Little Shop of Horrors
Ogunquit Playhouse, Ogunquit, ME, August 24, 2024
Reviewed by John Amodeo
If you want to see one of the best productions of the Howard Ashman/Alan Menken cult musical Little Shop of Horrors, head up to the Ogunquit Playhouse in Maine where this thrilling production opened on August 22 and runs through September 21.
Little Shop of Horrors opened off-Broadway in 1982 to instant acclaim and launched the careers and the musical partnership of Ashman and Menken, who went on to even greater success with the Broadway musicals The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, and Aladdin. With Ashman’s soulful lyrics and Menken’s tuneful melodies, their work became closely associated with Disney animated films and stage musicals. Their success was the catalyst for a 2003 Broadway production of the musical, as well as the current long-running off-Broadway revival that has had rotating Broadway stars in the lead roles.
Even if you’ve seen the current off-Broadway production, the Ogunquit Playhouse production has so much to offer that other productions don’t that you wouldn’t want to miss this one. This is another of the theater’s productions directed by Broadway veteran Hunter Foster, who did such a spectacular job with its most recent production of A Little Night Music. Foster knows a little bit about Little Shop, having starred as Seymour in the 2003 Broadway production, and clearly this piece has gotten under his skin, which no doubt fueled his inspiration for this creative endeavor. What he has done with this piece is both mesmerizing and memorable.
Let’s begin with one obvious distinction: instead having of the pivotal character of Audrey II (a unique carnivorous plant played by an ever-growing puppet) voiced by an off-stage performer, Hunter replaced the puppet with a live on-stage actor. In this case, it’s the bigger-than-life Latrice Royale, who had most recently starred in Ru Paul’s Drag Race, and she was fierce and funny. This girl can cast shade that can kill. Her growing tentacles were cleverly given life by dancers Nick Davis and Joseph Ryan Harrington, who slithered and coiled around Audrey II’s victims in ever-so-sensuous movement devised by choreographer Mara Newberry Greer. This was about as clever and effective a depiction of Audrey II as I have ever seen, and it may become the definitive portrayal moving forward.
The plant at the center of the story is found by amateur botanist, plant collector, and all-around mensch Seymour Krelborn, played with lovable clumsiness by Etai Benson. Benson set just the right tone for our blundering hero with just the right mix of smarts and humor. He discovered this plant being sold on the street and brought it into the down-at-heels Skid Row flower shop where he works, only to discover that it has demanding and nefarious intentions. When he meets the plant’s demands, he discovers that his luck has turned; the flower shop and his career flourish, but at a deadly cost. Benson sang with gusto, danced and performed pratfalls effortlessly, and delivered glib humor with deadpan hilarity. His Seymour is one for the ages.
The flower shop is owned by the avuncular but careworn Mr. Mushnik, played by Broadway veteran Adam Heller. He played the character with sharper edges than usual, but he made it work beautifully here. Heller depicted Mushnik as more of a manipulating opportunist than others have and seemed to bring out plot points that were merely incidental in past productions.
Then there’s Audrey, Mushnik’s only other employee, brought to voluptuous life by Talia Suskauer. She gave the dimwitted Audrey a heart of gold, and her split-second Marilyn Monroe-like reactions will win you over as you giggle with delight. She didn’t erase the memory of Ellen Greene, who created a minor sensation with her iconic portrayal of Audrey. Instead, to Suskauer’s credit, she created a unique Audrey and personalized her to fit her own skills and style. Her singing was mellifluous in the tender ballad “Somewhere That’s Green” and powerful in the opening ensemble number “Downtown” and in her duet with Benson, “Suddenly Seymour.” In that duet, we saw a budding romance between Seymour and Audrey, but it quickly became complicated. Audrey is also the long-suffering and abused girlfriend of the leather-clad biker and sadistic dentist, Orin Scrivello, played with delightfully broad creepiness by Edward Watts.
A real highlight of any production of Little Shop are the three street urchins—Ronnette, Crystal, and Chiffon—portrayed as a 1960s-style trio and here played by Briana Brooks, Chelsea Hooker, and Olvia Elease Hardy respectively. They act as a musical Greek chorus to comment on the plot. All three were powerhouse singers and dancers who gave every one of Greer’s period-perfect dance moves undeniable authenticity. The audience’s energy went up a notch every time they entered the stage.
The polish of this production is evident in the marvelous production values that include a spot-on set designed by Scott Pask; costumes designed by Dustin Cross and Florence D’Lee, especially for Audrey II and the urchins; wig/hair and make-up designed by Roxanne De Luna; and the lighting designed by Richard Latta, whose lighting cues seemed to come out of nowhere, which made the lighting another character in the show. Kevin Heard’s sound design could use some tweaking to get the balances right between the actors so that we could hear every word of Ashman’s luscious lyrics. That quibble aside, this is a Little Shop of Horrors that was one enormous evening of pure fun, brought to life by a talented cast and crew under Foster’s innovative direction.
Little Shop of Horrors continues at the Ogunquit Playhouse through September 21, 2024. For tickets, visit ogunquitplayhouse.org.
