Yesterday afternoon Stuart and I went to see Little Shop Of Horrors at the Westside Theatre in New York’s glitzy Hell’s Kitchen. And what a fantastic show it was. Without doubt the best production we have seen of it.
We’ve both always loved the Little Shop Of Horrors musical and of course Frank Oz's 1986 cult classic film version was sublime. Little Shop actually has it's origins in the late 50's as a sci-fi B-movie starring new-comer Jack Nicholson. Rather like Rocky Horror Show and Return To Forbidden Planet before it, it provided an ideal bit of campery to set to music. Done so rather wonderfully by Howard Ashman and Alan Menken. Their songs are indeed both memorable and loveable. In fact when I went to go and see Ellen Greene in concert a few years back she confided that the songs Suddenly Semour and Somewhere That's Green as being two of her best friends.
The show last night captured all the fun of the original Little Shop staging, much of the quirkiness of the musical film, and stubbornly resisted to tack on that happy Hollywood ending. Hurrah.
Lead player Jeremy Jordan was energetic, bouncy and pitched the nerdy but easily tempted Semour just right. (I've always had him down as the sexy nerdy type).
The very talented Joy Woods as Audrey was just the right mix of vulnerable, dizzy and sexy. She had us in tears as she sang Somewhere That’s Green.
And Arron Arnnell Harrington's voicing of the plant was deliciously deep and suitably menacing.
That said, Audrey II herself was of course the star of the show. Growing and growing with each bloody drop of blood and the bite movements were spot on and we were all happily suspending our disbelief way beyond the finale.
So with a night of great acting, great singing, great dancing, plenty of laughs and a production which was beautifully designed and perfectly executed there was nothing to fault. It was just perfect. A killer of a show.
We can only hope in transfers to the West End - it is bound to be a smash. And deservedly so.
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