Little Shop of Horrors

After an evening of superb entertainment, one returns home and thinks, “I enjoyed that tremendously”. Why? I’m not sure really. Four main characters who all are killed by a massive talking plant! Nobody seems to miss them and the only winner is the world-conquering giant Venus fly-catching piece of vegetation! However, this production was a total success after about forty years of being first seen.

The six Ronnettes, who musically narrated the majority of the plot had plenty to sing throughout the performance. This was extremely well executed in the melodic harmonies of the score.  Their many costumes were also very colourful and eye-catching. According to the program, there were thirteen ensemble members also doubling up on cameo roles and as puppeteers. These all added well to the continuity of the plot and filled the stage with much action during the crowd scenes. One technically problematic part of this musical is the working of Audrey II. The three people involved with the difficult task of operating the plant’s movements did a grand job.    

The aforementioned main characters on stage for a large percentage of the action of the play were Seymour (Alex Hopkins), his eventual girl-friend, Audrey (Alice Rowell), the selfish shop owner, Mr Mushnik (Steve Thurley) and the sadistic dentist, Orin Scrivello (Dominic Batchelor). These four interacted well together and produced some fine comical times throughout. So, not to forget the outcome of this unfortunate event, the victorious plant, Audrey II (Becky Munden) who had four lively songs, powerfully and strongly performed.

Musical Director, Matt Greaves led a nine-piece band, who accompanied the singers very competently and tunefully with the score’s sometimes tricky arrangements. The well known songs from this show, “Little Shop of Horrors” (Ronnettes), “Somewhere that’s Green” (Audrey), “Now (It’s Just the Gas)” (Orin, Seymour) and “Suddenly Seymour” (Semour, Audrey, Company) were as usual performed to great ability and were extremely pleasing to hear.

My thanks and congratulations to the whole company - production team, actors, back-stage, choreographer, technical crew and musicians for a wonderful evening of fun and entertainment.

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