Rocky Horror Show (Cardiff) Review(ish)

When we booked tickets for this year’s run of The Rocky Horror Show, it was under the assumption that we’d be watching Stephen Webb as Frank-N-Furter. We’d seen him twice before and agreed that he was the best we’d ever seen (after Curry himself, obviously.)

 

Well... Jay said Webb was the best he’d seen since Bobby Crush – but since I was still in elementary school when Crush toured, I’ll have to take his word on that one!

As Frankie, Stephen Webb owns the role in the same way he owns the stage. He’s got the swagger, the sexuality, and the mischievousness to make Frankie his own in a way no else can.

Certainly not Jason Donovan.

It felt like I was alone when I complained that Jason Donovan was taking over the role for this year’s tour of The Rocky Horror Show. Jay pointed out that Donovan was supposed to have been very good in his day and argued that he might be even better than Webb. Not being British, I had to ask again exactly who Jason Donovan was supposed to be.

So when the show rolled around and the run started with Stephen Webb in the lead role, I was thrilled. It even made having Donovan take over halfway through the week a lot easier to stomach.

Until I saw it.

Was I biased going in?

Absolutely.

If you haven’t seen him, you have no idea how amazing Stephen Webb is as Frankie.

Was Jason Donovan still terrible?

Oh. My. Fucking. God.

You have no idea how bad he actually was.

At first glance, Donovan appeared to be drunk, slurring his way sloppily through the show. To the point where I was glad I knew the lyrics because I couldn’t make out half of what he was saying.

And we were front row, center.

After seeing a lot of reviewers saying the same thing for different shows, though, it makes more sense that Donovan either didn’t care about the role or is just plain past it. If you’re looking for proof to support the latter, just look at any of the photos of Donovan as Frankie on stage.

Ghastly.

Frankie is supposed to be a character full of raw appeal that makes you question your sexuality. He’s not supposed to be a character that makes you wonder how an old queen got out of the home...

I honestly couldn’t look at Donovan without cringing, which made me feel bad for the rest of the cast, who were fantastic – especially the guy filling in for Riff Raff who, by the way, was better than the usual actor.

Jason Donovan’s abysmal, half-assed performance as Frank-N-Furter did nothing but bring the rest of the cast down. I... I honestly can’t find anything nice to say about it.

If you do decide to go see the show with Donovan in the role (ugh, sorry,) do it for Nathan Caton as The Narrator. He’s as good as Jason Donovan is bad and was my favourite so far.

What Will a Second Trump Presidency Look Like? (aka: A Hundred Horrible Days)

Still reeling from the election results, I sat down yesterday and made a list of predictions for what I believe America will look like if Trump is allowed to take office on January 20^th. I based these predictions on things Trump has said & done as well as things that happened during and after Hitler’s rise to power.

It paints a bleak picture.

This is one of those rare times when I find myself hoping that I’m wrong – but nothing that’s happened in America over the past week has given me hope.

This is what I think will happen during Trump’s second term. And, no, I will not be taking questions or welcome feedback.

