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THE LAST TEMPTATION OF KRELBORN
Odd as this may seem, there are two major
American plays with man-eating plants in
them. One is Arthur L. Kopit's Oh Dad, Poor
Dad, Mama's Hung You in the Closet and I'm
Feelin' So Sad, a wildly absurdist play that
won the Drama Desk Award in 1963. The other
one is a rock musical in which the man-eating
plant also sings. •
The Town & Gown Players are currently run
ning Little Shop of Honors, the 1982 musical
by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman, based
on the 1960 Z-grade horror-comedy film by
schlock king Roger Corman and adapted in
1986 to a movie directed by ex-Muppet Frank
Oz. Few stage productions boast that kind of
scruffy pedigree, but that's a compliment, as
the show is fun, catchy and messed-up in a
wonderful, wonderful v/ay. It's also an ambi
tious production for Town & Gown's small
stage, but director G. Derek Adams, who
helmed the comedy Epic Proportions earlier
this season, makes it work.
For those who may be unfamiliar with
Little Shop, the musical is set in the late '50s
on an unnamed Bowery simply called Skid
Row, where the blustering and beleaguered
Mr. Mushnik (Steven Carroll) has a failing
flower shop with two employees: Audrey (Ellen
Meadows), a tarnished neighborhood girl
with a good heart but bad taste in men, and
Seymour Krelborn (Matt Hardy), a well-mean
ing nebbish Mushnik pulled from the orphan
age to push a broom and who is secretly in
love with Audrey. MushniK is on the verge
of closing his shop for good when Seymour
reveals the bizarre plant he has found, a weird
sort of Venus flytrappy thing he calls Audrey
II. Thinking that such an odd plant might
attract customers, they put Audrey II on dis
play, and customers suddenly begin to flock
in. The business is saved, and the plant makes
Seymour a hero.
There's one catch, however—it turns out
the plant is sentient, very vocal and feeds on
human blood. It proposes a Faustian bargain
with Seymour, offering to use its alien pow
ers to fulfill all of Seymour's dreams—fame,
fortune, and a life away from Skid Row with
Audrey—if Seymour agrees to supply Audrey
II with a steady supply of breathing, kicking
Soylent Green.
The production is lively, especially the
musical numbers. Musical director Jonathan
Sparks does his usual fine job with his all
singing cast, especially the trio of street
urchins (Amy Miller, Jennifer Spradley, Jazmin
Pittman) whc serve as a '60s girl-group-
style Greek chorus throughout the play, and
the band up in the stage loft is tight. Troy
Copeland, unseen but
definitely heard as the
voice of Audrey II, gives
the plant just the right
edge of boisterous soul.
The marquee tunes—
"Skid Row (Downtown),"
"Somewhere That's
Green," "Suddenly
Seymour"—are done
solid justice^
Hardy and Meadows
are engaging leads, and
Carroll's Mr. Mushnik is
a wonder. The only false
note in the casting may
be Joshua Darnell in the
pivotal role of Audrey's
sadistic, nitrous-huffing,
leather-jacketed dentist
boyfriend Orin Scrivello,
DOS. Darnell has blond
good looks and leading-
man diction that are at
odds with Scrivello's psy-
chobilly persona. As Mojo
Nixon said, everybody
has a little Elvis in him,
and Darnell needs to find
his inner King and bring
it harder than he does
here.
To bring Audrey II
to life, Adams' crew has
constructed a series of
gradually larger plant
puppets, the largest
of which requires a pair of stage hands to
manipulate its man-sized maw. The synching
of puppet to Copeland's voice is often a bit
off, but that's easy to overlook in the face of
Audrey ITs considerable personality. Just roll
with it and enjoy.
For those who are only familiar with the
movie, be aware that Oz's film changed the
play's ending significantly, and what you'll be
seeing is the play as originally written. This
is actually a good thing, as the play's ending
makes a lot more thematic sense.
The overall result is a fun production of
Little Shop of Honors that's mostly pleasing to J
the eye and completely pleasing to the ear,
definitely worth the price of a ticket to Skid
Row.
|
John G. Nettles
Little Shop of Horrors runs Thursday, Friday, and
Saturday, Apr. 14-16,8 p.m., and Sunday. Apr. 17,2
p.m. Tickets are $15 ($12 for students and seniors)
Friday and Saturday, $12 Thursday and Sunday. Call
(706) 208-8696 for reservations.
Tickets $10
Delta
Gamma's
4.20.11
Featuring
ZoSo
Grooveshire
Dave Matthew
Tribute Band
April 20, 2011 - 6:30 pm @ Legion Field
Advance tickets available online at www.AthensMusic.Nef
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