When the plant shouts “feed me,” don't reach for the Miracle-Gro. What this plant wants is you, or some other human, for a tasty meal.
That's because we are in the “Little Shop of Horrors,” that failing flower shop on Skid Row in New York's East Village. And the plant is Audrey II, a flesh-eating botanical wonder from outer space bent on world domination for herself and her progeny.
Audrey II first appeared in a 1960 Roger Corman low-budget horror movie, then reappeared in 1982 as the carnivorous star of a cheerful, campy, gently satirical musical that played in the Village's Orpheum Theater for more than 2,000 performances. Now it is the final production of Sharon Playhouse's summer season. Highbrows might point out that the play is a riff on the Faust legend about a man who sells his soul to the devil to get what he wants. Lowbrows like me are content with just being entertained by the outrageous plot and accessible score.
The music is by Alan Menken and the lyrics, simple but not simplistic, are by Howard Ashman. It will surprise no one familiar with Disney musicals that the pair wrote the entire score for “The Little Mermaid” and that Ashman, who died at 40 after a long bout with AIDS, wrote several songs for “Beauty and the Beast” from his sickbed. The honesty and childlike clarity of those works shine through the best of the “Little Shop” songs.
The show begins on a sentimental note, like a Skid Row version of “She Loves Me.” But quick as the sprouting of a seed, it turns into the story of a shy nebbish (there are many Yiddish words in the play; this is the Lower East Side, after all) named Seymour (Ryan Vona), who clerks in Mushnik's Flower Shop. He pines for the other clerk, Audrey (Lauren Marcus), and he names the new, mysterious plant he found and has been tending in the basement after her. When Audrey II is placed in the shop window — green, yellow, red and toothy — people stop to look then come inside to buy. Business, once perilous, booms, and so does the mutant plant.
At first Audrey II eats the blood Seymour gives it by pricking his fingers, soon covered in Band-Aids. When the plant demands more, Seymour delivers rare deli roast beef; the plant grows and imperiously sings and shouts, “feed me,” as it fills the stage with its rapidly increasing size and threatening tentacles. It's fun and ridiculous and increasingly scary. All does not end well.
For the Sharon production, director and choreographer Jennifer Werner assembled a pitch-perfect cast. Vona is so affable, hesitant and charming that you will forgive homicide. Marcus has never been better on the Sharon stage in a role tailor-made for her skills. Her “Suddenly, Seymour,” may echo in your head long after the show ends. Ira Denmark makes a fine Mushnik, and Brandon Michael Nase, whom you don't see until the curtain calls, turns Audrey II into an always-hungry, botanical vampire with a booming bass-baritone voice.
Daniel Patrick Smith — tall, thin, unctuous — plays Audrey I's sadistic dentist boyfriend with oily perfection while sniffing laughing gas. (He's so good and over the top you may even miss him when … oops, no spoiler!) He also plays multiple other characters, including one in drag, with aplomb. And Tatiana Lofton, Carla R. Stewart and Ashley McManus are Crystal, Ronnette and Chiffon, who comment on the action like a Motown trio of backup singers. They are fabulous.
Adding to the excellent production is music direction by the masterful Eric Kang, scenic design by Josh Smith and costumes by Michelle Eden Humphrey. The excellent lighting is the work of Craig Stelzenmuller, and Brad Berridge is responsible for the sound.