1. 1.       All legal action against Trump will, of course, disappear – including any monies owed to any victims. He will likely take them to court and, because the judicial system will be working for him, will win.
2. 2.       Trump will take legal action (if not worse) against Harris and Walz. He will attack his political opponents in a way that makes Andrew Jackson look like a soft touch. He’ll compare himself to Jackson like it’s a good thing.
3. 3.       All FDA restrictions will be lifted so corporations, especially Big Pharma, can fleece American citizens. Trade outside the US will suffer when American products fail to meet the health and safety standards of civilized countries.
4. 4.       In surprisingly short time, the water in America will become unsafe to drink. If they go ahead with removing the fluoride from drinking water, there will also be a generation of children with severe tooth decay, etc.
5. 5.       As environmental protections are rapidly peeled back to appease corporations, the environment will suffer globally. In America, plant and animal species will go extinct at an alarming rate.
6. 6.       Networks will fire late night hosts to keep Trump happy and keep themselves from being shut down. Most likely, they’ll be replaced by sycophants until the ratings drop so low the shows are dropped entirely.
7. 7.       Eventually, all news outlets besides Fox News will be shut down if they don’t agree to become propaganda machines. They will pride themselves on being the official voice of Donald Trump.
8. 8.       There will be a spat of electric vehicles being destroyed because Trump’s supporters see oil as king. Drill, baby, drill.
9. 9.       Planned Parenthood will be shut down and driven underground, creating a black market for reproductive care.
10. 10.  The USA will leave NATO. Countries around the world will start picking sides. Britain will be in a position where they have to choose whether to support America and win Trump’s favour – or rejoin the EU. They won’t make the right decision.
11. 11.  Musk, Zuckerberg, and Bezos will be offered positions in the government to repay their support. Zuckerberg will stop any anti-Trump speech on his platforms and report “dangerous” people directly to the government. X and Truth Social will merge into one massive, far-right platform.
12. 12.  Books will be banned in never-seen-before numbers. A pearl-clutching Karen will set herself up as the protector of the children or morals or some other Mary Whitehouse bullshit and Trump will give her free reign to carry out mass bannings and burnings.
13. 13.  Christianity will be shoehorned into schools, whether they want it there or not. Children will be taught Christian myths and morals alongside the most basic subjects. They won’t learn about slavery, WWII, the Trail of Tears, etc. American history will be reshaped to suit the white Christian nationalist agenda.
14. 14.  The far-right will be emboldened around the world. There will be a rise in hatred, fear, and violence around the world as the ignorant of other countries take MAGA’s lead.
15. 15.  In very little time, women will lose their financial independence. It will resemble America before the 70s, where women weren’t allowed to have their own bank accounts, property, credit, etc.
16. 16.  Women will essentially be reduced to property of their husband’s/fathers/etc., the way they were until the mid-19^th century.
17. 17.  America will face a female exodus, with prominent and wealthy women especially leaving the country in droves.
18. 18.  Trump will publicly tell men that if women refuse to date them/have sex with them, they should just take what they want. The rapist will embolden the rapists.
19. 19.  A terrifying number of girls will die in childbirth after being sexually assaulted. Boys the same age will grow up believing “her body, my choice.”
20. 20.  Violence toward women will grow as they start to fight back. As men start to openly assault women, women will stop them, even killing their assailants. This will result in the government making it illegal for women to buy and/or own weapons. They will face extreme prison sentences for violence against men.
21. 21.  There will be public lynchings. The question is whether they’ll be black people, gay people, or gay people.
22. 22.  Gay and trans people will be stripped of their human rights. They will face discrimination in every walk of life, losing property, jobs, and even having their marriages declared unlawful.
23. 23.  The suicide rates in America will skyrocket as people (especially LGTBQ+) lose hope. It will hit the poorest hardest since they’ll be the ones least likely to be able to get out.
24. 24.  Experimentation will begin on “the other.” In the beginning, this will look like testing new medical breakthroughs, treatments for whichever new pandemic comes along, etc. In the end, they won’t even bother to hide it. They will boast about dehumanizing anyone not like them.
25. 25.  Because he admires Putin, Trump will mimic him in the simplest of ways. At some point, he’ll hold a sham election (probably at the midterms) where the votes come back overwhelming in his favour (whatever the actual results are) to make himself feel loved.
