Little Shop of Horrors

Thursday, 11 June 2009

Little Shop of Horrors is seriously, one of my favourite musicals. Written and scored by eventual powerhouse Disney hit makers Alan Menken and Howard Ashman (Little Mermaid, Aladdin and Best Picture Oscar nom Beauty and the Beast), Little Shop was originally adapted from a B-grade cult movie classic from the 1960s which had in a small masochistic role a lean actor with a feral smile named Jack Nicholson,…yes, that Jack.

The story of a boy, the girl of his dreams, and a carnivorous plant that wants to take over the world, inspired Menken and Ashman to produce some of the catchiest harmonies and endearing characters in modern musical theatre. With ironic lyrics and a twisted view of early 60s wish fulfilment consumer culture, these rose-coloured glasses nevertheless had sightlines to the real world harsh realities of downtown Skid Row; but the music is so amazing and clever, it never gets you down, though the content upon later reflection is rather disturbing…

This staging by Shine Studios was faithful to the Off Broadway production, and while I’ll admit a fondness for the original material, I had actually first fallen in love with a rerun of the 1986 movie musical directed by Frank Oz. The film had tweaked the theatrical ending, introduced a new song (that was subsequently nominated for an Oscar) and reinstated the masochistic character that had been in the sourced 1960 film but absent from the stage musical. Bill Murray took an enjoyably painful turn in the dentist chair that time around.

I haven’t seen that many productions at Murdoch University’s Nexus Theatre, but it afforded a decent sized space for the show, with the whole stage and some of the high tower catwalks being utilized by the cast.

The music buoyed the show along, but there were a few dead spots in between some scene changes or turns of dialogue where transitions could have been a little tighter.

I normally love seeing dancers in a show, but unfortunately in this instance I found the many choreographed numbers a little distracting to the central leads, especially during some of the more intimate or one on one songs – I could barely see Mushnik & Son for the crowd on stage!

Cameron Prestel was almost a little too clear skinned and confident to play orphaned loser Seymour Krelborn, but Shinead Gegas was great as bruised yet blossoming Audrey, her face revealing her sweet heart beneath the overdressed insecurity.

Can I say how much I loved Audrey II? The design and construction of these progressively larger and frighteningly impressive puppets was a wow factor every time you saw the next one – kudos to Kristy Messina, Grant James and Chris Messina.

I thought the program was also very well put together, themed as a FBI file complete with paper clips holding together notes, photos and character inspired business cards “Orin Scrivello DDS – there’s always time for oral hygiene”– it even had coffee mug stains and a final bloody page decrying “Don’t Feed the Plants!”. I wish more programs were this imaginative!

Go green for a melody rich fun night out.