Little Shop of Horrors

“Little Shop of Horrors” is a comedy horror rock musical with music by Alan Menken and Lyrics by Howard Ashman and tells the story of hapless florist shop worker Seymour a horticulture nerd who works in a failing Skid Row floral shop, he finds a chance for success and romance with the help of a plant that feeds on human blood and flesh resulting in mayhem.

This was an enjoyable energetic production directed by Paul Carr who was fortunate to have some very talented actors in his cast who produced some worthy performances, these included a good endearing performance from Danny Watkins as the hapless Seymour, who on closing  my eyes reminded me very much of  Rick Moranis from the 1986 movie. Diane Glover was spot on with her characterization of the ditsy peroxide blonde love interest Audrey and there was a good rapport between her character and Seymour which is very important. Paul Duckworth was very secure and entertaining in his role of Mushnik his diction was clear and his accent was very good, meaning his dialogue could be followed very easily.  Steven Catterall gave us an entertaining and at times comedic performance as the leather-jacketed psycho-dentist Orin and Rachel Brennan, Vicki Claputa and Katie Eccles were in good voice singing  together in harmony, paying tribute to several well-known girl groups of the past in the demanding roles of the Ronettes. Well done should go to Alan Levesley as the only member of the ensemble who played a number of the smaller roles sometimes one after the other. Big congratulations should go to Rob Armstrong who was very good as the voice of the demanding man eating plant Audrey II and Ian Robinson who was the puppeteer operating the plant which resembled a cross between a shark and a giant cactus. Both are not seen throughout the production however their efforts are integral to the success of this show. Dialogue was a little hard to hear and follow on a few occasions, but this could have been due to technical problems with the microphones which were one of a few technical problems experienced on the night of my visit. The orchestra conducted by musical director Wayne Oakes were excellent and supported the cast very well and choreography by Hannah Liddle suited the musical well and was performed soundly by the cast.

Scenery as usual was excellent and innovative and again the stage area was used very efficiently. I was very impressed with the automatic opening and closing of the set for different scenes which the director was able to use for maximum effect and it gave a superb platform for the performers to work on, well done to all the set builders and painters for all their excellent hard work. Costumes were well-thought-out and suited the production and the roles very well.
It was obvious a great deal of hard work had gone into getting this show to the stage and the whole company gelled together as a team working towards the end product which was a successful entertaining production, well done to all involved, I had an enjoyable evening thank you for inviting me I hope to see you for your next show.
 

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