BWW Reviews: LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS Closes the Season at the Long Beach Playhouse

One of the longest-running Off-Broadway shows of all time, LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS is an affectionate spoof of 1950s sci-fi movies. The show has become a household name, thanks to a highly successful film version and a score by the songwriting team of Howard Ashman and Alan Menken.

The Long Beach Playhouse is closing its 2012-2013 Mainstage Season with this quirky and much-loved musical, directed by Andrew Vonderschmitt who also serves as The Playhouse's Producing Artistic Director. "At the heart of this play we find a story as old as time; boy meets girl, boy feeds girl to man eating plant," says Vonderschmitt. Musical director is Andy Zacharias.

Seymour (Stephen Lydie) is a down-and out skid row floral assistant becomes an overnight sensation when he discovers an exotic plant during a total solar eclipse. Secretly in love with his co-worker Audrey (Theresa Finamore), Seymour names the plant Audrey II and soon impresses his boss Mr. Mushnik (Dale Jones) when the strange new plant brings in customers to the flower shop. But Seymour soon discovers that Audrey II has a mysterious craving for fresh blood as her only source of nourishment.

Lydie and Finamore have the right voices for the show and their duet "Suddenly Seymour" was touching, cute and comical. But the set-up of the theater with seating on three sides of the stage often caused sound level problems when actors were required to turn their backs on portions of the audience, sometimes playing to the fourth side where there were no seats, effectively upstaging themselves.

Audrey II grows into an ill-tempered, foul-mouthed, R&B-singing carnivore who offers Seymour fame and fortune in exchange for feeding its growing appetite for human blood, eating the main characters and finally revealing itself to be an alien creature poised for global domination! Kudos to Nicky Finn for keeping Audrey II's movements in sync with Tony Carnaghi's singing and the show's soundtrack.

Throughout the show and acting as the Greek Chorus explaining and moving the story forward, Crystal (Jazz Madison), Ronnette (Jazzy Jones), and Chiffon (Kieara Williams) sing in the style of girl groups from the sixties. These girls should ROCK the house, but unfortunately they are much too subdued to really carry the tone of the rock musical as it should be presented. It's always a big question whether or not to mic the singers, but in this case it is really a necessity unless they can really learn to belt out the tunes as they should be sung.

But Greg Nicholas as Orin, Audrey's leather-clad, sadistic, misogynist, dentist boyfriend, steals the show with his every appearance. His booming baritone voice and joyful glee during his gas-masked "Now (It's Just the Gas)" number with Stephen Lydie as the dumb-founded Seymour was the highlight of the show! Such wonderful demented laughter!

The production's choreographer Halley Wright, is to be commended for using all the entrances throughout the audience to great advantage. You can't help but be drawn into the show when the actors are singing and speaking right to you, inches from your seat.

LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS performances are 8pm Friday and Saturday and 2pm Sunday through June 22 at the Long Beach Playhouse, located at 5021 E. Anaheim St., Long Beach, CA, 90804. Tickets are Adults $24.00, seniors $21.00, and Students $14.00. The box office is open Wednesday-Saturday from 3:00-8:00pm & Sundays from 1:00-2:00pm on scheduled matinees only. For more information or to purchase tickets visit www.lbplayhouse.org or call 562-494-1014.

The cast of LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS

Dale Jones, Stephen Lydie, Theresa Finamore

Audrey II brings in customers to Mushnik's Skid Row Flower Shop

Chiffon, Ronnette, and Crystal visit the dentist, Greg Nicholas

Seymour (Stephen Lydie) feeds Audrey II

Stephen Lydie, Theresa Finamore

Chiffon, Ronnette, and Crystal encourage Seymour (Stephen Lydie) to pursue Audrey

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