UK because that is where this show really feels like it’s in its home territory”.
O’Brien, who previously presented Channel 4’s The Crystal Maze, wrote the musical stage show The Rocky Horror Show in 1973, which was later adapted for the 1975 film, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, starring Susan Sarandon and Tim Curry.
He co-wrote the screenplay for the film and also starred on the big screen as Riff Raff.
The show, which premiered at the Royal Court Theatre in June 1973, follows Brad and his fiancee, Janet, as they happen across a gothic looking mansion after their car breaks down.
They meet the head of the house Dr Frank ‘N’ Furter, a self-proclaimed “sweet transvestite from transexual Transylvania”, and the couple watch on as he creates a man called Rocky in his laboratory.
Donovan said the show “seems as fresh as it’s always been and still is relevant”, and said he loves the “eccentricity” of the character Frank ‘N’ Furter.
He added of the character: “I love its heart, I love the madness. I think the music carries you, it’s punctuated in the right way. And it just works for me.
“I always wanted to be the lead singer of a band and this is my moment. I’m in this band, this sort of crazy, alternate band, indie band, and it’s sort of, the shoes fit”.
Donovan’s major break into stardom came when he landed a role as Scott Robinson alongside Kylie Minogue’s Charlene Mitchell in long-running Australian soap Neighbours, making his first appearance in 1986.
He has starred in a West End run of Priscilla Queen Of The Desert and gained plaudits for his time playing the title role in Joseph And The Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat.
He told PA: “I sort of came into musical theatre in a big blonde wig with a pair of white fluffy socks and a technicolour dreamcoat. In a way I was fit and right to play that part.
“But there are other things I am and I wanted to do. And Rocky Horror sort of tickled that sort of darker side of me and it’s a show that I never get bored of. I don’t get bored of the music, I don’t get bored of my time in the character.
“I’m not looking at the clock going, can’t wait for the second act to finish and I think that is unique.
“It’s a short show, too, you know, but it punctuates in the right, it has the right rhythms in it. And not many shows of this nature last with such a following, as Rocky Horror has”.
The show is set to hit the road from August 19th until February 1st, 2025.
Tickets are on sale now from RockyHorror.co.uk.
