“Little Shop of Horrors” is a Mean, Green Good Time (Review)
A vibrant new production of the musical at Ford's Theatre mixes macabre comedy with powerful grit and soul.
Rarely at the theater is it recommended or welcome for patrons to loudly sing along to the performers onstage. But at the Ford’s Theater press night for their solid new production of Little Shop of Horrors, one enthusiast just couldn’t help themselves during “Somewhere That’s Green.”
Out of respect for the production’s estimable Audrey — Chani Wereley, who did not need the help — the moment was mildly uncomfortable. Although, as someone who practically wore out the movie soundtrack on cassette as a kid, the singing along sparked a smile. People know and love these songs.
Little Shop’s collection of doo-wop, rock, and R&B tunes by lyricist and book writer Howard Ashman and composer Alan Menken include a handful of legit classics.
The songs, like the characters and the Skid Row setting, burst with color and offbeat personality, and director Kevin S. McAllister, a fantastic singer and actor in his own right, has assembled a cast of performers in tune with the show’s eccentric spirit.
Yet, there’s grit and soul behind the eccentricity, and some brutal bloodletting, though that’s generally played for laughs. Genuine pathos underlies the comic tale of meek Mushnik’s Flower Shop assistant Seymour (Derrick D. Truby, Jr.) pining away for the shop’s buxom and bruised clerk Audrey (Wereley), while nurturing the strange and unusual plant he’s dubbed Audrey II.
They’re just two messed-up kids feeling stuck at the bottom of society, who find romance in “the seemingly most innocent and unlikely of places.”
Wereley illuminates Audrey’s soft heart and hard edges eloquently in her yearning “Somewhere That’s Green,” and delivers consistently in her approach to both the score and the comedy. She captures Audrey’s poignant duality, written into the music, as an also meek, insecure victim of abuse incongruously possessed of a powerhouse singing voice that reveals the monumental strength she truly contains.
But Audrey doesn’t know her own strength. Neither does Seymour, a sad-sack orphan, taken in by shop owner Mr. Mushnik (Lawrence Redmond), who treats him like dirt, calls him a slob. That is, until Seymour mysteriously nurses his bizarre flytrap Audrey II into an eye-catching oddity that’s extremely good for business.
Then, it’s suddenly “Mushnik and Son,” as the shop owner sings in Redmond’s delightful duet with Truby’s quietly ambitious Seymour. Truby does a good job of keeping Seymour’s moxie buttoned-up behind his anxious, bumbling exterior. The actor does better with physical comedy, and the amusing puppetry of baby Audrey II in “Ya Never Know,” than the vocals, where his approach seems more tentative.
The five-piece band, led by music director William Yanesh, does its part to keep the score bouncing from the pit — despite the acoustics somewhat swallowing the sound. Thankfully, we can hear the show’s Greek chorus trio of street urchins, Chiffon (Nia Savoy-Dock), Crystal (Kanysha Williams), and Ronnette (Kaiyla Gross) loud and clear, and they sound lovely, whether individually or in “Da-Doo” harmony.
Choreographer Ashleigh King has them, and the entire ensemble grooving with ’60s style and well-placed humor. And, of course, the cast often has to dance around a gigantic carnivorous talking plant, rendered by Monkey Boys Productions in a series of increasingly large Audrey II puppets, manipulated convincingly by Jay Frisby and Ryan Sellers.
Tobias A. Young provides the voice, investing Audrey II with snide wit, and the proper measure of menace for a musical based on Roger Corman’s 1960 B-movie about a man-eating plant from outer space. Joe Mallon is not as successful relaying that combination with his sadistic dentist Orin, but he dies an entertaining death.
From severed limbs to a severed head, the production exhibits just enough gore in its comic portrayal of the macabre to remind the folks singing along that this horror show isn’t all just smiles and roses.
Little Shop of Horrors (★★★☆☆) runs through May 18 at Ford’s Theatre, 511 Tenth St. NW. Tickets are $55 to $95, with a Generation Abe performance on May 2 offering $25 tickets for patrons ages 21-40 using code UNDER4024. Call 888-616-0270 or visit www.fords.org.
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