Step back in time to September 1989 when, armed with only a shoestring budget, designer Rodney Ford, 74, and playwright Bob Carlton, 64, took the West End by storm with their musical, Return to the Forbidden Planet.

Now, a quarter of a century later, the two have reunited to bring The Tempest-inspired show back; bigger and better than before, which for Rodney is a great thing, because he doesn’t have to worry about the set falling apart.

It may seem like a comical thing to be worried about, but before the jukebox musical found its way onto the West End the stage show was performed in many small venues around the country, where it gained a cult following on the fringes of the theatre world.

During that time the creative team made do with the little money they had, literally holding the show together with tape as they performed in small theatres and even a tent before their small cult following grew through word of mouth, which saw them rise from fringe performers to one of theatre’s main stages, a feat that Rodney still finds incredible.

“The first time around we filled the tentacles of the octopus like beasts with vacuum hoses and the robot we designed cost £10,” Rodney says. “Now the costumes cost £6,000 by themselves, everything is much bigger now. It was remarkable the set didn’t fall apart in the past.”

Making its debut on the West End stage in 1989, Rodney feels that Return to the Forbidden Planet broke new ground by combining the core elements of William Shakespeare’s play with the theme of 1950s- style space travel and managed to achieve huge success with minimal resources.

“It was such a new way to do a show, the actors could sing, dance and do all sorts of things. Before that it used to be big orchestras and a few actors who could play.

“It got to the point where me, Bob and others said would be doing this in the next 30 or 40 years. It’s come a little earlier though. It’s extraordinary really.”

But today Rodney says the quality is so much better, especially as they have musicians who don’t need dots on their instruments to tell them where to place their fingers.

“Before it was amazing that an actor could actually play an instrument, not fantastically well, but it was lauded by audiences,” he says. “During the first run of the show the actors, in some cases, needed to have dots stuck onto their instruments to guide their fingers in the right direction.

“Audiences back then were more forgiving about that sort of thing, but now the actors are so versatile and have so much talent. It’s incredible really.”

And with so much more talent and money behind the project compared to its earlier outing the show looks, at least for the moment, to be set for a fantastic anniversary tour. But would Rodney be prepared to come back for a third Return to the Forbidden Planet if it achieved as successful a run as before?

“Of course I would come back, absolutely.”

  • Return to the Forbidden Planet will run at the Queen’s Theatre, Billet Lane, Hornchurch, RM11 1QT, from Thursday, November 6 to Saturday, November 15, various times. Details: 01708 443333, queens-theatre.co.uk