Little Shop of Horrors

Little Shop of Horrors is such a well-known horror musical bringing together so many Musical Theatre
techniques and skills, which Beverley Musical Theatre did that with great expertise. The relatively small
cast of 16 did an exceptional job of portraying the diverse characters and exceptional story line. All
aspects of the show were brought together excellently to help the actors portray the story. The set and
props were wonderful and really helped set the scene and used wisely on a small stage with the addition
of wonderful acting and musical ability.
The cast were fabulous and worked so well together and certainly brought a traditional but fresh outlook
on the characters they were portraying. Every member of cast being well used and placed to provide the
upmost theatrical effect. Richard McDonald who played the nerdy, bumbling Seymour was fabulous and
had excellent mannerisms to help portray the nervous character in his debut role with Beverley Musical
Theatre, with great delivery of his songs, one of my favourites being ‘Grow for Me’. One performer who
stole the stage was Joseph Bough who played the rather eccentric Dr Orin Bernstein. I’m sure Joseph is
a lovely gentleman however he portrayed his role so well that I’m sure many of the audience will be
thinking twice before their next trip to the dentist. He threw himself into this role and really showed of his
acting talent.
One of the hardest roles I always feel in Little Shop of Horrors is the part of Audrey 2 and both Tim Drage
(voice of Audrey 2) and Richard Longborne (Operator of Audrey 2) were sublime. It takes real skill to not
only be able to operate such big props but also to give character to an inanimate object, which these two
did it bucket loads. You would be hard pushed to think that this plant wasn’t alive let alone being played
by two people. Tim and Richard worked so well together to portray a very seamless character. Well done
boys!
It was apparent that Hannah Hughes as the Musical Director has worked tirelessly with the cast and
band. All singing was to an exceptional standard and showed of the musical range and ability of the cast.
This was highlighted through the trio of Rebecca Kingston (Ronette), Jade Easom Samuels (Chiffon) and
Lauren Richardson (Crystal) as well as Alice Trow, Claire Cooper and Fiona Wales in the Green Chorus
whose harmonies were impeccable and showed that these ladies had worked exceptionally hard to
produce this great musical performance. Although the band was small, only containing six people, it was
very well put together with each member giving an excellent performance and playing without drowning
out the cast which could have been easily done in the small venue.
My final note of appreciation has to go to Georgia Kingston. Georgia not only gave a brilliant
performance of gullible Audrey but also produced some wonderfully simplistic choreography that added,
rather than distracted, from the melodious singing. As someone who is partial to choreography in shows I
was very impressed how well together Georgia has made the dances so that all could join in and not look
out of place.
For the first show I have been to see with Beverley Musical Theatre I was impressed. With a lot of
societies struggling to keep numbers of members high it is nice to see that Beverley is keeping going and
using the cast they have to great avail.

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