TodayOpen Stage offers ‘Little Shop of Horrors'
Popular musical plays sci-fi horror for laughs
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Jay Miffoluf is Mr. Musnick, Trish Baillie plays Audrey, and Stuart Landon is Seymour in “Little Shop Of Horrors” at Open Stage of Harrisburg. (Courtesy Open Stage Harrisburg)
A “nerdy” worker at a down-and-out floral shop achieves unexpected success when he raises a n exotic plant that needs a liquid other than water to flourish. Like, blood. And maybe has world domination in mind.
Sounds bizarre, no? Maybe. Tongue-in-cheek, definitely. But that’s the premise of the perennially popular “Little Shop of Horrors,” a musical that opens tonight at Open Stage of Harrisburg.
“We wanted to have a little fun,” says Donald A. Alsedek, artistic director. “and the show is wonderful fun.”
Alsedek had caught the original show and knew the person who had created the puppet of Audrey II, as the plant is called — the first Audrey being the seemingly ditzy blonde coworker that protagonist Seymour Krelbourn is infatuated with.
“Campy” fun as “Little Shop” is, Alsedek says he related to the sci-fi spoof, having grown up in the post-World War II period when “we had a bizarre fascination with outer space and thought Martians were coming.”
But putting aside alien domination, the theme of a “nerd” who gets what he wishes for -- at an extreme price -- is downright “Faustian,” Alsedek points out.
“You do have to be careful what you wish for,” agrees Trish Baillie, who plays the human Audrey. “A lot of people want to get out of a bad situation, like a bad job, and then find out they have to work the 7 p.m. to 2 a.m. shift. The play may seem dated per se, but this message is timeless.”
Based on the 1960 Roger Corman black comedy film, “Little Shop of Horrors” was one of the longest-running off-Broadway shows before coming to Broadway years later and being turned into a film.
The musical has seen innumerable community theater and high-school productions, thanks in part to its small cast. Another part of the appeal are the score by Alan Menken and lyrics by Howard Ashman, who created songs for such Disney films as “The Little Mermaid,” “Beauty and the Beast” and “Aladdin.” The show has even entered the lexicon, through the expression, “Feed me, Seymour.”
“‘Little Shop’ is every ‘50s sci-fi cliche transformed into a cute, honest pastiche,” says Stuart Landon, who plays the florist with more courage and feeling than he gives himself credit for.
What makes the musical “honest” is grounding it in theatrical reality, not in “putting on a wacky farce,” Landon continues. “It’s in part, the heartfelt characters. Don makes us do the show truthfully so that it’s not shtick. This is the third time I’ve done the show, and this is the funniest.”
Baillie agrees that too often productions “push just for laughs and go over the top” -- which makes audiences laugh for the wrong reasons. “Audrey “can’t be a caricature,” she says. “You have to believe in what she wants, a guy who treats her right and a white picket fence. She’s very smart and very human, though she doesn’t always use her brains. She doesn’t think she deserves happiness.”
Anthony M.C. Leukus plays the sadistic dentist Audrey is involved with. Jay Miffoluf is Mushnik, the store owner; and Graci Caitlin, Landree Fleming, and Stacy Schell are the three doo-wop girls. C.J. McConnell is the puppeteer behind Audrey II, while Steve Morgan lends the plant its voice.
Debbie Smith-Voight is the production’s music director. Bill Ingraham is on keyboard.
