‘Little Shop of Horrors’ by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman

16 May 2013

Wikipedia describes ‘Little Shop of Horrors’ by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman as a “comedy horror rock musical” – which, if you examine the links closely is actually two genres “comedy horror” and “rock musical”, each of which have their own Wikipedia entries. I’ve always had a soft spot for ‘Little Shop of Horrors’, having discovered it while at university, when the 1986Frank Oz film came out. It was ‘The Rocky Horror Show’ for those who were uncomfortable without the overt sexuality and transvestism. It was ‘Sweeney Todd’ with catchy 1960s girl group songs. So I was looking forward to seeing the new production of ‘Little Shop of Horrors’ by our award-winning local amateur theatre group, TADS, in Toddington last weekend and I wasn’t disappointed. I think the two lead actors were both new to TADS and I suspect they had been headhunted for this production. Barry Hyde made Seymour a suitably nerdy, naïve and sympathetic hero and Leanne White was excellent as Audrey – with an impressively consistent over-the-top New Yoik accent. But the star of the show was Audrey II – the man-eating, soul-singing flytrap – constructed for Sue Sachon’s TADS production by Jake Dudley, David Sachon and Gobstoppers in Berhamsted, operated by Mark Normoyle and voiced by Jonathan Alexander Sachon. Remember, “whatever they offer you, don’t feed the plants!”.