Little Shop of Horrors

Reviews

Blackmore on splendid Fifties form for this classic tale of the alien avocado invader.

It's a cult show, and comes encrusted with traditions worthy of D'Oyly Carte. The Players pay homage to most of them, but manage to keep the show fresh and immediate.

The audience is immersed in the action from the off, with hobos and hookers and all the noisy denizens of Skid Row roaming the auditorium in search of a trick to turn or a bench for the night. And we are all immersed in the show, too, with a traverse acting area [impressively paved]. Especially effective for the nightmare dentist sequence, with Rob Lewis-Jones's wonderfully terrifying semi-sadist entering through green smoke and terrorising poor Seymour right under our noses. It's a risky strategy, particularly for a musical with everyone miked up, but the only down-side was an audible buzz under some dialogue.

This is a rural community group, with strictly local talent, performing in a multi-purpose village hall [with one of the most keenly priced theatre bars in the land]. But no compromises are made, in a great example of what can be achieved with inspiring, clear-sighted direction [Bill Edwards in the hot seat for this one, with choreography by Denise Jackson]. There's no pit, of course, but a great little band in the corner, with MD Shirley Parrott at the keyboard.

The cast is impressively strong. Craig Stevens makes a nicely nervous Seymour, with his geeky specs and baseball cap - superb singer, too. His Audrey is Lisa Rawlings; vocally assured, carefully characterized. It's a pity she gives most of her big number sitting on the stoop, invisible to almost all the audience.

Audrey II - the star of the show, really, with its multicoloured warts and gore-stained maw - is excellently voiced by Bill Edwards himself, with the expressive flora [uncredited] manipulated by John Hughes.

Mushnik, gravel-toned and fundamentally jolly despite everything, is engagingly played by Simon Haskell, who also provides the portentous voice in the prologue.

The three backing singers - Ronnette, Chiffon, Crystal - are authentically sung by Gail Hughes, Sandra Trott and Amy Pudney, with stunning show dresses for the finale; perhaps they could have been a little more engaged with the plot emotionally, though.

Memorable cameos from many others, including Charley Magee's Bernstein and Martin Herford's Skip Snip, and a big bold chorus of all ages and abilities.

Lots of detail to admire, even to those of us who are very familiar with the show. A nice new clock after renovation, with Mushnik's favourite fedora still hanging underneath. A nice brickwork scene curtain; I longed to see an actor walk across with it - much more dramatic. And a brilliantly helpful glossary in the programme, with useful reminders of Vitalis, Lucille Ball and Hedy Lamarr...

Michael Gray, Sardines

This is an iconic show and, as such, it is always popular with cast members who want to be part of it. This can be a problem as it was originally written for a cast of 16 plus the operator(s) and voice of the plant. There were, in fact 26 cast members and with this small venue it felt overcrowded.

Director Bill Edwards used the floor of the venue for a lot of the action, this was a good concept but, unfortunately it meant that we missed a lot it because it was masked by the large number of chorus performing on the floor area. There were certain scenes in the play that we actually could not see at all and had to trust to listening to them. Amongst these were the 'radio' scene and the dentist's surgery.

Doing theatre 'in the round' requires a lot of planning as sightlines can get masked by actors standing right in front of the audience. This happened on a number of occasions. I was also sorry to see that, when some of the actors came right forward to the audience, they moved out of the lighting areas and into darkness.

It is a shame because everyone in the cast had characters and they had clearly worked hard to develop them. I also found the constant movement of members of the cast around the auditorium, a great distraction. Fine at the beginning of each half but it would have been better if they had not been there, when there were things happening on stage.

Craig Stevens played Seymour well, he got the character perfectly and he has a good strong singing voice. Lisa Rawlings played Audrey and she got the character well, although I would have liked her to have been a bit more 'crushed'. Simon Haskell played Mr Mushnik perfectly with just the touch of 'Jewishness' necessary for the part. The three girls; Ronnette (Gail Hughes) Chiffon (Sandra Trott) and Crystal (Amy Pudney) worked well together although we did miss quite a lot of their performance when they were 'on the floor' due to the aforementioned masking. Rob Lewis-Jones played the dentist Orin Scrivello well, although it was also a shame that a lot of his antics with the gas mask were not seen by the whole audience. The company played a myriad of small parts, most of them well and with character. Director Bill Edwards was the voice of the plant and John Hughes was the plant puppeteer. Not an easy task and, in the bigger plant, usually done by two people so well done for doing it all!

The scenery was good, with one of the better plant sets around, and the changes were carried out well, the audience certainly appreciated the growth of the plant! Costumes were, in the main good, I always think it is such a shame that the three girls are not able to stay in their sequinned dresses a bit longer; we barely had time to appreciate them!

Overall it was a good strong performance and clearly enjoyed by the audience, if only I had been able to see it all...

Tessa Davies, NODA