RECOMMENDED

I never drank the “Rocky Horror” Kool-Aid, but damn it, Janet, you have to be some kind of jagoff not to get a kick out of this show. The current revival at the Mercury Theater (from a new production company called CreatiVision Entertainment) may be amplified to within an inch of its life, but considering this is more glam-rock concert than musical, who cares? (The musicians aren’t live either, but again, who cares?) “Rocky Horror” has always been the gold standard for tacky-vampy, and director Steve Hiltebrand drives the show full-steam ahead, literally—there is enough stage fog to choke a sweet transvestite from Transsexual, Transylvania. Speaking of, Scott Alan Jones, as Dr. Frank-N-Furter, is the show’s biggest asset. With his hair in a style I’ll call bedhead ‘fro, he rocks the fishnets and banana hammock like nobody’s business. You have to go all the way with this role, and Jones doesn’t hold back—a performance so over-the-top, it comes back down the other side. More to the point, he understands what Richard O’Brien, the show’s original creator, was going for, which is: sex is funny, especially when you dress it up as kink and fetish. When Jones struts across the stage in those heels and mews out a line, he might as well be to be saying, “Yeah, I’m hot—but more to the point, I’m hilarious, bitches!” (Like most of the cast, Jones has clearly spent hours at the gym for your viewing pleasure.) The ensemble also includes Tony DiFalco as Brad (asshole!), Dina DiConstanzo as Janet (slut!) and Amy Armstrong as Meat Loaf—sorry, I mean Eddie. Any show that includes Armstrong is worth your money, and she sings the sideburns off of “Hot Patootie.” Only Molly Callinan’s Magenta seems out-of-step—her sexuality is more pole dancer than titillating jokester. While everyone else on stage is a freak getting their freak on, Callinan’s performance is erotic in a very traditional sense. But she does have a knockout body, long and lean, and she is fearless in a pair of pasties. (Nina Metz)

At Mercury Theater, 3745 N. Southport, (773)325-1700. This production is now closed.