‘Rocky Horror Show’ lands on Broadway; Opera tenor Alasdair Kent is listening to Mozart's 'Ascanio in Alba'
This is Punk Rock Bach for March 26, 2026.
Welcome to Thursday and thank you for joining me!
In this week’s Punk Rock Bach, we’re talking with Kris Kukul, music supervisor for Broadway’s new “Rocky Horror Show” production and opera singer Alasdair Kent about his headphones of choice. We’ve also landed on a Solid State Drive for the DIY music server I’m building and digesting music news from around the internet.
Onward!
‘Rocky Horror’ music supervisor calls Studio 54 venue ‘like kismet beyond’
The Studio 54 theater has something of a time warp on its hands.
The theater, once a space known for 1970s disco, celebrity sightings and night-time dancing, will be the home for Broadway’s production of the 1970s classic “The Rocky Horror Show.” The new show — which features Juliette Lewis, Rachel Dratch and Harvey Guillén, among others, and is directed by Sam Pinkleton — begins previews on March 26.
Kris Kukul, music supervisor for the production, said the Studio 54 venue was “like kismet beyond.”
“It’s like special sauce to it,” Kukul said. “I don’t think it made us go […] in any direction while we were making the show that we wouldn’t have gone in, but it’s like a little…it’s a really special thing that happened.”
Kukul is a New York theater veteran and previously served as music supervisor on the recent Beetlejuice musical and conductor for “Gutenberg! The Musical.”
Now, I know what you’re asking — “what the heck is a music supervisor?”
That’s the person who, behind the scenes, oversees every musical aspect of the production. And in the case of “Rocky Horror,” Kukul said that means making sure the songs fit the singers, molding the score for this particular production and even putting the band together.
“And this is a small band, you know, just a rock band, a rock band with a saxophone,” he said. “So, we had to find people who really are amazing rock players.”
The name “Rocky Horror” conjures images of midnight movie showings with the “Time Warp” song blasting and lots of baked-in audience participation. According to Playbill’s Kieron Cindric, who has a run-down of the film audience interactions here, viewers will shout phrases like “How’s your sex life, Brad?” and “Not the night, but the day…” at the screen as “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” film plays.
Kukul said the minds behind this Broadway production both expect those call-outs will happen, but also that audiences might be a bit more reserved.
“You know, they’re like the traditional things that people call out. I’m sure it’s gonna happen,” Kukul said. “We don’t really know what to expect, which is kind of exciting.”
As for the musical numbers in the latest production, Kukul said he has a few favorites.
“There’s a song called ‘Over at the Frankenstein Place,’ which is the third song in,” he said. “Which is not one of the more-known songs, but it is just one of those songs that, every time it starts, I just absolutely love it.”
He also highlighted an eight-minute sequence toward the end of Act Two that shifts around in styles.
“It’s a thrilling piece of music,” Kukul said.
“The Rocky Horror Show” starts on March 26 and is set to run until June 21 at the Studio 54 Theater (254 West 54th Street) in Manhattan.
Music News from Around the Internet
Rolling Stone’s Nathan Brackett takes a look at the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Era of AI in Music.” (Rolling Stone)
The Beach Boys’ “Pet Sounds” album is getting an “audiophile pressings” for its 60th anniversary, NME’s Liberty Dunworth reports. (NME)
FKA twigs has sued 90s band the Twigs, Pitchfork’s Nina Corcoran reports. At issue, Corcoran says, is a trademark. (Pitchfork)
ICYMI: Flea, the Red Hot Chili Peppers’s base player, spoke with The New York Times about his first solo album, “Honora.” The album is set to release March 27. (The New York Times)
The Weekly Stereo…
This week, opera singer Alasdair Kent — who performs on Aparté Music’s new recording “Traetta: Ifigenia in Tauride” — shares how he fills his listening time with song both at home in Switzerland and on the road.
Editor’s note: This interview has been edited for length and precision. It was conducted with the assistance of Otter.AI transcription, an artificial intelligence service, but reviewed by Punk Rock Bach for accuracy before publication.
Punk Rock Bach: How do you prefer to listen to music?
Alasdair Kent: So a lot of this comes down to my style of living. So I'm on the road for 10,11, or something, 12 months of the year, so it's impractical for me to carry around CDs or vinyls or these kind of things, unfortunately. So any of the music I listen to is used digital in some way. And usually I would be listening to things… I have a kind of, sort of a database of CDs of operas and recital discs in some cases, you know, I think I have 25 or 30 different recordings of, say, for instance, some really popular operas like “Lucia di Lammermoor.”
PRB: What are you listening to now?
Kent: It's pretty common that I will be listening to if I'm learning a new role, I might listen to that. So at the moment, I'm in the middle of some concert performances and also a recording of a Mozart opera called “Ascanio in Alba” and so I listened to a couple of weeks ago, I was listening to a few different the recordings that already existed [of] this opera, just to get an idea of what people kind of expect from this opera and how that happens. At the same time, I've also been listening to some Tchaikovsky orchestral music.
PRB: What do you listen on?
Kent: Well, usually I use my phone, I would have to say. I have an iPhone, and I listen to that. If I'm at my computer, then I will listen with Media Monkey, and then my beautiful Bose. What are they? Quiet Comfort. I want to say 45, QC 45’s, I think they are.
Aparté Music released “Traetta: Ifigenia in Tauride,” directed by Christophe Rousset, on March 20. Kent’s performance includes an aria on track 47 of the album, which is available on Bandcamp.
The DIY corner…
As you’ll recall, this is the part of the newsletter in which Punk Rock Bach logs the construction of the Lois X-1000: a no-internet music server I’m planning to connect straight into my hi-fi stereo system.
I explained the basic brain of the device last week. This week, construction has stalled for a few reasons — but I have made some progress on selecting an internal Solid State Drive, the server component on which my music files will live.
I’m going with a Samsung 870 EVO Internal SSD, with 1 terabyte’s worth of space — which will connect to the Raspberry Pi via a SATA-to-USB 3.0 chord. It’s enough space to hold many (!!!) digital albums, whether they’re saved as FLAC files, MP3s or other formats.
Once I purchase the SSD, I’ll start loading my CDs — mostly collected during the 1990s, but I have a few more recent recordings also that I’ll be adding to the archive.
More on that front next week.
Punk Rock Bach joins Instagram
Social media is unavoidable. And while I’m still trying to stay away from TikTok, Instagram feels like a natural fit for Punk Rock Bach.
And so I’m pleased to present Punk Rock Bach on Instagram. I’ll be posting short previews of the Thursday newsletter there, along with re-posts from other music news sites and musicians.
Follow PRB at instagram.com/punkrockbach.
Here’s what I’m listening to…
Covering “The Rocky Horror Show” got me into a 1970s kind of mood this week. And no group shouts out loud “1970s rock” more than KISS.
I’ve been listening to my re-issue copy of the 1975 “KISS Alive!” album on vinyl. It’s a favorite I enjoy coming back to periodically, and this week seemed like an appropriate time.
For the record: No — per Snopes, the band’s name does NOT stand for “Knights in Satan’s Service.”
That’s all for this week. Until next Thursday!