Australian actor Adam Rennie will play the lead role of Dr Frank N Furter in the Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth season’s of The Rocky Horror Show.

- Advertisement -

Rennie was the understudy for Craig McLachlan and stepped into the role for the final week of the show’s Adelaide run after producers announced McLachlan was leaving the production.

Adam took to the stage in Adelaide on Tuesday night to rapturous applause and Producer John Frost said he was proud of the excellent performance delivered from the full cast and was looking forward to bringing the show to QPAC in Brisbane next week.

The Adelaide Advertiser said Rennie had excelled in the role and audiences were loving the show.

“Rennie has the looks, the legs, the luscious lips and most importantly of all, the lungs to make a meal of this iconic role……the night was Rennie’s and it was a triumph, and the audience stood and screamed their heads off.”

Rennie recently returned to Australia after moving to New York in 2012 where he performed in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Priscilla Queen of the Desert, the Australian musical Once We Lived Here and the national tour of Flashdance -The Musical.

He is a 2008 graduate of The Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts and his Australasian credits include Crazy for You, Jekyll & Hyde, The Producers, Prodigal and Love Never Dies. He has also worked alongside the legendary Debbie Reynolds in Irene.

McLachlan left the production follow accusations from former cast members from the 2014 production who have alleged that the actor acted inappropriately. Several actors and crew members have come forward detailing stories about inappropriate touching and unwanted comments. McLachlan has denied all the allegations.

Producer offers apology and promises a full investigation

Producer John Frost has released a lengthy statement offering an apology for the way the company initially handled the concerns raised about McLachlan.

Frost, the head of the Gordon Frost Organisation, said the allegations about McLachlan were of great concern.

“Anyone should feel comfortable reporting issues of sexual harassment, discrimination and bullying, and the fact that these three women did not feel as though they could report these issues in 2014 is concerning and distressing to me, and I sincerely apologise to them for this.” Frost said.

“Our company is responsible for sometimes hundreds of people across many productions at any given time, and we do have very strict policies and procedures in place when it comes to reporting of allegations of this nature. We had those same policies in place in 2014.

“Over the past few days we have spent time reinforcing those policies and assuring all employees across all productions that any reported incident will be treated seriously and promptly with sensitivity to all parties concerned.

“We have never had an incident of this nature prior to this, and complaints of any type of bullying or harassment are very rare, although they do occur.

“Erika, Christie and Angela have publicly stated many times in the media that they chose not to make a complaint and that they waited some years to come forward. I am glad they finally did, so that their claims can be properly investigated.” Frost said.

Production on McLachlan’s TV series stopped

Channel Seven have halted production on a new series of Craig McLachlan’s TV show The Doctor Blake Mysteries. 

The show was created and made the ABC for many years, but in 2017 they decided to invest their production budgets into other shows. The show was subsequently picked up by Channel Seven.

‘The ABC has clarified the only reason they stopped creating the show after five seasons is that they wanted to invest in other drama projects. The ABC have said there was no problems with McLachlin’s behavior during the show’s filming.  The broadcaster has removed all past episodes of the series from its iView streaming platform.

OIP Staff