BWW Reviews: LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS at the Boxcar Theatre

In this world that we call theater, there are three main things devotees look for.  First, you need a good script.  Well, as anyone familiar with the musical "Little Shop of Horrors" by Howard Ashman and Alan Menken knows, this show has one of the best scripts around.  Plus you want a good cast and the performers at the Boxcar have shown they are beyond simply good.  And finally you want a director that can take that script and those performers and guide and stage them in such a way that it makes the whole thing come alive and if they can do that in a way that no one has done before and still stay true to the piece, then all the better.  So with those elements you at least want one of them.  If you have two, you're in for a good night.  But when you have all three, as is the case with Boxcar's production, all you can do is hold on and brace yourself for an experience that will stay with you for years to come.

The premise to the show is a simple one.  Boy loves girl.  Girl loves sadistic Dentist.  Boy discovers plant that seems to make all boy's dreams come true until plant begins killing people.  That old chestnut.  Seymour and Audrey (John R. Lewis and Bryn Laux) work at Mushnik's (Alex Shafer) Skid Row Florists.  But business is not good and they may have to shut down.  That is until Seymour discovers a strange and unusual plant that attracts the attention of everyone in town and now business is booming.  The problem is that the plant, lovingly monikered Audrey Jr., has an appetite for fresh human blood.  So in order to keep the shop and his rising popularity alive, especially with Audrey, Seymour begins feeding the plant his own blood.  But when he cannot spare any more, circumstances drop into his lap a fresh corpse in the guise of Audrey's violent boyfriend, Orin (Kevin Clarke) and we see just how far Seymour is willing to go.

But this is not the "Little Shop" you're familiar with as director Nick A. Olivero and the folks at Boxcar have taken a fresh new spin on this already wonderful piece.  For one, we're no longer in the 60's, it's 2011 and skid row is grittier than ever.  And since they've abandoned the period piece, they've also stripped away all of the stylistic characterizations that came along with it leaving an honest and edgy portrayal of real people down on their luck and willing to do anything to survive.  This brings these characters to a whole new level of urgency that I've never seen in this show before.  But wait, there's more.  Since the theater itself is in what could be called the skid row of San Francisco, Olivero has staged several moments and numbers to take place outside of the theater and in the street.  Right from the moment you arrive at the theater next door to a real soup kitchen and are hit with the unmistakable scent of urine in the streets (and oddly enough on the night I was there clumps of hair falling from the apartments above), you are plunged into this seedy world and they don't let you out til the final curtain call.

Now this new and risky retelling could very easily fail.  Trying to do too much with herding the audience in and out of the theater.  Dealing with actual residents in the area when not safely in the controlled confines of the theater.  But they have planned out every nuance, and detail down to the nano-second to come up with a production that not only succeeds but also creates a fully immersive and exhilarating experience.

This is, of course, in no small part due to the cast.  Lewis is completely endearing as the cuddly but somewhat inept Seymour and has a powerhouse of a voice to boot.  Laux has taken the iconic Audrey and infused her with a new and refreshing depth.  And the duet of "Suddenly Seymour" between the two of them is one of the most sincere and beautiful I've seen.  They've taken it from comical power ballad to heartbreaking love song.  Shafer is wonderful as the conniving Mushnik.  And Clarke as the twisted Dentist Orin gave a singularly brilliant performance.  Plus the trio of urchins, Crystal, Ronette and Chiffon (Lauren Spencer, Nikki Arias and Kelly Sanchez) not only stunningly added the narration and exposition to the piece but inhabited this new world to make it even seedier and delectable. 

And then there was the plant itself.  Now in the past, I've always heard the plant sung very R&B and Bluesy.  For example, Levi Stubbs from The Four Tops.  But here, Olivero has twisted things a bit more and employed the device that once someone is eaten by the plant, they become the voice of the plant.  But then, who voices it before it tastes blood?  Well, at that point the plant is still a child so he has children singing then.  I'm not sure who I heard the night I was there, Sierra Stephens or Alana Clark but whoever it was, she knocked it out of the park.  Add to that the gifted operator of the plant, Miyaka Cochrane who infused the plant with even more humor and life.

But really I could go on and on about the joy this show bestowed.  Every moment, song, scene was about as glorious as you can get and I would share them all with you point by point but I would be here forever.  Let me just say that Boxcar Theatre has taken a pretty standard show and shown what ingenuity and innovation can do to make it that much better.  A nearly perfect execution and really a production by which all other productions must now be held to.

The Boxcar Theatre's production of "Little Shop of Horrors" closed on June 19^th.  For tickets or information on future productions from Boxcar Theatre contact the Boxcar box office at 415-776-1747 or visit them online at www.boxcartheatre.org.

Photo credits: Peter Liu

 

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