BWW Reviews: RETURN TO THE FORBIDDEN PLANET, King's Theatre, Glasgow, February 9 2015
On paper, Return to the Forbidden Planet sounds like one of the most bizarre musicals ever written. On stage, it isn't any different! Plot and dialogue from Shakespeare's The Tempest is spliced with the 1956 science fiction film and accompanied with rock hit after rock hit.
When a spaceship and crew land on an unusual star they find a mad scientist and his daughter who were stranded there fifteen years previously. They join the ship and are soon attacked by some form of alien. The story is undeniably silly, but it's all good fun. Return to the Forbidden Planet is not serious theatre.
The band are on the stage and the actors play their own instruments. Song lyrics are inserted into the script and the performances themselves are brilliant. The songs featured include Great Balls of Fire, Good Vibrations, Shake, Rattle and Roll and Young Girl to name a few.
The audience seemed a little flat but perhaps that was because it was a Monday night. A Glasgow crowd would usually have to be tethered to their seats during the rock finale, and although everybody seemed to be enjoying themselves there wasn't the response you would normally find.
Science fiction, Shakespeare and rock anthems is something that absolutely should not work- but it does.
Return to the Forbidden Planet is on tour around the UK.
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