Christmas at The Crucible this year is spent at a Little Shop of Horrors that sits at the back of the stage, ready to sell us a horror rock-musical in Rocky Horror vein, full of comic fun and horrific, despicable goings-on.
The horror is entirely the fault of Audrey II, a talking, singing, scheming carnivorous plant that feeds on human blood, grows fiendishly huge, and secretly prepares to take over the world as a Mean Green Mother from Outer Space. Mushnik’s horrific flower shop first set out its stall in 1959 in a Roger Corman B-movie; then composer Alan Menken and writer Howard Ashman made it into an off-Broadway horror-comedy-musical in 1982, and in 1986 Frank Oz’s revered movie cast Steve Martin as the mad, bad, sadistic dentist, Orin. It may not be Christmassy, but there’s certainly lots of blood red and bloodthirsty, vegetative green all over the shop!
In a show with such a lot of teeth, what with a mad dentist and a man-eating plant, this production could have bigger bite though. Having the plant played by a mere human in green, glittery frock, rather than by a menacing, blood-thirsty, blood-curdling, non-human animation with powerful, disembodied voice, may detract somewhat for some when it comes to propensities for intense horror and comedy, even though Sam Buttery sings a mean, increasingly vindictive, bald-headed Audrey II and is largely enjoyed. The plant’s burgeoning growth, expressed through increasing numbers of dancers wielding toothy Venus-fly-trap heads on their hands or fanning out symbolically with clothy tendrils might feel a bit of a let down, and the less said about green rubber gloves on hands thrust through flower-pots the better, even in the name of humour!
All the same, this is a pleasing entertainment with a good deal of zip, fun and enjoyable comic horror moments – as when double-edged gasps greet the showers of blood-red that come spewing from a body shredder, or when Mushnik tangos ridiculously with Seymour as he inveigles him into becoming his adopted son. There are touching moments, too, and telling, comeuppance moments – plus the ultimate of pleasurable moments when “Audrey” is rhymed with “tawdry”!
As young Seymour, exploited dogsbody flower-shop assistant to Mr Mushnik and most unlikely hero, Colin Ryan brings awkward timidity, a deep, weary longing for a better life, a naive propensity for being so easily led so, so far astray, a charming nerdiness and a Brummie accent. Michael Matus’s angry, shouting Mushnik is more of a Landoner with his vowels – though the shop, strangely, still remains on America’s Skid Row. Here three vivacious, nicely harmonising, white-clad Greek chorus girls quickly drop their initial glottal stops of horror to get busy singing out hearty, vibrant warnings, rock ‘n’ roll fun, and reminders not to sell our souls to the devil in the futile pursuit of ambition, riches or romance.
Engaging beautifully as worthy shop worker Audrey (after whom shy admirer Seymour named the dastardly, doom-laden plant) is Georgina Onourah. Her accomplished singing and delivery in her solo, Somewhere That’s Green, and duet, Suddenly Seymour, create a touching poignancy while she embodies well a subjugated girlfriend, massively abused by her controlling, violent, sadistic partner – namely the mad, bad, dangerous, nitrous-oxide-sniffing dentist, Orin. With lively, beguiling stage presence, creepily believable in his coercive maltreatment of Audrey and, in turn, diabolically comical, Wilf Scolding plays the outsized-drill-wielding menace as posh, swaggering, cruel, heartless and arrogant, singing and acting wonderfully without going over the top. His cameos as CNN man, magazine man, Yorkshire flower buyer and elegant devil in red velvet suit, sporting trident and horns, are enticing, too.
As the plant business expands (in more ways than one) the set uses pleasing, clean lines and bathings of light, especially red, green and blue, while the see-through wall of the balcony above is home to Skid Row bins and rubbish bags, behind which, with a broad range of instruments, the sturdy orchestra keeps the decibels flowing and provides some great guitar and piano moments. While the cast’s ensemble keeps the stage and its revolving circle busy, busy, busy with dustmen, workers, and illuminated teeth that dance, props keep the stage busy with dustbins, proliferating plants, demonic dental weaponry and a motor-bike you’d swear was a scooter.
This macabre tale, told through story-telling songs and dialogue is, of course, bound to end in tragedy and tears (for the humans, at least) but zany zing buoys and bobs things along nicely most of the time. And naturally, it’s also very green.
Eileen Caiger Gray
