Return to the Forbidden Planet

RETURN TO THE FORBIDDEN PLANET is mainly a jukebox musical by Bob Carlton, loosely based on The Tempest and therefore as well as being packed with songs from the 60s (and occasionally 70s) also includes the poetic language of Shakespeare. It’s an odd show to categorise as it combines rock and roll, musical comedy, romance and some daft audience participation in order to save the crew of the US spaceship Albatross by doing the full polarity reversal.

There was great attention to detail on the costumes with well fitted uniforms for the crew of the spacecraft complete with badges.   Each character was well defined by their costume, such as the casual apparel for Prospero, chef’s outfit for Cookie and a fantastic representation of a robot for Ariel, who came gliding onto the stage from the audience under a ton of silver paint and pizza boxes; a highly original look for a robot on mind-bending drugs!        

The set was a good representation of the inside of a spaceship, grey walls with control panels, screens either side and sliding space-lock doors.  The focal point, a captain’s chair.   Personal props such as the laser gun for Captain Tempest were well used.  Well done to the prop makers for their inventive use of tumble dryer ducting with paint "splodges", extended with home-made fabric tubes and shiny fabric claws for the attacking alien at the end of Act One.

The sound was good overall with voices clear and in tune.  The balance of music from the live band was just at the right level to complement the voices.   The lighting and special effects were fantastic and added enormously to the overall impact of the show with bright colour changing lights, subdued lighting, lunarscapes on the screens either side of the stage showing various planets, smoke and great sound effects. 

This was a hugely enjoyable production on all fronts.  The cast were engaged and obviously having fun and that energy flowed out to the audience.  This was an evening of rocking good songs, comedic moments and science fiction fantasy tailored to accommodate the slightly adapted, but always brilliant, musical numbers. It was agreeably energetic with some beautifully and thoughtfully sung solos as well as well choreographed ‘big’ numbers. The story, quite complicated, was usefully summarised for the audience at the beginning of the second act. There was good pace throughout. The creative and production team as well as the cast, were fully committed to this thrilling show and evening with the preposterous story, it just flew!

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