There are shows you go to see. And then there are shows you go to experience, participate in, possibly wear fishnet stockings to, and think about for weeks afterwards. The Rocky Horror Show is very firmly the second kind.
Pieter Toerien Productions, in association with Luitingh Alexander Musical Theatre Academy (LAMTA), is bringing the legendary cult musical back to Johannesburg, and if you have never been to a Rocky Horror production before, this is the one to start with. The show runs at Pieter Toerien’s Montecasino Theatre from 12 June to 16 August 2026, and tickets are available now through Webtickets.
Let’s talk about why this matters.
What Rocky Horror Actually Is
If you have somehow arrived at this article without knowing much about The Rocky Horror Show, welcome. You are about to learn something that will either delight you enormously or make you realise you should have gone to this show twenty years ago when you had the chance.
Richard O’Brien’s musical was first performed in 1973 and has been running, in one form or another, ever since. That is over fifty years of fishnet stockings, rock anthems, outrageously camp theatrical chaos, and audiences who know every single line and shout them gleefully at the performers. It is one of the longest-running theatrical phenomena in history, and it has earned that status not by being safe or palatable, but by being the exact opposite of both.
The story follows Brad and Janet, two perfectly ordinary, straightlaced young sweethearts who get a flat tyre during a storm and end up sheltering at a mysterious castle. Inside that castle lives Dr Frank-N-Furter, a self-described sweet transvestite from Transsexual, Transylvania, along with his household of gloriously eccentric characters and his newest creation, a muscle-bound man called Rocky. What follows is an evening of transformation, temptation, rock music, and a cheerful dismantling of every convention that Brad and Janet, and honestly the audience, thought they were comfortable with.
The show celebrates individuality and freedom of expression in a way that still feels genuinely radical. It was doing that in 1973. It is still doing it now. That is not nothing.
The Cast
The production is led by Craig Urbani as Frank-N-Furter, a role he has played before and clearly owns. Urbani is one of South Africa’s most accomplished musical theatre performers, with credits including We Will Rock You and My Fair Lady, and Frank-N-Furter is exactly the kind of role that rewards someone who can hold an entire room in the palm of their hand while wearing a corset and operating at full theatrical voltage.
Léa Blerk plays Janet. If you saw her in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat or Dear Evan Hansen, you already know she brings a commitment and emotional precision to everything she does. Watching a performer of her calibre play someone who begins the show as a picture of sheltered innocence and ends it considerably altered is going to be one of the highlights of the production.
Robert Everson takes on Brad, with credits that include Noises Off and the Tony Awards. Schoemann Smit plays Riff Raff, the character who arguably gets one of the most dramatically satisfying moments in the entire show, with credits including Black Coffee and The Sound of Music. Jasmine Minter, another Joseph veteran, plays Magenta. Anna Olivier, also from the Joseph cast, plays Columbia. Micah Stokajovic, who has appeared in My Fair Lady and Peter Pan, plays Rocky. Zak Hendrikz, known for Sewe and A Christmas Carol, takes on the dual role of Eddie and Dr Scott. Anne Power plays the Narrator.
The ensemble includes Miguel de Sampaio, Tjaart van der Walt, Cleo Wesley, Alessia Gironi, Taya Pearson, Gabi Knight, and Sasha Duffy.
This is a serious cast. The kind of cast that makes it clear this production is not treating the material as a novelty item or a camp curiosity to wheel out and let coast on the show’s existing reputation. These are performers who are going to give it everything.
The Production Team
The show is directed by Steven Stead, who has recently helmed productions including Twelfth Night, My Fair Lady, and Metamorphoses. Stead is known for bold, actor-driven storytelling and a clear visual sensibility, and this production of Rocky Horror is not his first time with the material. The staging premiered in Durban last year to strong reviews before making its way to Johannesburg, which means audiences are getting a production that has already been tested, refined, and clearly worked.
Sets are designed by Greg King, who also designed for My Fair Lady.
The collaboration between Pieter Toerien Productions and LAMTA is worth noting. Pieter Toerien Productions is one of South Africa’s most respected commercial theatre producers, and LAMTA has built a reputation for developing exceptional performance talent. When those two entities put their resources and standards behind a production, it shows.
The Audience Experience
Here is something you should know if you are new to Rocky Horror as a live theatrical event. The audience is part of the show.
Over decades of repeat screenings, touring productions, and midnight movie traditions, Rocky Horror developed a culture of audience participation that is unlike anything else in theatre or film. Audiences call back responses to lines of dialogue, shout commentary at the characters, bring props and use them at specific moments, and generally treat the whole experience as a communal ritual rather than a passive viewing.
This is not obligatory. You can sit in your seat and simply watch the show, and you will still have a wonderful time. But if you want to lean into it, the tradition is there. Regular Rocky Horror audiences know when to shout, what to bring, and exactly how to participate in ways that make the experience feel like something between a theatre production and a very enthusiastic group performance.
If you are going for the first time and want to prepare, a quick search will turn up guides to the audience participation traditions. Or you can simply show up, watch what the people around you are doing, and join in when you feel like it.
Dressing up is also part of the culture. Fishnet stockings, corsets, lab coats, and general glam chaos are all fair game. The press release specifically mentions the option to “pull on your fishnet stockings,” which is advice worth taking seriously.
Why This Show Matters in 2026
Rocky Horror has endured for over fifty years because it is genuinely, stubbornly about something.
At its heart, the show is about the liberation that comes from stepping outside the version of yourself that you perform for other people. Brad and Janet arrive as a particular type of person and leave as a different one, not because something was done to them against their will, but because they were given permission, or perhaps more accurately pushed, to discover parts of themselves they had carefully avoided.
Frank-N-Furter is not a villain in any traditional sense. He is chaotic, boundary-ignoring, and occasionally monstrous, yes, but the show’s emotional core is not a cautionary tale about the danger of eccentric outsiders. It is a love letter to the idea that authenticity, even strange and impractical and difficult authenticity, is worth something.
In 2026, with culture wars flaring up in every direction and the right to simply exist as yourself feeling contested in a way that is exhausting and frightening, a show that has been shouting “don’t dream it, be it” for half a century feels less like nostalgia and more like a necessity.
There is also the straightforward fact that it is a brilliant piece of musical theatre. Time Warp, Sweet Transvestite, Hot Patootie (Bless My Soul), I’m Going Home, and the rest of the soundtrack are genuinely extraordinary songs. O’Brien wrote something that works as a rock concert, a theatrical spectacle, a horror parody, and an emotional journey all at once, and that is an achievement that deserves to be experienced live rather than just appreciated in the abstract.
Practical Information
The Rocky Horror Show runs at Pieter Toerien’s Montecasino Theatre from 12 June to 16 August 2026. The production is rated PG16.
Performance times are as follows: Wednesday to Friday at 7:30 pm, Saturday at 3 pm and 8 pm, and Sunday at 2 pm and 6 pm.
Tickets are available through Webtickets at webtickets.co.za.
Whether you are a longtime Rocky Horror devotee who has been waiting for a local production of this quality, someone who has always been curious about the show but never made it to a production, or someone who wants to do something genuinely memorable on a Saturday night in Johannesburg, this one deserves your attention.
The castle is open. The time warp is ready. You know what to do.
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