The Rocky Horror Show, Palace Theatre, Manchester. Runs until Saturday. WHOLESOME Robin Cousins as a sweet transvestite, belting out songs dressed up in a black basque, stockings and platform shoes?

A case of skating on very thin ice for the Olympic gold medallist, you might think. Watching Cousins doing the Time Warp in kinky lingerie is certainly an eye-opener.

But, somehow, despite a graceful and enthusiastic performance, Cousins turns out to be not quite the she-male for the job.

This I'm sure is purely down to inexperience. Playing the role of freaky weirdo, Frank N Furter while fending off good-natured, though foul-mouthed, catcalls from the audience takes a great deal of skill.

And Cousins' attempts to concentrate on the difficult enough tasks of singing, dancing and acting dressed up like Madonna on a bad night, meant that the by now expected banter with the numerous underwear-clad members of the audience didn't really materialise.

Don't be disheartened, however. Cousins is OK and the show is as fast paced, rude and hilarious as ever.

Andrew Kennedy as the drippy Brad and Joanne Farrell as Janet are particularly outstanding and Barry Howard (the snooty ballroom dancer from Hi-De-Hi) makes a superbly po-faced narrator.

Cousins allows the odd nod to his former sporting career, as skating-style pirouettes creep into dance routines and the whole affair is a good, fun night out.

Who knows? If the trend continues to cast a sportsman in the lead role of future Rocky Horror Shows, there could be some interesting choices. It'd certainly give a whole new meaning to ooh, aah Cantona. Runs until Saturday. IAN SAVAGE

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.