When I found out they were about to put on the Rocky Horror Show for the third (or is it the fourth!) time in ten years I must admit to being a little cynical. Is there really still an audience out there who haven't seen it and still want to? Or are there sufficient addicts who've seen it fifty times and who'll gladly pay to see it another fifty? I was also skeptical about the production values. The show is to all intents and purposes a step-by-step, line-by-line remake of the original. Time warp indeed!
After much shuffling round and round Melbourne's huge old Princess Theatre I was finally introduced to a young man with bleached hair and a faceful of slap wrapped in a bright orange blanket, Steven Bastoni is the latest generation Rocky.
As we clambered up endless flights of rickety stairs above the backstage to reach Steven's dressing Room, he pointed out that we had met before. We’d had coffee and a chat over a year ago at a time when Steven and a mutual friend were working on Tess Lyssious's trilogy about migration to Australia. The Journey is a long way, he agreed ,from this epic piece of historical
Naturalism to the role of Rocky, it is also
Steven's first musical. How did he come to get the part I asked?
It was quite by chance actually, my agent rang and said "I've got you an audition for Rocky Horror" and I said Yes but isn't that a musical? He
said "yes, You do sing don't you?" Well, in the shower I said to him I've never sung before on stage so I wasn't extremely confident, as you might imagine I went in and was asked to sing Blue Suede Shoes which I didn't know, except the chorus I just sort of rambled that off. Then Daniel Abineri said great can you take your top off- I sort of went what? He said no. I'm not making a pass I've just got to see your body when we went back to the office he said," Id like to offer it to you" and threw the script to me I went in there with dark hair no voice, a sort of surfer's body They must have been hard up
I have seen enough of Steve' s work to know that they certainly didn't cast him because they were hard up As well as bring exceptionally good looking, he is a highly professional and hardworking actor. What astonished me was not only that had he never sung on stage before, but that Steve must he one of the few people in the country who has never seen the show. He saw the film on video the day he got the part.
I thought God - they want me to look like that, and they want me to sing Jeez! They don't want much! The guy who plays Rocky in the film is incredible he manages to look so blank Either he's a very good actor or there's just nothing up there
I wondered how does this revival seemed to Steve? Does it feel like a bit of a time-warp?
It's weird, yeah I was only about ten and getting round with a skateboard and long hair in those days I remember hearing The Time Warp at the school socials and stuff I never got into it I didn't particularly like the song at the time I was more into Saturday Night Fever and stuff, so I missed out on that aspect of rock and roll, but I love it, it's a fantasy it's great, you can't go too far over the top.
How does it feel to be a fantasy figure, a figure of other people's fantasies?
"I don't think of myself as a fantasy If I did, I think I'd be pretty much in trouble. When I get out there I treat it like I have all my other characters, it's very different to all the other characters I've played, but it is still a character I just get out there and try and be a super hero as best I can, I mean, it's pretty hard to do really, because you haven't got laser beams for eyes and stuff in real life, so you just have to do your best with your movements and the way you present yourself the white hair helps and the make-up I hadn't got into heavy make-up before.
I had always thought of Rocky as something of a cheesecake part, but the way Steve described it it sounded like a very demanding role for the actor.
Yes. well physically it is, for sure I have to climb a pole and jump off a ladder and do handstands and push-ups and somersaults It's very physically and vocally demanding. I've just got over tonsillitis. It's good I got it now instead of two days from now That would have been a big, big drama. Come opening night and you've got no voice. |Rocky's accent] but I've got a body!