'When I put on those high heels, I become that rock ‘n’ roll star. It makes me feel powerful, tall, in charge' says Jason Donovan of Rocky Horror Show role

He plays the cross-dressing Dr Frank’n-Furter in Richard O’Brien’s legendary rock ‘n’ roll musical The Rocky Horror Show which is touring to Sheffield this month.

Jason said: “I love the show; I love the music; I love the character. I was touring my own show about five years ago and included ‘Sweet Transvestite’ from Rocky as a key moment in my musical career. It went down a storm.”

When he discovered that a 50th anniversary production of Rocky Horror was on the cards, Jason emailed producer Howard Panter saying that he’d love to be involved. The tour started in Jason’s native Australia and has been touring the UK since August this year.

It’s a quarter of a century since Jason initially played the sweet transvestite; how did he feel about returning to the role? He rold interviewer Richard Barber: “I don’t feel uncomfortable, playing Frank at 56. I put on the costume and there’s Frank all over again. I’m in touch with my feminine side but I come from a masculine sensibility. The character embraces both sides of me: a strength and a vulnerability as well as danger and denial.

“I always dreamed of fronting a rock band and this is about as close as I’ve got. When I put on those high heels, I become that rock ‘n’ roll star. It makes me feel powerful, tall, in charge.

“And audiences love it. As I look out from the stage, I see a beautiful landscape of people wearing outrageous costumes. It’s not hard to see why: in many ways, Rocky is panto for adults. The costumes are just as much a part of the show as the characters and the music.”

Jason has personal reasons for feeling grateful to the show. During the touring production of the late nineties, the stage manager was a young woman called Angela Malloch. “I’d be backstage waiting to go on,” recalled Jason, “and I’d get chatting to Ange.” The blossoming friendship turned into romance but the relationship hit the buffers.

Shortly afterwards, Angela found out she was pregnant. It was ultimatum time. Jason said: “If the relationship had any chance of working, she told me, and if I was going to have any involvement in the life of our child, I would have to give up the self-indulgent hedonistic lifestyle of the 90s and take greater control of my life. And I did.”

It was a major turning point in his life and the beginning of a relationship that has stood the test of time – the couple finally married in 2008. They have three children: Jemma is 24 and an actress who has appeared in the long-running soap Neighbours; 23-year-old Zac is a TV producer in Australia and Molly, 13, is still at school.

In the meantime, their father has graduated from small-screen fame as Scott in Neighbours, to chart-topping pop stardom and now, among much else, as a stalwart of musical and straight theatre in a diverse number of productions.

Jason played Joseph in the original production of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s Joseph and his Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (returning as Pharaoh in the 2019 revival and subsequently on tour). He was in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang as eccentric inventor Caractacus Potts, has had two stabs at playing drag artist Mitzi in Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, he also played music mogul Sam Phillips in Million Dollar Quartet, the demon barber of Fleet Street himself in Sweeney Todd and Lionel Logue in The King’s Speech.

But it is Dr Frank-N-Furter who occupies a special place in his heart. “One of the reasons I love Rocky is because it’s a short show. It says everything it needs to say and nothing more. There’s no unnecessary padding. It means nobody gets bored and you leave them wanting more.”

The Rocky Horror Show will run at Sheffield’s Lyceum Theatre from November 25 to 30, 2024. For tickets, go to www.sheffieldtheatres.co.uk