26. 26.  America will face an intellectual/creative exodus. Those fortunate enough to be able to afford it, will flee the country, welcomed by other countries who will see a rise in their creative/intellectual ventures, leaving Hollywood, etc. in the lurch.
27. 27.  Protests will be banned – but only after the military is called in to violently shut the first few down. There will be American blood on the streets, spilled by Americans.
28. 28.  Once he’s comfortably in office, Trump will admit that he rigged the 2024 election, probably with the help of Musk and Putin. It will be too late to do anything about it at that point.
29. 29.  There will be a dramatic rise in preventable diseases because people who need them will find vaccines harder to get (if possible at all) while the MAGAs will simply refuse.
30. 30.  The birth rate will drop drastically and much quicker than anyone expected, partly due to the fact that many women will refuse to have children, but partly because medical care for women will be so lacking that those who do want children will be taking their lives in their hands to try.
31. 31.  Because of the drop in birth rates (and, frankly, because America hates women,) hysterectomies will be outlawed. This will mostly affect single women, since men will be able to give permission for their wives to get one, if it suits them.
32. 32.  Police will be given military powers while any protections for citizens against them are stripped away. They will become laws unto themselves and claim to be the arm of the president but will, ultimately, act in their own interests more than anything.
33. 33.  Trump will punish the East and West Coasts for voting against him. Places along the West Coast will suffer the worst because of their now yearly wildfires. Large cities like Seattle and LA will be destroyed as Trump refuses to step in and offer aid.
34. 34.  Canada will close its border as the American exodus becomes overwhelming.
35. 35.  The insanely high tariffs will lead to starvation and rising crime as people struggle to feed their families.
36. 36.  With the country gripped by starvation, the government will attempt to end the unrest by seizing control of farmland, even to the point of forcing people held in prisons or internment camps to work the land.
37. 37.  Brown people, regardless of their nationality or immigration status, will begin to have their citizenship questioned and, ultimately, revoked. Eventually, only white people will be considered American.
38. 38.  Native Americans will find themselves targeted, even having their citizenship revoked and/or being deported for simply not being white enough to be American.
39. 39.  Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner will make a reappearance, with Ivanka glueing herself to her father’s side and making a bid for heir to the (hopefully proverbial) throne.
40. 40.  At some point, Trump will take the lead of the autocrats he admires and declare himself something other than president.
41. 41.  Trump will demand that his face appear both on money and on Mount Rushmore. He’ll die before work can start on Mount Rushmore, but currency will be printed with his face on it.
42. 42.  The Supreme Court, if they dare defy Donald Trump, even once, will be disbanded (which won’t matter that much because their power will be mostly used for show trials to back Trump up, anyway.)
43. 43.  If the old-school Republicans in Congress try to defy Trump, it will burn. Maybe at the hands of the military, but most likely by the MAGAs who stormed it once before and will, by that time, be free men again.
44. 44.  If it appears Vance might make a move against Trump, he’ll have an “unfortunate accident” in the way people who turned on Putin have. At the very least, the MAGAs will call for him to be jailed or executed.
45. 45.  The USA, with Trump at the helm, will help Putin retake the satellite states that once belong to the USSR. If Putin finishes taking them back quickly, he may look to expand further into Europe – or even into Canada, since Trump would eagerly allow him access through Alaska.
46. 46.  Palestine will cease to exist. Even if Trump doesn’t offer Israel support (he might not,) he won’t bother getting involved, which will cripple Palestine’s ability to fight back, eventually resulting in their defeat.
47. 47.  China, seeing Israel and Russia prosper, will look to expand its own borders.
48. 48.  Trump will openly threaten any countries around the world which speak out against his tyranny and/or offer Americans a place to escape to.
49. 49.  Trump will bomb any country that tries to defy any military action he takes (or, by extension, Putin’s.) Hopefully, he’ll use old-fashioned missiles, depending on how far gone his dementia is. If he’s too far gone, he may go straight for the nukes – and it’s unlikely that anyone will be left in the US government to stop him.
50. 50.  If Trump dies before he destroys the country, his kids will fight for what they’ll see as the throne. Don Jr. will claim to have the most right, but Ivanka will ultimately win, being the most like her father.

I’m in no way fearmongering here. These are all things he’s either eluded to or straight up said he would do or things that have happened with other dictators. Sadly, nothing is outside the realms of possibility when it comes to Trump.

And this is one situation where no fearmongering is required. Half of us are terrified already – and the other half will be soon.