Review: LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS at Theatre In The Park (Indoors)

Seldom does an entertainment attain a level of fiendish absurdity that affords audiences belly busting hilarity after more than forty years.  The indoor space at Theatre in the Park’s Johnson County Heritage Center offers a super production of 1982’s “Little Shop of Horrors.”

“Little Shop” is the story of a nerdy guy who gets the sexy girl after he unknowingly brings an extraterrestrial man-eating plant into their world.  The nerdy guy, Seymour (Kyle Anderson), is an orphan saved from absolute penury by the owner of a failing Skid Row flower shop.  

Seymour doesn’t understand that the flower shop owner, Mr. Mushnik (Evan Gamsu), is comedy first cousin to Charles Dickens’ Fagin character from Oliver Twist.  Mushnik has saved Seymour from the Skid Row Boys Home for a life of permanent indentured servitude and a bunk in the basement of the flower shop.

Musknik’s sole other employee is the cartoon sexy Audrey (Maggie Hutchison).  Audrey is a flashy good girl who has grown up poor with zero taste.  Audrey has a motorcycle riding, sadomasochistic dentist, boyfriend named Orin (Scott Salem).

Of course, Seymour is secretly smitten with Audrey.  He has named the strange, bizarre, cute, new plant he has discovered an Audrey II.

Mr. Mushnik announces that a dearth of business is forcing the flower shop to close.  Audrey will be unemployed and Seymour will be homeless.   Audrey suggests that Mushnik give the shop one more chance to succeed by displaying the bizarre new plant.  Surprisingly, her plan works.  Business becomes incredible.

But the Audrey II is not living healthy.  Seymour unsuccessfully tries everything he knows to revive it when he accidently discovers the secret sauce. The plant feeds on human blood.

Stitching all this craziness together is a Greek Chorus who suspiciously resemble an hysterical version of a 1960s female singing group a la The Supremes.  The chorus is Crystal (Jasmine Lowe), Chiffon (Renee Blinn), and Ronette (Taylor Kaschke).  They are individually and as a chorus splendid.  They alternate between narrators and background actors.  The show does not work without them.

The ever growing puppet version of Audrey II is bigger and meaner every time we see it.  The Audrey II has puppeteer Michael Golliher pulling the strings and working the levers.  It turns out that the dastardly plant also sings. The Audrey II is voiced by Lewis Morrow.  Multiple characters are embodied by Sergio Guerra. 

I have to admit that “Little Shop” is one of my all-time favorite shows.  I first saw it as a film on its initial release in 1986.   There are a number of pluses, but the thing I remember most is the attention to detail and the camera angles.  In the opening, a real elevated train steams by and a chorus member lying flat in the gutter turns over to sing a line of the opening song.

Of course, this kind of stuff is impossible in a live production, but Director Ile Haggins and Choreographer Tara Burgat are more than up to the challenge.   This is an excellent cast which has been drilled relentlessly for very, very positive effect.

From the opening monologue to the first song and dance by the Greek Chorus, this production hits on all cylinders.  Everybody is better than good.  Both Audrey and Audrey II are excellent. Seymour fits his slot, but my favorite was Evan Gamsu as Mr. Mushnik.  He is the very model of a model major borscht belt comedian.   

“Little Shop of Horrors” was the breakthrough product of the combined talents of Alan Menken and Howard Ashman.  Ashman is gone for many years, but Alan Menken went to work for the Disney organization and remains the composing force behind most of the Disney animated hits and their live action stage versions from the mid-1980s onward.  He is the recipient of a coveted EGOT.   

The idea for “Little Shop” came from a strange less than “B” level movie originally costing less than $30,000 to make in 1960 by Roger Corman.  Some argue that the roots of the show (pun intended) go back even further to the mid-1930s and even to a turn of the twentieth century short story by H.G. Wells.

The original version of the musical “Little Shop of Horrors” opened in 1982 in a ninety-eight seat theater off-Broadway.  It soon transferred to a bigger house (about three-hundred-fifty seats), but Howard Ashman resisted a further upgrade to a Broadway Theater.  Ashman believed “Little Shop” needed to be a close up audience experience or at least he “planted” (another pun intended) that idea with everyone.  The original run of the show lasted five years.

If you’ve caught the 1986 film, the first act follows the off-Broadway script pretty faithfully.  Act II is another thing.  It remains as funny, this is an entirely different show and I am not going to ruin it for you.

The score is memorable. The songs that will likely stick with you are “Little Shop of Horrors,” “Skid Row,” “Suddenly Seymour,” and “Suppertime.”  The Oscar nominated “Mean Green Mother From Outer Space” was added for the film version.  It is available on YouTube.  See it after you see the show live. Look for the version that shows Seymour and the Audrey II in action.

This show is NOT politically correct, but it is funny and absurd.  Don’t miss it for a super enjoyable evening at the theater.  It would be a great date night.  “Little Shop of Horrors” continues through October 22 at Theatre in the Park (Indoors) at the Johnson County Heritage Center.  Buy tickets online at www.theatreinthepark.org or by telephone at 913-826-3012. 

Photos courtesy of Theatre in the Park
and Nicole McCroskey Photography

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