Review: Little Shop of Horrors devours an evening in mad style

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What’s not to love about Theatre Calgary’s production of Little Shop of Horrors?

Written almost 45 years ago, this musical horror tale remains witty, clever and tuneful.

It was the only musical theatre collaboration of Howard Ashman and Alan Menken, who co-wrote such Disney animated classics as Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid and Aladdin. Menken’s music is a homage to such 1960s genres as rock and roll, doo-wop and Motown, and his songs are instantly hummable and create earworms that linger long after you’ve left the theatre. Ashman’s lyrics are so clever and ingenious, you cling on to them as they are sung. They provide so much humour.

Little Shop of Horrors is based on the low-budget shlock horror film The Little Shop of Horrors produced by Roger Corman, the king of ’60s exploitation films. Ashman’s stage adaptation is as quirky as the film. It tells the story of Seymour Krelborn, a hapless flower clerk on skid row who finds and nurtures an exotic plant that appeared after a total eclipse of the sun. It’s a Faust story, because the plant offers Seymour fortune, fame and the love of Audrey, his co-worker, in exchange for human blood.

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The play features a plant that Seymour calls Audrey II, which grows to enormous size, and eventually devours most of the major cast members. Audrey II is brought to life by puppeteer Jamie Konchak and voice artist Michael-Lamont Lytle, and, in their more than capable and talented hands, it is the scene-stealer it has to be. When, thanks to Lytle, it sings Feed Me and Suppertime, the audience roars with appreciation. Calgary’s own Green Fools Theatre created all the puppets, from the smallest to the one at the end of the play that takes up the entire stage and a good portion of the Max Bell main seating section.

It was unusual casting that the classically handsome Tenaj Williams would be cast as the nerdish Seymour, but he rises to the challenge. The part demands Williams be both vocally and physically athletic. He runs up and down the vocal register, and leaps on top of furniture with ease. He makes Seymour sweet and charming until he releases an inner demon that allows him to feed people to the plant.

Seymour’s love interest, Audrey, is played by Kate Blackburn as a damaged flower that has never been allowed to bloom. She has such low self-esteem that she allows her semi-sadistic dentist lover to abuse her physically and emotionally. When she tells Seymour she loves him, and they sing Suddenly Seymour, Williams and Blackburn knock the song out of the park, making it a true highlight of the evening. They make the love story blossom.

As Mr. Mushnik, owner of the flower shop, local theatre titan Mark Bellamy proves this ham is well cured. At times, Bellamy even upstages the plant, and that isn’t easy.