Often billed as "Shakespeare's forgotten rock and roll masterpiece",[1] Return to the Forbidden Planet has been performed all over the world since its premiere in London in the 1980s.

There is a part for narrator (known as "the newsreader") on pre-recorded video, who has been performed by celebrities including Patrick Moore, Brian May, Richard O'Brien and Neil deGrasse Tyson.

The bosun of the starship Albatross welcomes the audience as passengers aboard a routine survey flight, departing momentarily under the command of Captain Tempest.

After takeoff, Captain Tempest converses with the ship's new Science Officer, who is a woman, and they argue about the importance of men and women on earth.

During discussions about locating the missing Science Officer, Ariel reveals information about Doctor Prospero's new formula 'X Factor’, which can enhance the brain and mind.

[7] When the musical opened in Sydney, Australia, the beginning of a national tour, the newsreader was played by Clive "Robbo" Robertson, who performed a futuristic parody of his own late-night TV news show, "Newsworld".

[8] On September 27, 1991, Return to the Forbidden Planet opened Off-Broadway at the Variety Arts Theatre, the first theatrical production in a former nickelodeon.

In Los Angeles, the ARK Theatre Company mounted a production of the musical, under the direction of Vanessa Claire Smith.

Critic Paul Friswold of The Riverfront Times wrote about the production, “Bob Carlton's whimsical take on The Tempest as refracted through a 1950s sci-fi prism features a galaxy's worth of fantastic rock & roll songs, punning wordplays on snippets of Shakespearean monologues and intentionally ‘Pigs in Space’ costuming.

But this is no parlor trick of a musical; there's a rich vein of Shakespeare's favorite ingredient — the wondrous depths of the human heart — that elevates the show from cunning stunt to artful meditation on the destructive nature of power and the redemptive power of love.”[10] In 2019, Red Bull Theater mounted a one-night-only concert performance at Symphony Space in New York, benefitting the theater's upcoming productions.

The production featured Tony Award nominees Steven Boyer, Robert Cuccioli, Patrick Page, Mary Testa, Kim Exum, Kevin R. Free, Jo Lampert, Amy Spanger, Charlotte Maltby, Jeffrey Eugene Johnson, Ben Jones and Salisha Thomas, with direction by Gabriel Barre and Music Direction by Greg Pliska.