STOCKINGS, suspenders and corsets at the ready - one of the biggest spectacles in theatre is about to arrive in Ipswich.The Rocky Horror Show, famed for attracting audiences who dress up in their favourite characters, will be taking to the stage at the Regent Theatre tonight.

STOCKINGS, suspenders and corsets at the ready - one of the biggest spectacles in theatre is about to arrive in Ipswich.

The Rocky Horror Show, famed for attracting audiences who dress up in their favourite characters, will be taking to the stage at the Regent Theatre tonight.

Telling the story of Brad and Janet, a newly-wed couple who come across the strange and warped home of Dr Frank n Furter when their car breaks down, The Rocky Horror Show is an all singing, all dancing production with a cast of men and women dressed in stockings and suspenders.

Written by Richard O'Brien, it started out as a 1975 film and has since become one of the most popular stage shows ever made and has a cult following around the world.

This week will see Rocky make a return to Ipswich and the run of shows at the Regent will see Suffolk actor Ian Lavender, known for his roles in Dad's Army and EastEnders, making his first appearance on an Ipswich stage.

Lavender will be playing the part of the narrator on the Ipswich and Norwich legs of the current tour.

“The narrator tells the story and moves the show along,” he said from his home near Stowmarket.

“But with Rocky being what it is now, most of the audience know exactly what is happening anyway, the audience now are like the extra character.”

With many people making a night out to the show a regular must-do event, Rocky has developed a set pattern of audience participation, which sees people dancing along to the music - most notably the famous Time Warp and shouting lines back to the actors throughout the show.

“The audience is welcome to take their part in the show, but the show doesn't not respond to them,” said Ian.

“If anyone does respond, it is the narrator, who has more freedom.”

A show about transvestites, Rocky has attracted the critics as well as the fans over the years and Ian said people should be in no doubt about what is on offer.

“I went to see it before I joined it and had an absolute whale of a time. You don't have to be dressed up or be youngster to enjoy it. It is a grown up, rude and bawdy show, it's naughty, it's not filthy or nasty, it's naughty and it's great great fun, but I would feel very uncomfortable taking a ten-year-old to see it.

“It is a homage to all the great sixties rock and roll and all the B Movies of the sixties - there is an awful lot more to it than shouting back from the audience.”

Are you a Rocky Horror Show fan? Write to Your Letters, Evening Star, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich, IP4 1AN or send us an e-mail to eveningstarletters@eveningstar.co.uk