Rocky Horror Picture Show 50th Anniversary - Dominion Theatre

For anyone who knows anything about The Rocky Horror Picture Show, you will know that it is, first and foremost, a cult favourite. Its appeal is fiercely niche, adored by devoted fans across the world, but leaving little room for newcomers - particularly at events like these. I am a newcomer.

I reviewed the UK tour last year, which gave me a glimpse of the extraordinary love audiences have for this show, and I genuinely loved the atmosphere. But tonight was something different entirely. This was for the fans, and no one else. This review, however, will be from the point of view of someone who is an outsider to this whole affair.

What sets this anniversary event apart from a standard production is the presence of original cast members from the 1975 film. Chief among them was Peter Hinwood, who played "Rocky" and made his first public appearance in fifty years - for one night only. This alone made the evening feel genuinely historic.

The show opened with a cast Q&A, which drew out wonderful behind-the-scenes stories, from auditions to life on set. As someone new to what I can only call Rocky Horror Mania, there was something quietly moving about watching an auditorium full of people light up in the presence of their idols.

It's also worth acknowledging what this film has meant culturally. Beyond the music and the camp, Rocky Horror has long offered its audiences a rare sense of belonging - championing body positivity and giving voice to the LGBTQIA+ community at a time when that acceptance was far from mainstream. That history lends the whole evening a real sense of weight and significance.

Sadly, for this reviewer, the Q&A was the high point of the night.

What followed was a screening of the film accompanied by a shadow cast performing alongside it. I'd seen something similar before (the Grease Secret Cinema in Battersea last summer) but the execution here felt markedly different. The shadow cast were passionate fans, not professionals, which sounds charming in theory, but in practice it created a significant disconnect. They weren't consistently in sync with the film, which, through no real fault of their own, made it difficult to lose yourself in the experience.

Rocky Horror is also famous for its tradition of audience call-backs with lines shouted back at the screen in unison. When I saw the stage show last year, this was so precisely timed that it felt almost choreographed. Here, it was the opposite: dozens of people shouting different things at different moments, the noise building into something largely unintelligible. The call-backs were loud enough to drown out much of the film's dialogue, and without captions, following the story became nearly impossible.

For anyone with sensory sensitivities, it would have been genuinely overwhelming. The constant overstimulation from noise coming in all kinds of directions, not to mention the fear of being sprayed with water or thrown random objects (almost encouraged by the Emcee at the start). The entire affair felt unnecessarily intense at times.

And yet, it would be reductive to call the evening a complete failure - it was just not for everyone and certainly not for me. That’s why this score is so low. Whilst fun for those who know the script/ movie inside out and are not afraid of the unpredictability of a drunk and perhaps rowdy audience, it is definitely not as inclusive as it claims to be.

For the devoted fans who packed the Dominion in full costume, shrieking every callback from memory and loved seeing the original cast in the flesh, this was likely an unforgettable night. The joy in that room was real, and it was infectious in its own way. Rocky Horror has always been less about the show itself and more about the community it creates, and that community was very much alive and present. That community, however, was not as kind to its newcomers as it perhaps hoped it would be in the end.

But as a piece of theatre - or even as an accessible anniversary event - it fell much too short. The shadow cast, however enthusiastic, couldn't carry the weight of a professional production, and the organised chaos of the call-backs, so central to the Rocky Horror experience, became its own barrier to entry. For a newcomer, or for anyone hoping the 50th anniversary might serve as a welcome invitation into this world, the evening offered little in the way of an introduction.

The Rocky Horror Picture Show deserves its legendary status, and the fans who turned up deserve enormous credit for the passion and devotion they bring to it. But if you're not already one of them, this particular celebration may leave you more bewildered than converted. Sometimes the most loving tribute a fandom can offer is one that only it can truly understand. But that, unfortunately, comes at the cost of excluding others from the equation altogether.

Overall Score: ⭐️ (1*)

(AD | Ticket gifted in exchange for an honest review)

Show Information

Venue: Dominion Theatre, London

Playing until: One night only at every venue - with dates until 7th May 2026

Tickets for this venue can be booked at the link here.