Little Shop of Horrors

Everyone’s favourite spoof horror comedy musical was given a confident airing at the Royal Court Theatre by a talented gang of enthusiastic performers. ‘Little Shop of Horrors’ is a very jolly musical romp, based on the very silly 1960 Roger Corman film and which makes merry with spoofing the rock and roll stylings of the early 1960s in style. With a man (and woman) eating giant plant with designs on world domination thrown in for good measure, the show bounces along at a whipcrack pace and is best served by adopting a breezy tongue-in-cheek approach to the enterprise. This was very much in evidence here and the team at Bacup are to be congratulated for a first class production.

The first thing to really stand out in this production and worth an immediate mention was the first class band. If the programme is to believed (and why shouldn’t it?) Christian Van Fields summoned up a sumptuous sound from just three players: Ben Gonzalez on drums, Sam Quinn on guitar and Joshua Cavanagh on bass. The music was the standout feature of the show for me and made for an impressive Bacup debut for MD Christian. Also in fine voice were our three glamorous songbirds, Ronnette, Chiffon and Crystal (that’s right folks, all named after famous all-girl groups of the era) who act as a sort of Greek chorus on the events as they unfold. Gill Pearson, Cindy Rachael and the always impressive Amy Singleton delivered some excellent vocals throughout the show and got things off to a sterling start with the show’s title song and popped up throughout proceedings to comment upon and accentuate the diabolical goings-on on stage: great work here ladies.

Guy Gibbs was sweetly sympathetic Seymour and if on occasion some of his dialogue was lost, I’m putting it down to a combination of the slightly dodgy sound from the speakers, an over- enthusiastic American accent and the fact that I was sat quite a way back from the stage! There was a real energy and drive from Guy throughout the production and he obviously gave everything he’d got to bring Seymour to life. His would-be inamorata Audrey was played with just the right amount of gormless credulity by Emily Wilson, who looked a treat on stage in a skirt she must obviously have been crowbarred into - the kind of skirt any Blackpool B&B proprietress would have died to get her hands on for a night out with the girls. My favourite song in the show - ‘Somewhere that’s Green’ - was delivered with grace and beauty and just the right degree of ‘sideways glance’; the banality of her narrow horizons and the sentimentality of the song make a lovely contrast. Darren Brierley was a bumbling and put-upon Mushnik: Darren and Guy made merry with ‘Mushnik and Son’, much to the audience’s amusement. Patrick Duffy was as comically psychotic as is necessary for the S&M Dentist, Orin Scrivello - again, the odd missed line here or there was more than made up for when carried along with the outré extravagance of the characterisation. Kevin Roberts popped up as a very excitable Mr Bernstein and the whole cast - of humans - looked to be having a whale of a time on stage which, in a show like this, is just the ticket.

It is when we turn to the ever-growing bloodsucking plant, Audrey II, that we must in hushed tones speak of the presence of greatness in the theatre. John Wynn was simply superb as the voice of the extraterrestrial weed and really threw himself into the role, bringing the plant to life better than a double dose of Baby Bio - or an extra large blood transfusion. ‘Feed Me’ and ‘Suppertime’ rocked along with wild abandon and John gave the leafy pest a voice to remember. A wonderful vocal performance which was matched perfectly by Ruth Bearshaw’s pin-sharp operation of the mechanics of Audrey II’s physical representation on stage: a great team coming together to steal the show completely from under the noses of those pesky humans.  

The set was a very well constructed piece of engineering which worked very well, giving the opportunity to show both the interior of the shop and the exterior of Skid Row, populated as it was rather well by a seedy collection of down and outs to complete the picture. The added dimension afforded by the apartment blocks at either side of the stage was an effective touch and were well used, giving extra playing areas and some lovely levels from which to add an extra dimension to the playing arena. I did wonder if it was perhaps a touch over-literal to keep opening and closing the shop front but having said that, how else would the ever-growing varieties of Audrey II make its appearances unheralded?! I think I would have liked to have seen Chiffon, Ronnette and Crystal dressed in something a little more glamorous throughout the show to suggest their status as singing commentators, slightly apart from the world of Skid Row but that’s just personal taste. The rest of the costumes and props were very much in keeping with the era and the Dentist scene in particular was very well interpolated into the evening’s action. A bigger issue for me was the complete lack of ‘Call Back in the Morning’, an admittedly tricky little number to get right but one which is vital in the narrative to suggest the overnight success of Audrey II’s pulling-power in attracting new customers. This is after all a show which nods in the direction of the Faust legend and without giving the audience a firmer understanding of the moral of  ‘be careful what you what you wish for’ with the shop’s overnight success, it did rather undermine this particular aspect of the story. That said, this production did at least fully embrace the mordant humour of Audrey’s death scene and didn’t try to bolt on any unwanted sentimentality to upset the spoofy applecart. 

This was a production which had humour, ambition and a great spirit of fun and adventure. Jordan Barnes obviously inspired his team to give their all and everyone was clearly having a high old time on stage: this was an enthusiasm which spilled over the footlights and into the auditorium and the fun was infectious. And if I haven’t already spoken too highly of John Wynn’s world beating performance as Audrey II, I’ll mention it again here just in case... My thanks go to everyone at Bacup for a very warm welcome and the customary wonderful hospitality. Keep up the good work!

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