Black Dog Blog

Little Shop of Horrors 2009 UK tour verdict: Well worth seeing.

All the singers were fairly good, Audrey One particularly sweet, but throughout most of the first act, the stand-out star was Seymour. Right, that is, up until Audrey II opened her trap to sing, when most else ceased to matter. My favourite part, the duet between Seymour and the plant¹, was particularly nicely done.

Oh yes, that plant. They characterised her as what looks like some kind of Sarracenia pitcher plant, which makes perfect sense (more than a Venus flytrap, to be honest). Cute and simple animatronics. Everyone thought they knew what to expect when Seymour carried the second-stage plant into view, one of his hands myseteriously out of sight, but in fact most of her movement happened during times when he'd put her down in various different places on the stage. Very slick.

The bigger Audrey II, for a big green thing without eyes and limited movement in her stems, emoted pretty well – from leaning a little to the side and talking out of the corner of her mouth to sneakily extending a leaf to barricade the door closed. Convincing enough that I had to wince whenever the cast stepped on her tendrils.

My minions kept up a stream of babble about which actor had also been in what (they think the dentist was some former villain from EastEnders, I already know who Sylvester McCoy is, and so on), the most interesting part of which was that the plant's voice actor was in Jerry Springer – The Opera (in which he played doubled-up roles, first as a perverted talk show guest and later as Jesus. ROFL).

Criticisms? Being the only one who's heard (all right, listened extensively to) the Broadway cast recording, only I knew that a few of the cast (Scrivello and particularly Mushnik) chickened out of some of the difficult parts. There was a sound imbalance for us in the first row of the circle, too, in that the orchestra was too loud compared to the cast. But never fear! I was, ahem, more than able to fill the others in on the words they'd missed afterwards.

The songwriting was of course first-class. Ashman/Menken OTP.

<geek>An interesting thing about the musical is that two of the songs that never made it into the original production (get hold of the Broadway OST to hear them) still survive in the stage show to this day, as little musical references/reprises in the other songs. During the finale, for example, Seymour and Audrey share a line from "We'll Have Tomorrow", and a slip of the tune from "My Hobby" can be heard in "Now (It's Just the Gas)". I find that sort of thing fascinating.</geek>

In other news (or wild speculation), this comment regarding my OTHER favourite film of all time, Who Framed Roger Rabbit?.

¹ "I don't know! I don't know! I have so… so many strong… reservations!"