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Sun Herald, 11th June, 1998
Tim Ferguson joins the elite membership of the Frank 'N' Furter club.
Tim Ferguson is Renaissance man writ large. Well, large-ish. His first career choice was professional soldier. It took just two years incarceration at the Royal Military College, Duntroon, before he knew better.
Then this accomplished polymath grabbed the public eye as a third of the all-singing, all-dancing Doug Anthony Allstars. Next, he contested Andrew Peacock's seat of Kooyong in a general election before appearing as front man for the ill-fated game show 'Don't Forget Your Toothbrush'.
A political novel followed. It's called 'Left, Right And Centre: A Tale Of Greed, Sex And Power'.
Now Ferguson has launched into his latest and no less ambitious challenge. He has the role of Frank 'N' Furter in the coming Sydney cabaret production of 'The New Rocky Horror Show'.
This is where the Renaissance metaphor really struggles. Falls over, even. Can you imagine a Medici, a Borgia, a Boccaccio or a Petrarch wearing 8cm stilettos, fishnet stockings, silk lingerie and a Glomesh Wonderbra?
OK, maybe you can. For the rest of us, it's a scenario that fully challenges the ability to suspend disbelief.
Yet here is Ferguson, dressed from top to toe as Mr Furter and revelling in the full glam outfit of his 1970s character, explaining why he has morphed from accomplished political satirist to cabaret artiste.
"It's all part of exploring just what I can and can't do," Ferguson says, before pausing to effortlessly pick at a ladder in his pantyhose. "I have never had any intention of staying in one role forever, because the thought of being typecast fills with me dread.
"If that's what I wanted, then the Allstars would still be touring England in a van, going from gig to gig and town to town, making money but never arriving anywhere in a professional sense.
"Perhaps that's why we all moved on to different things (Paul McDermott and Richard Fidler to the ABC's 'Good News Week' and 'Race Around The World' respectively) and why I'm here today dressed from top to toe as a transsexual."
And a damned attractive one at that, judging by the response of his fellow thespians.
Halfway through the interview a photo call is issued for the cast. All dutifully troop off to the bowels of the Star City Casino and the Showroom Theatre.
Centre stage for the shoot is Ferguson and to his left is Wilbur Wilde. Then comes Red Symons with Glenn Butcher. What ho! Isn't that Tottie Goldsmith?
It is. They all gather with the rest of the cast and proceed to give Ferguson a determinedly hard time, enjoying the sight of this father-of-three in fully glamorous flight.
When Ferguson returns to the interview, he is scarcely aware of the irony, intentional or not, of his character earnestly discussing the difficulties of family life.
"Melbourne is home, but Sydney is where the work is at the moment," Ferguson says. "That is one of the sacrifices one makes in this business."
As Ferguson talks, the sting of grotesquely huge pearls about his neck moves slowly up and down. They look for all the world like a string of giant marshmallows being manipulated by an unseen hand.
Funny that. 'The Unseen Hand' was the name of the Sam Shephard play that actor and budding writer Richard O'Brien had just finished working on in 1973 when he conceived the idea of 'The Rocky Horror Show'. His role had been Mandrill from outer space.
The common factor in both productions, and which was to continue so successfully with 'The Rocky Horror Show', was the combined creative force of director Jim Sharman and designer Brian Thomson.
Also joining that original team from the 'The Unseen Hand' was the person responsible for its musical arrangement - Richard Hartley.
Their work has been wildly applauded from the first preview - on June 16, 1973, in London's fashionable Chelsea - to this day.
The awards it has garnered have been just as impressive. 'Rocky Horror' was named Best New Musical in the prestigious Evening Standard Theatre Awards that year (which Richard O'Brien collected dressed in, history records, "white vest and a leopard skin") and the Plays and Players 1973 Awards, as decided by a circle of London theatre critics.
The acclaim didn't end there. 'Rocky Horror' moved across the Atlantic to land on the US West Coast. Tim Curry and Richard O'Brien reprised their London roles, during which time they agreed to commit the musical to celluloid.
It was filmed in a rushed six weeks on the old Hammer lot at Bray in Berkshire, England, but when it was first released in 1975 was quickly deemed a turkey. It became a commercial failure, derided for lacking the energy and wit of the stage version.
Not for long. The film is now rightly hailed as an arthouse classic, seen in almost as many varied climes as the musical.
Non of which surprises Ferguson. He concedes the 'Rocky Horror Show' is destined to run and run and run.
"As a musical, it works," he says. "It has sex, drugs, rock 'n' roll and relies heavily on adlibbing to carry the show. It is a great summation of the permissive 70s.
"It's a laugh and it works even better when the audience participates. I think the show will always represent what the 70s were about, both to the people who were there and those who wish they could remember.
"The plot probably is as well-known as some of the songs, repeated as easily as the words to 'The Time Warp'."
The key role of Frank 'N' Furter has had a long and illustrious cast list in Australia. In the past it has been played by such luminaries as Craig McLachlan, Marcus Graham, Stuart Devine and Jason Donovan.
Given this line of antecedents, is Ferguson looking to any previous Frank 'N' Furter as a guide to characterising the role?
"I hope not," he admits. "I want to make it my own. The thought of imitating anything that my illustrious predecessors may have done is not on. This is my Frank 'N' Furter."
Indeed it is. Certainly the public like what they hear of it. Already more than 20,000 tickets have been sold for the Sydney season and plans are being made to take it on the road to Brisbane, then Melbourne.
An added bonus in the latest version at Star City is the fact that the showroom is fully licensed. For the first time the audience will be able to completely relax with bar service at their table - something which should add hugely to the attitude and desire to participate of all.
Happy 25th birthday, Rocky.
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