Little shop of Horrprs

This is a show that I have seen a couple of times and appeared in as part of the ensemble on Skid Row years ago, so I know that this is not a large cast, I wondered how Nicola would cope with this. I shouldn’t have been surprised that Nicola would manage to choreograph some large dance routines, including choreographing the shop counters!

The curtains opened to reveal a digital back drop which looked great and changed throughout the show from a seedy down at heel empty shop in Skid Row to becoming a bright colourful full flower shop with different screens to match various songs. The shop counters were also suitably dowdy and transformed throughout the show to smart colourful shop counters. These wheeled counters twirled around the stage by the flower shop girls who, with a change of costume became extensions of the plant Audrey II.

Although this show lives and dies on the talents of the four principals, there are three performers who are essential to the story as commentators, singers and performers. These three characters were well played, Blaize Jones White, Hales Beasley and Charlotte Burgess as respectively Ronette, Chiffon and Crystal gave us some great harmonies in their songs. The opening Prologue, ‘Da-Doo’ with Seymour, ‘Ya Never Know’ and Coda at the end of Act One, then with Seymour and Audrey in Act Two ‘Suddenly Seymour’ were all well sung, their costumes changed and got smarter as the flower shops fortunes changed.

Everyone always remembers Rick Moranis in the film as Seymour; however, we had our very own Seymour in Marc Peacock Smith. This is a big role and Marc didn’t fail us, a big voice for some of the iconic songs including the solos ‘Grow for Me’, ‘Sudden Changes’ but more memorably the duets with Audrey and Mr. Mushnik’s ‘Mushnik and Son’, the great humorous ‘Call back in the Morning’ and the romantic ‘Somewhere that’s Green’. Marc gave a strong performance, great acting and showing the emotion of his love for Audrey, the despair of feeding Audrey II and hatred for the plant at the end. Great movement on stage and wonderful clear dialogue. This was all matched by Kayleigh Waterman as Audrey who had a lovely voice and gelled well with both Seymour and Orin, Kayleigh looked and sounded just as one imagines Audrey. There was a lovely rendition of ‘Somewhere that’s Green’ with Seymour and a duet with Audrey II of ‘Suppertime’. Kayleigh’s portrayal of the beaten and unhappy Audrey was good, her voice and physical actions clearly conveyed this. Mr. Mushnik was performed by Andrew Cleaver; you need to get rid of that moustache! although it did make you appear older for the role, Andrew’s baritone came to the fore in the duets and trios that he sang particularly ‘Closed for renovation’ and ‘Mushnik and Son’. He worked well with the characters in Skid Row and his interaction with Seymour and Audrey was good, I particularly liked the acting in ‘Mushnik and Son’ and his searching and explanation of the blood spots and the dentist’s jacket in the bin. That brings us on to Orin Scrivello brought to us by Glen Whitmore, who is a useful chap to know, stepping into the role a month before the Show. Glen gave us all the brutishness of the sadistic Dentist with a good performance, making good use of members of the ensemble as he sang ‘Dentist’ and made good use of the chair and the whole stage in ‘Now (It’s just the Gas)’ as he slowly expired.

These four worked well together, but most of all they worked with the Plant, Audrey II. There was puppeteer Susie Lynch firstly sat inside a counter unit and then manipulating the Plant, matching this to the voice of Megan Garwood singing from the Wings, this was a strong performance bringing fear into those on stage. Great vocals for ‘Feed Me’ and ‘Suppertime’. It was just a shame that her mic appeared to fail virtually at the end of the show, well done for keep going.

There were a few small cameos from Alex Roberts, Carrie Freeman, Jody Rudd, Natalie Forkin and Ellie Dickinson. All well performed, they also joined the ensemble who doubled as the homeless on Skid Row, as customers and some as parts of the Plant. The choreography for the dances and the shop counters was very effective and worked well. I liked Nicola’s idea of using six dancers in matching costumes to be an extension to the plant feeding the victims into the ever-hungry Audrey II. The ensemble singing was good and gave a wonderful rendition of ‘Skid Row’ as well as ‘The Meek Shall Inherit’. The show was well lit and costumed, there were plenty of props with the increasingly well-dressed shop counters as the show progressed. Good and appropriate costumes, Seymour had plenty of plasters on his fingers and Audrey had a good black eye, I loved the dentist’s drill!

Well done to Nicola and crew for a great show, it was also nice to see a lot of youngsters from the youth show in the audience this evening supporting the adult show.

 

 

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